It's hard to say which New York football team performed worse on Sunday. Both teams were facing big games in their hunt for the playoffs and both teams absolutely stunk.
The Giants came out flat, clearly looking ahead to their game with the Jets. Despite intercepting Washington on two of their first-three drives, the Giants couldn't score a point. Hakeem Nicks dropped a clear touchdown and New York fell behind 17-0 before converting a field goal with time running out in the first half.
New York opened the second half with the ball, but Eli Manning was picked off on the second play of the half. It was one of three turnovers by Manning who easily had his worst game of the season. Washington opened its lead up to 23-3 and the Giants failed to get any points on two trips into the red zone. They finally scored a touchdown with 33 seconds left in the game to make the final 23-10. Amazingly, they still control their destiny. If they can beat the Jets and Dallas in their final two games, they will win the NFC East. However, they will be eliminated if they lose to the Jets and Dallas wins next week.
Not content to let the Giants hog the spotlight of ineptitude, the Jets came out and got destroyed by Philadelphia. The Eagles returned a fumble by Santonio Holmes on the Jets first offensive possession and didn't look back. They led 28-0 midway through the second quarter. Santonio Holmes caught a touchdown from Mark Sanchez to cut the lead to 28-9, but for some reason felt the need to celebrate and cost the Jets 15 yards. New York cut the lead to 28-13 at the half, but Philadelphia pulled away in the second half with LeSean McCoy rushing for two of his three touchdowns and the Eagles rolling to a 45-19 win.
On the plus side, the Jets-Giants clash next weekend just became even bigger. The loser is most likely home for the playoffs. The winner gets to pretend to be a good football team for another week.
