Syracuse & Jets win nail-biters

mWo Sports Digest #1

Followers of the mWo series know that it existed prior to this, the first solo entry, and what it is all about. That’s a small number of people, I’m sure, but the purpose is to focus largely on NY/NJ metro area sports for everyone that’s reading this and happens to be a newcomer. I include Syracuse in the pool because the school has a decent following on the island and also, admittedly, due to my own bias. Thanks for reading!

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL

The Orange are 4-0. That’s right, the team that I thought was bound to be bottom feeders have started with a spark and are now undefeated after four entertaining victories.

That deserves some praise, folks!

It’s worth noting that I, for whatever it might be worth to you, have Syracuse as a clear favorite for their upcoming game next week against Wagner. If we’re looking ahead, I’m admittedly pretty sure that they are likely to only win 2 games past that, but college sports is never set in stone and a start like this is one that can set up unlikely scenarios turning into reality.

While that might feel like a natural place to move on, I’d prefer to talk more about the last two weeks of Syracuse football so lets rewind for a moment.

A game against Purdue, which you can watch the highlights of by clicking the video above, was everything I love about college ball all in one game. Not only was this an exciting game between two teams that were had something to prove, but it was also a nail-biting contest that gave Orange fans something to cheer for in a season when W’s were far from certain. A go-ahead TD late in the fourth showed that this squad will go kicking and screaming to the finish line and has no desire to just collapse under the pressure.

That alone is reason to be excited, folks.

The excitement continued against Virginia and it started with a major kickoff return for good measure! The imperfect Orange unit overdelivered and repeated what they did against Purdue, bouncing back time and time again right until that final stretch.

They walked into the second with a 16-0 lead before Virginia sparked ahead, putting up 20 as time marched on and Syracuse only managed 3. With less than two-minutes left in regulation, #81 put one between the poles to launch the team ahead by two and some shut down defense solidified the victory.

Meanwhile, Rutgers is also undefeated and hosts Iowa tonight at 7 in an attempt to match Syracuse’s 4-0 start. This is another team that I had no expectations for walking in and it’ll be fun to see which of the two schools manages to end the season with the better record. Close games with Boston and Temple and a blowout victory against Wagner are sure to have spirits up and a hometown crowd that has reason to care might be enough to push this squad past the Hawkeyes.

NFL

Excitement for New York sports fans doesn’t end there, though!

The Giants are 2-0 and have Dallas ahead on Monday. Both W’s were close calls, but a win is a win. Thanks to those victories, the team has a chance to do the same as Syracuse here because their game versus Dallas has real stakes and a major national audience. There’s a very real possibility that they walk out 3-0 and I might need to change my tone toward the team if they do.

Meanwhile, the Jets managed to pick up one of the few victories that they’ll likely get this season and it was one hell of a game! There aren’t a lot of reasons for Jets fans to get pumped over, but this was one for sure as Cleveland and New York played a fun game of back-and-forth, nail-biting ball. QB aside, the Browns are a strong team and had many mismatches that should have pushed them ahead but a never-say-die attitude didn’t allow for that to become reality. Flacco was serviceable enough, as he tends to be (at best) but, midway through the 4th, it seemed pretty clear that this one was over and it was soon 30-17 with two minutes remaining. Flacco, with that refound ice in his veins, and the entire crew looked like stars immediately after though, scoring twice in 90-seconds to land a 1-1 record and a 31-30 score-line.

I wanted to include video here of Giants and Jets highlights like I did with Syracuse, but the NFL YouTube channels apparently ban such things and I didn’t want to use bootleg videos. Just search on YT for highlights if you’d like. The Jets game in particular is well worth the time.

That’s it for the debut edition. I’ll be back, if time allows, with previews for the NBA and NHL seasons and the MLB postseason. Thanks, as always, for reading.