Uneven Night for Quarterbacks and Their Teams

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — At various points during the past month, Eli Manning and Mark Sanchez have drawn attention for things they have said. Sanchez revealed (in a GQ interview) that he wanted to fight Jets Coach Rex Ryan last season. Manning opined (in a radio interview) that he believed he was one of the five best quarterbacks in the N.F.L.

Both remarks helped break up the slog of training camp, but Monday night the respective faces of the Giants and the Jets were notable for a more meaningful reason. With 13 days remaining before Week 1, Sanchez and Manning were remarkably underwhelming in the latest meeting between the city’s N.F.L. rivals, which the Jets won, 17-3, casting an uneasy feeling over the final dress rehearsal for the top players from both teams.
The game was played under unusual conditions at MetLife Stadium, as it was originally scheduled for Saturday night before being moved — once to Saturday afternoon and finally to Monday evening — as a result of Hurricane Irene. Given the shifting timing, a certain drop-off in quality might have been expected, but the fans that did turn out saw little in the way of impressive football early on.
The first half, in particular, was dreary. Sanchez was 5 for 11 passing and lost a fumble, the Jets gained a total of 73 net yards and did not convert a third-down opportunity but still managed to lead, 7-3, at halftime. They were helped by a slew of poor play from the Giants. Manning threw two interceptions and recorded a quarterback rating of 37.8.
Ultimately, neither team is likely to be overly concerned by its quarterback’s performance, but the struggles were indicative of larger concerns. Sanchez, entering his third season, is attempting to get comfortable with two new receivers in Derrick Mason and the former Giant Plaxico Burress, and he looked jumpy at times in the pocket.
Sanchez badly missed Burress with two attempts in the first half and, while he did find Santonio Holmes with a 17-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter, he also failed to notice Holmes standing wide open on a third-quarter incompletion. Holmes highlighted the miscue by continuing to wave his arms, slowly, as the ball rolled away.
Sanchez departed after one series in the second half, finishing the game 8 of 16 for 64 yards, and while Manning’s numbers were gaudier (15 for 30 for 200 yards), his overall performance left much to be desired.
Manning’s raw numbers were helped by a 29-yard catch-and-run from running back Ahmad Bradshaw, and he was intercepted twice on ill-advised passes. In the first quarter, Manning was hit by David Harris as he threw over the middle toward Victor Cruz, with safety Jim Leonhard stepping in front to pick the ball off. In the second quarter, Harris intercepted a short pass to the left intended for Bradshaw and would have had a clean path up the sideline if he had not stepped out of bounds.
Of course, part of Manning’s troubles may be due to a changing offensive line, and on the final play of the first half, he dropped back to attempt a long pass from near midfield only to be swallowed up by the Jets’ pass rush and sacked. As the teams ran off the field, Coach Tom Coughlin clapped his hands at Manning and patted him on the back.
Coughlin was surely less encouraging toward his special teams unit, which struggled. The Giants gave up a 70-yard kickoff return to Antonio Cromartie (despite Cromartie initially fumbling the ball five yards deep in the end zone) and watched the rookie Jerrel Jernigan muff two punts of his own. Kicker Rhys Lloyd, who finally provided the first points of the game on a 34-yard field goal with five minutes remaining the first half, also had a field goal blocked.
The most dramatic moment of the game may have come when the ball was not even in play. With 8 minutes 51 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Manning completed a short pass to Mario Manningham for seven yards and, as he backpedaled away from his throw, watched Brandon Jacobs exchange punches with Jets defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson. It appeared that Wilkerson threw the first punch (and Jacobs responded with two of his own). Both players were ejected. Jacobs left having compiled 51 yards on 10 rushes, including one 25-yard burst.
The tiff offered some temporary excitement to a game that had been lacking it, and provided some tangible evidence to the pre-game hype that annually permeates the rivalry. As this was the first game played at the newly-named MetLife Stadium, the build-up had been about which team should be seen as the stadium’s primary tenant.
Giants defensive end Justin Tuck had said he would always think of the stadium as Giants Stadium, regardless of the name, prompting Jets Coach Rex