Saint Matthew's

Wow. That was fast.

Eric Mangini has been fired by the New York Jets following their annual December football collapse. Even with Brett Favre, the December swoon arrived on time for the Jets.

Yesterday, the New York football scene shone a bright light on the differences between the two teams who share Giants Stadium here in New Jersey.

Both the Giants and Jets were reeling coming into this week. They’ve been losing badly or winning ugly the past couple of weeks and as football teams, they both looked lost. The vaunted running games of both teams had disappeared. Manning and Favre looked less like the MVP caliber quarterbacks that they are and played more like second-string rock chuckers.

This week, both teams had to show up. The Jets had to face an easier team to beat, at least on paper, in the Seattle Seahawks. The Giants had to battle one of the best teams in the league in the Carolina Panthers.

This morning, we know two things about these football teams, namely which team was mentally and football-prepared and showed heart. Only one team left everything on the field yesterday.

The Jets embarrassed themselves and their fans yesterday, losing pathetically to the Seahawks 13-3 in Seattle. Offensively, defensively, and coaching-wise, the Jets were unprepared and were completely outplayed by a rather terrible Seattle team. Playing those types of games in December usually costs a head coach his job. In order to make the playoffs, the Jets need to somehow beat the Miami Dolphins next Sunday and pray for a miracle.

But after yesterday, the Jets don’t deserve to go to the playoffs.

However, the Giants showed up to play. The Giants used their best offensive weapons – their running game anchored by Brandon Jacobs and Derek Ward, and an offensive line that just punishes defenses – to crawl their way into OT and take the game. They showed up to play, the Giants did, and this morning they have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Last night was all about old-time G-men football. Short passes, a punishing offensive line, running backs that powered their way for every yard, and a defense that held when they needed to stand up.

Yesterday, football fans in this area had the opportunity to see which of their two teams had the heart to stand up.

They got their answer.

With all this coverage of the presidential election, you may have missed a few things that happened in New Jersey/New York sports yesterday:

The Jets and the Giants won their respective games. As a Giants fan, whenever Big Blue or any other team, for that matter, beats up on the Dallas Cowboys, a bright smile goes gets plastered on my face. The New York Times delved deep into the mind and life of Jets Quarterback Brett Favre in their Sunday sports Play Magazine.

At MSG last night, the Knicks looked ugly, but they are close to ridding themselves of Stephon Marbury.

And Larry Brooks of the Post complains that the New York Rangers aren’t using Scott Gomez the right way. It’s rare, but I agree with Brooks today:

But the most distressing pattern thus far revolves around the (Rangers’ head coach Tom) Renney’s reluctance to give his best playmaking center, his most creative pivot and his elite puck-carrying breakdown skater – they’re all Scott Gomez, by the way – complementary wingers who belong on his line. The head coach’s attempt to spread the wealth has created a fragmented offense lacking a go-to line with which the opposition must contend.

The Rangers have committed $51M over seven years to Gomez, yet they’ve assigned him to play with Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan, wingers who probably are more compatible to third-line responsibility. They have taken their most talented center and all but marginalized him as an offensive force.

That is what was on my sports radar this morning.