Week 5 vs NYJ - notes

• Tynes kicks off, reminding us that he kind of needs to be replaced. Not that it was a bad kickoff, it was fine. But they gotta get a reliable FG kicker. Maybe his new kid is distracting him.
  
• Nice batdown by Tuck, who's starting, which is smart. Guy's good.
• 3 and out! See ya, Chadwick.
  
• Oddly, Chad has a much higher QB rating than Eli.
  
• McQuarters falls down on the kick return.
• Diehl has been good at LT, which was a pleasant surprise.
• Hm, Jets D doesn't look too bad. Or Eli isn't that good. Or somewhere in between.
• Ward and Jacobs are both playing. I don't know what to think about that. Ward was really good while BJ was out, and maybe they should just keep rolling with him.
• Shockey gets beat by Eric Smith, a backup safety. Now he does his "Damn! I shoulda caught that!" routine: walking with his head down towards the bench, testily removing his chin strap, muttering to himself. If he weren't a football player people would think he was insane. Oh wait...
• Direct snap to Leon Washington and bam! First down. Shit. If the Jets can start doing these gadgety plays they're going to be much more dangerous.
• Oh come on! Thomas Jones? Wide open! What is he, Randy Moss? Cover him.
  
• Nice coverage by Madison on Cotchery. As CBS says: "No one fears them downfield," meaning the Jets. That was the third pass of more than 20 yards by the Jets this year, they say. Wow. Nice that they trust Chad's arm.
• Jets keep their under 50% third down coversion rate with another trick-type play, Brad Smith at QB with a sneak.
• Mangini goes for it, which is the right move. At this point, what's gonna happen? Take a shot. But they don't, the plan was to try and get the Giants to jump offsides. That's a little weird. Did you think that was going to work? I guess it was worth a try.
  
• Punt gets downed inside the 10.
• Jump ball for Burress and... nope. Looked like a little interference but I guess not.
• OK, nice run by Jacobs. I take back what I said earlier.
• FUMBLE???? What? Now I take back what I just took back. What was that? The ghost of Tiki's early career? Quick TD by the Jets D. Annoying.
• Deep analysis of the fumble reveals that, yes, Jacobs is emulating Tiki by carrying the ball high with his elbow out. WRONG TIKI TO EMULATE.
• Now the Jets seem all energized and the Giants are curling up into a ball and sucking their thumbs.
  
• There's a good play for 3rd and 8 - quick flip to the backup Tight End.
• For some reason I think Leon Washington is a good player. That's not based on much but he seems to be kind of small and quick, the kind of guy who can get you some sneaky yardage. Maybe it's just the name. Leon Washington is a Real Football Player Name.
• Ah, the great Chris Baker beats the Giants D. Uh-oh.
• Thomas Jones is running well, Pennington has time. What's going on here?
• OK, Jones has 16 yards, which isn't exactly world-beating. But still.
• Wow, that throw by Chad was about as lame-looking as anything you'll ever see. He kind of spun while trying to avoid a sack and chucked it toward the sideline.
• They stopped them. Now let's starting scoring. We don't want this to be true.
• There you go! Missed the FG. 42 yards isn't a chip shot but still. Maybe this can change the momentum a bit.
• Nice MLB-style slide by Eli.
• Whoah. Manning makes like Vince Young and rushes a first down. He sort of crumbled at the end, which was looked weird. Good play.
• Jacobs is just hard to stop. How does a guy that size run so fast?
• Pass to Shockey... and he catches it! *And* runs after the catch!
• And Ward runs it in! He ran right through those Jets.
• When Tynes kicks, you cringe. It's slightly to the right and you go "NO! PLEASE! DON'T MISS IT!"
• Ward and Jacobs looking like bookends on the sidelines, sipping their Gatorade.
• Mangold is down. That won't be good for the Jets.
• Aside: Bruce Springsteen has too many earrings. And I have to admit, I don't really know what his new song is about. It is, however, cool that he's giving it away for nuthin'.
• Crappy snap to Chadwick's crotch causes a sack and a false-start penalty.
• Jones keeps wanting to run outside, which isn't really working with this group.
• Interesting stat: Mangini calls a running play 96% of the time from 8 yards out. And always to the left side. Who is he, Herm Edwards?
• Oh, Mangold is back. He should play Thor in a movie adaptation.
• Pushed out? Nuh uh. Well... actually, he got it. He would've come down in bounds. Don't challenge it Cough! Oh, come on. We've all got other things to do, don't drag this out.
• So you can challenge the catch but not the force out. OK. Does anyone know these rules fully?
• CBS giving Chad credit for accuracy, which is fair. Chad's not really hatable, and the team wins with him in there. But he's annoying. Nice catch by Coles.
  
• Waste of a time out by Cough.
• Mangini's got a "game face" that he likes to put on. It's not as good as a real one. It's more Jonathan Papelbon than Mariano Rivera.
• Penington gets the first down on a sneak.
• Tuck again, throwing himself at
  
• NICE PICK BY MADISON with a decent run afterwards. Good blocking, but more importantly, good energy from the team. They're not curling up in the corner!
• Manning throws to... the invisible coach.
• Weird, this long shot they're showing looks like it's from 50 years ago.
• Derrick Ward has a higher percentage of his team's rushing yards than any other team. Even Larry Johnson has a smaller percentage, and he's on a Herminator team. Not really a fair stat, though, since he only came in after an injury.
• Intentional grounding on Eli. I don't know, I want to believe in him but he makes a lot of panicky mistakes. Haven't seen him do his Peyton impression yet this week; I think that helped him before.
• 25 year difference between the two coaches. That's the third time today I've heard that.
• See, that's a play where if Chad had a stronger arm the team would be better: He actually managed to sidestep the defenders but the best he can do is a poky little pass.
• Dang, nice jump by Coles. He's only 5' 11"?
  
• Aside: New England versus Cleveland - it's just not fair. 20-0 at the moment. Guess who's ahead. No really. Guess.
  
• Brad Smith is an interesting player. If he's good he could be very dangerous - QB, WR, RB. If not, he's mostly just annoying. No matter what, he's totally irritating in fantasy leagues, where you wouldn't know what position to put him in.
• Cotchery was wide open. Suddenly the Giant defense looks human again.
• And... Brad Smith. TD. First touchdown. Ever. Partly set up by a facemask penalty earlier. Now Eli and Co. need to start scoring.
  
• Where's Plax? Maybe he'll show up in the second half like before.
• 22 yards passing so far for NYG?
• Is it annoying when the play-by-play guys know better than the coach? Yes. Yes it is. He said "don't throw it" and what do the Giants do? Throw. And it's intercepted. Plus, Burress was open. Eli...we need to talk.
• To quote Animal House and the great Artie Lange - "Zero. Point. Zero." That's Eli.
• 47 yard field goal is... good. This one, he makes. Fuck. Stupid INT.
• 17-7 at the end of the half.