Welcome to the Blooper Bowl.
The 2-7 Giants against the 1-7 Jets in a game someone has to win … we think.
The local teams get together Sunday at MetLife Stadium both desperate for a win, both with coaches whose seats are getting hotter by the day and both with young quarterbacks trying to find their way.
For a game between two terrible teams, it actually feels like there is a lot more than bragging rights riding on this one. Both fan bases have tired of their coaches and the loser may get run out of town.
Both Pat Shurmur and Adam Gase spent the week answering uncomfortable questions about how they can get this turned around. The Giants have lost five games in a row, and the Jets are riding a three-game losing streak. Shurmur said he is “built for this” during the week when asked about the adversity.
“I think we all coach and play with an urgency to win games and play well. We’re always urgent,” Shurmur said. “Just like you coach and play every game like it’s a playoff game. And you’re trying to do everything you can to win. So, in answer to your question, there’s always urgency to perform well and win.
“I feel the urgency to win a football game, period. That’s it.”
Though he has been here for just eight games, Gase’s seat feels hotter at the moment. He has presided over a historically bad offense that is averaging 223.5 yards per game, the worst in the league. It will be weakness vs. weakness when the Jets offense faces a Giants defense that is giving up 391.4 yards per game, 28th in the league.
“It’s not fun by any means,” Gase said of being the worst offense in the NFL. “I just keep trying to find ways to help our guys, put them in good positions, find ways to get them better, find ways to keep clean football. That’s our big thing right now: Can we play consistently for four quarters, drive after drive, cleaner football, eliminate all of these little penalties, any kind of mental errors, any lapses that we are having? Those are less, it’s now us not hurting ourselves.”
The mood figures to be ugly, with both fan bases ready to boo. The losers are going take a beating.