NY Jets must not fall into the 'trap' of the New York Giants

Despite only one of these teams entering the year with Super Bowl hopes, both of these teams were at the bottom of the barrel by the end of Week 3 with seemingly no hope in sight. The NY Jets seemed so far away from even playoff contention, let alone the Super Bowl.

The New York Giants, who beat a 13-win team in the playoffs last year, looked like an absolute one-hit wonder that possibly made devastating investments in the wrong players. As Jets fans, we know how the Jets have turned it around, but let’s talk about the Giants and their turnaround.

After weeks of looking like an embarrassment to football, the New York Giants have rattled off two impressive games in a row where their combined point differential is +2.

They may be 1-1 in those games, but the court of public opinion has ruled in favor of the Giants since that last play against the Bills was pretty blatant holding against their star tight end Darren Waller that wasn’t called.

So what changed? Was it the switch to Tyrod Taylor at QB as Daniel Jones heals up? ESPN may try to convince you that’s the case, but just a simple glance at the defense will tell you a completely different story:

The NY Jets must be wary of a surging Giants defense

So clearly, the defense has stepped in a big way recently and stifled one of the league’s most explosive offenses (Buffalo) while also shutting down an above-average offense (Washington). Their offensive production has actually dipped these last two weeks, but the 20 points of difference on the defensive side are too much to ignore.

This unit was coming into the season with the hype of one of the better defensive lines in football and an offseason that added pieces to the secondary — in the last two games, we’re finally seeing that come to fruition.

How will that affect the Jets? I’m not sure. The Jets are the exact opposite of an explosive offense — they literally rank dead last in passing yards per game by a large margin and are tied with the Giants for dead last in offensive touchdowns scored this season. Only the Steelers and the Bengals average fewer total yards per game, so there truly isn’t much for the Giants to stifle.

The Jets’ offensive momentum has been largely kickstarted by their defense, which continues to play well and is coming off a third consecutive game with multiple takeaways.

If that continues, the Giants may be powerless to stop a Jets offense that consistently scores points in advantageous field position via one of the best kickers in the game, Greg Zuerlein.

Over the course of those last three games, no team in the NFL has scored more points via field goal (33) than the Jets. It'll be up to the defense to give the offense extra opportunities, and if the offense can finally turn some of those field goals into touchdowns, then they should secure an emphatic win.