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The New York Week That Was (9/18/09)

September 18, 2009 · gozer · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees

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When we last saw the Jets, the comedy team of Eric Mangini and Brett Favre were sabotaging the season.

Favre confessed that he had a torn biceps tendon, but he’s just covering up for his arm—it wasn’t torn, it was drunk. The team was even fined for the subterfuge.

New and improved coach Rex Ryan gave a pregame speech to remember, which basically boiled down to this: Win one for Richard Todd.

And win they did.

The rookie coach even shed a tear after the game. It wasn’t because his team won, though, but instead because he just found out that NBC cancelled My Name Is Earl to make room for Parks and Recreation.

And when Ryan was about to present owner Woody Johnson with the game ball, Kanye West appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the ball and yelled out, “Weeb Ewbank is the greatest Jets coach in the world! In the world!”

Meanwhile, the Giants are in the midst of an era of consistency. They have the same coach, QB, O-line, and D-line, with only a few new faces on the team. They won their season opener, but the score shouldn’t have been that close. They do have a little problem with taking the foot off the pedal, and making games closer than they should be.

But a win’s a win.

The Giants have started a new tradition after victories, which combines the Gatorade dunk the team invented in the ’80s with the whipped cream pie in the face that this year’s Yankees have adopted: after every win some of the players will dump a giant bucket of pie fixin’s over Tom Coughlin’s head.

As for baseball, with their win on Saturday, the Mets were assured they would not lose 100 games for the season, but they’re still not a lock to be in the majors next year. And the Yankees brawled their way through the week, winning three, losing three and winning one on a TKO.

Player of the Week: Mark Sanchez

The rookie QB had an impressive debut (18 for 31, 272 yards, one TD), looking poised and veteran-like. Jet fans everywhere are ready to anoint him the new Joe Namath. He’s already picked up the nickname The Sanchise. And in honor of Broadway Joe, Sanchez is dating Ann-Margret.

Runners-Up

Osi Umenyiora

The Giants’ All-Pro defensive end returned to the field after missing all of last season, and he did it in a big way, with a sack and fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Kris Jenkins/Bart Scott

These two led the dominating Jets D, stopping Houston from running, passing, or actually doing anything else with the ball.

Eli Manning

Forced to throw the ball because the ground game was going nowhere, Manning stepped with a quietly efficient game, spreading the ball around to his inexperienced receivers. He finished the afternoon by going 20 for 29, with 256 yards passing, one TD and one INT.

Thomas Jones

The Jets running back had a productive day, rushing for 107 yards and scoring two TDs.

Steve Smith/Mario Manningham

The two standouts in the Giants receiving corps in week one. Smith led the way with six catches for 80 yards, and Manningham made some nifty moves (with a little help from some bad tackling) on his way to his first career touchdown.

Derek Jeter

Oh yeah, the Captain passed Lou Gehrig for the all-time Yankees hit record on Friday night.

Hideki Matsui/Francisco Cervelli

They came up with the big hits for the Bombers this week. Matsui belted a homer and drove in five runs in Sunday’s win and blasted a two-run dinger in the eighth to tie up Wednesday’s game. And Cervelli finished things off in that contest with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. That gives the team 14 walk-off wins this season, three shy of the franchise record set in 1943.

David Wright

The Mets third baseman exploded on Saturday with two homers and six RBI’s to single-handedly beat the Phillies. Yes, it was the only Mets win of the week.

Jeff Francoeur

The Mets right fielder batted .407 this week and is doing it all with torn ligaments in his thumb.

Schmucks of the Week

We have three candidates this week:

Johnny Damon

Damon cost the Yanks a run when he seemed to be auditioning for the Mets and forgot how many outs there were on Sunday.

Daniel Murphy

He made a big base-running blunder in Sunday night’s game, and his fielding miscues led to Wednesday’s loss.

Jorge Posada

The usually classy catcher started Wednesday’s brouhaha with what most thought was a cheap shot behind home plate. Joe Girardi wasn’t very happy about it, and even umpire Jim Joyce didn’t like it: “”It was very unsportsmanlike. It was a cheap shot.”

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