Can the New York Giants WIN with VIBES? Plus Jets Mirage

The New York Giants are FAR from good or perfect, but the vibes are REAL. Can they keep winning on vibes alone? Plus the Jets show us a mirage.

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One team shows promise, while another shows us just how pathetic they can be. This is our New York football hour for NFL week 7 and both the New York Giants and Jets struggle to be relevant. One has good vibes at least, while the other is maybe turning something around.

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We are faced with the truth that none of us want to accept. The only way through is through, so let’s feel everything and bite the proverbial bullets. Literally everyone is asking, outsiders are laughing or averting their eyes, but someone must step up to the podium and fire back. Tough questions require hard answers.

 

New York Giants and Jets: NFL Week 7

 

 

1. Can the New York Giants win with just vibes?

Todd Salem: The Giants put together a great outing against Philadelphia, a team they will see again in just two week’s time. New York entered the game with one of the weakest run defenses in the league, set to face one of the strongest rushing attacks in the NFL. Instead of that dominating the narrative, we saw a reversal of course.

Philly ran the ball just 20 times, averaging 3.7 yards per carry. They were down a starting lineman, but still. This was a massive success for NY. And the Giants took advantage. They controlled the ground game, running 39 times for 172 yards as a team. 

Beyond controlling the ground game, though, New York managed to control the vibe of the game; and I’m not talking about momentum. Between Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo running roughshod through, around, over, and into opponents, the Giants created a feeling of success. It is hard to explain because there is nothing concrete to point to, but this Giants team now feels like a winning locker room.

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Teams with elite quarterbacks feel like winning locker rooms because the best players at the most important position carry them there. That is not the same as what is currently going on with the Giants. Dart isn’t on that level. He is careless with his body and some of his decisions; he struggles to make reads and throws down the field; he still has a lot to improve on, including keeping himself safe and healthy. But the vibes are there! He shows the confidence and carefree elegance of those same elite passers.

And with Skattebo, everything is self-evident. He is a crazy person, a wild man, energy personified. It seems so obvious now that he has taken over this once-crowded backfield depth chart. But, like Dart, I wouldn’t consider him anywhere close to one of the best running backs in the league at this point. He isn’t fast or elusive; he isn’t elite out of the backfield. But, again, the vibes are there.

Am I imagining shapes in the clouds, or is there something to what I am saying?

Teammates surely love Dart and Skattebo already. Wanting to play with, and win for, teammates like that is part of what makes an entire franchise successful. That is definitely true. But normally, the most important factors to success are talent and coaching. Good players, led by good coaches, win. It is too soon to really say these are good players in that respect, and we have a lot of evidence that the Giants are led by the opposite of good coaches. So what gives? It’s gotta be the vibes!

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Dan Salem: I believe the Giants have good coaches, but even good coaches will fail with a poor roster. That’s what happened to New York since their miraculous playoff run a few seasons prior. One or two players cannot and will not carry a football team… at least not for more than a few games. The vibes are real and the true test of this team is keeping those same vibes, even when they lose, because they are going to lose many more games this year.

For every win against Philly, there will be games like the loss to New Orleans. They kind of even each other out at this point, but the long term potential and growth toward success is what matters. I believe that if this keeps up, the Giants’ coaches will even get to keep their jobs, which is a true miracle. But as we saw with Nabers, much of this team’s vibes and potential success hangs on the tip of a pin. 

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Dart is too daring and reckless. That never lasts for a quarterback, but the vibes they elicit can. We must not kid ourselves. This is not a good football team, but the team now has potential. They are actually going somewhere, at least in the near term. We usually see this with rookie quarterbacks, but more so when they actually get wins. Here we are. Tough to say how long it will last, but per usual, the Giants schedule is no longer so daunting. If they can wallop the Eagles, they can beat anyone. That right there is the ultimate win.

 

 

 

2. Was this version of the New York Jets defense just a mirage?

Todd Salem: It took six weeks, but we finally got a glimpse of the New York defense I imagined the Jets would have. They held the playoff-hopeful Denver Broncos to 5.8 yards per pass attempt, 3.0 yards per carry, and 13 total points. They also forced their first turnover of the season and generated some long kick returns. It was everything we wanted from this squad.

…Of course, the team still lost, and the offense looked worse than it ever had this season. So, was this scenario some sort of offensive mute for both teams, or did the Jets actually make strides on the defensive side of the ball?

There was nothing wrong with the weather, but Week 6 was an international game, which always throws a wrench into normal proceedings. And yet, there are a bunch of these games every year now; they don’t automatically silence offensive output. Instead, I think this is a case of Denver being worse offensively than preseason prognostications surmised, as well as the Jets playing better.

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The team suffocated Bo Nix and the ground attack all game. They only committed two penalties in total to boot. Nothing was open down the field; no big plays were broken. In fact, there was little gained even in the intermediate. This was a great showing. Is this something to build off of, though? I’m not so sure. 

This was, arguably, the ugliest the team has looked. It took multiple long returns and that fumble recovery to even put the team in position to score nine points. Another two came on a safety from a Denver penalty in the endzone. The best unit in this contest was not the NYJ defense, it was the Broncos defense.

Coming up on the schedule are a bunch of good chances to get wins, but the Jets shouldn’t be favored in any of these contests. There is a long way to go to claim anything positive from this outcome.

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Dan Salem: Denver has a very good defense and a subpar offense. They are a fringe playoff contender in my mind, because Bo Nix is raw and inconsistent. The offense lacks major skill players, but the defense is suffocating, as we saw. New York has a fine offense, but one that is not good enough to overcome very good defense. The same thing happened to them versus Buffalo, mainly because the Jets offense is one dimensional and Justin Fields is not dynamic, much like Bo Nix. Ugly football was the result in London.

There’s nothing to be gained from how the Jets shutdown Denver because they lost. Sure, they held an average offense to a poor showing, but it wasn’t good enough. Are the Jets better than Carolina? No, they are not. Could they win? Sure, why not. The Panthers are not good. If New York shuts down Carolina’s offense, then we have a pattern to build off of. But this still looks and feels like the worst team in football. 

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The Jets are simply playing to improve and the coaches need to form a positive identity in the face of losing. Worst case scenario sees this staff fired in early December, but they deserve better. This coaching staff inherited a bad roster full of problems, so they deserve another season to un-sink this ship. Several of the team’s recent draft picks are showing promise. Show us something to build off of and there’s reason for hope in 2026. This current year is already lost.

 

 

Meet our Sports Writers:

Dan Salem is Lead Editor and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X, TikTok and Instagram. His latest film ‘Alone’ is now on Amazon.

Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a champion of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, dominating leagues for over two decades. Comment below on his unfiltered opinions.

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