The New York Giants are set to take on the Dallas Cowboys on the road while the Jets will face the Cardinals at MetLife Stadium, but both teams are tied in one key statistic. That statistic is total offensive yards and both teams are tied for dead last in it. The Giants and the Jets both have 1,112 yards in this category, a fitting stat considering the 0-4 status of both New York teams.
Both teams are dealing with injured high profile running backs. Saquon Barkley is out for the season with an ACL tear, while the Jets are only just now bringing Le’veon Bell off the injured reserve list. And in another similarity, both teams have staff figures on the hot seat. In the case of the Giants, it’s Dave Gettleman, while the Jets are likely to fire head coach Adam Gase – it doesn’t seem to be a matter of if, but when.
Gase only has a 1-10 record in the months of September and October since taking over as the Jets head coach, and both New York franchises have battled for most of this season to avoid the bottom spot in league power rankings. Both are projected to select within the top three of the draft, and if things keep going like this, the first two selections could both belong to New York teams.
And for the Giants, the question isn’t whether to remove new head coach Joe Judge, but whether or not Dave Gettleman should keep his job for another year. Gettleman is the architect of the current Giants team and has had time and money to bring in his desired players. But the results haven’t shown yet. Still, firing the GM resets the clock on a rebuild.
The NFC East: Worst division in football?
The Giants might be one of the worst teams in the league right now, but the NFC East in general isn’t in great shape this year. It’s led by the Eagles, who have a 1-2-1 record, and both Washington and Dallas have 1-3 records and multi-week losing streaks. In fact, the Giants’ clash with the Cowboys today will pit a four game losing streak against a two game streak. Washington, on the other hand, has lost their last three.
While the Giants are tied for the worst offense in the league in terms of total yardage, they’re joined by Washington and Philadelphia in the bottom five in the yards per game category. The total yardage stat isn’t friendly to either of these teams also. The Cowboys are the leader in both categories but that hasn’t helped them in wins, as their record shows.
Because of this, the Giants haven’t been entirely eliminated from contention in the division – but unless they get it together soon, their hopes of turning it around this season are dependent on the rest of the NFC East continuing to perform like the worst division in football.