Mike Francesa takes on Darrelle Revis in WFAN tilt

It was the match-up of the 2011 season, as Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis took on his toughest test yet as a guest on Mike Francesa's program on WFAN.

Francesa, who is open about his dislike for the New York Jets coupled with the fact that he rarely gets any Jet guests on his show for various reasons, was really hard on Revis, forcing the all-pro cornerback to answer questions about whether he performed an illegal move on Brandon Marshall that resulted in Revis' 100 yard interception return.

Revis was not too happy having to answer the question. He sounded disturbed and frustrated when he had to respond Francesa's first question about whether he got away with pass interference. At one point, Francesa asked Revis if he thought Marshall was a tough receiver, whereupon Revis angrily replied that Marshall was indeed a talented receiver.

Francesa tried to change the subject to the Jets upcoming Chargers game, but soon Revis decided to jump right back into the discussion about the interceptions, when he said, "You know I didn't mug him."

Francesa shot back telling him to admit that he got away with a "bad call," and offered to donate to any charity that Revis sponsored as long as he admitted that he got away with pass interference. LISTEN to the argument. WFAN page.

Revis, now steaming, shot back at Francesa saying that Big Mike knew nothing about pro football, and that he should only focus on asking questions and not on how to play cornerback. Francesa tried to laugh it off and move on, but Revis wouldn't hear of it. He kept telling Mike to get off the idea that he fouled Marshall in last week's contest.

Then suddenly, a bizarre thing happened: A Jets P.R. staff-person, who identified himself as Jared, broke into the conversation and told Revis to hang up. Revis sent one more shot at Francesa stating, "This is why nobody comes on your show!" Jared told Revis once again to hang up, and the two were gone, just like that.

Many blame Francesa from bullying Revis. It was clear that Francesa entered the conversation aggressively, which set Revis aback a bit, but truth is Mike tried to move away from the subject. Revis was too sensitive; he should have know that Francesa has a tendency to pounce on his guests, his way of proving that only HE is correct. Revis should have let it go, and moved on.

This is also a huge black eye for the Jets PR staff, who should have reminded Revis that Francesa can get under the epidermis of his guests and to just take it. Instead, by hanging up, they created a mountain out of a molehill -- a situation that was already bad when Revis and Francesa started to yell at each other; it could have been handled a lot better by all parties.

Jets uninspiring against hapless Dolphins

JETS 24
DOLPHINS 6

They will try to spin this as a huge victory for the New York Jets, but the tale of the Jets 24-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins at Metlife Stadium was more of a testament to how badly the 0-5 Dolphins play than how good the Jets are.

Let's face it: for the most part, the Jets looked putrid in this "victory." The offense was, once again, non-existent as Mark Sanchez, this time against a 31st ranked defense, was inaccurate and uninspiring in his efforts against the Fish. In fact, the entire Jets offense stunk it up against Miami.

On the Jets first four possessions, they were forced into a three-and-out and struggled to move the football both through the air and on the ground in the first half. Heck, the Jets had ten yards of offense after the first quarter! TEN YARDS!!! In fact, the Jets didn't get a first down until there was 5:30 minutes remaining in the half!

The reason the Jets won this game had more to do with the fact that the Miami Dolphins could be the worst team in the NFL. Initially, the Dolphins were moving the ball well on the Jets defense; Reggie Bush had 71 yards in the first half, but Matt Moore played like a rookie quarterback. He telegraphed his throws all night when he zeroed in on Bradon Marshall, who was covered by the incomprable Darrelle Revis. Moore was so bad that he ignored a number of guys who were wide open for huge gains, let alone touchdowns in that first quarter.

Sure enough, on Moore's third straight pass in the direction of Revis, the all pro corner picked it off and took it the distance for a 100 yard touchdown to give the Jets a 7-3 lead. Miami would move the ball one more time in the second quarter, before Marshall dropped a sure touchdown, forcing Miami to settle for a field goal making it 7-6.

Marshall made one more bone-headed play in the first half. He caught a huge pass in stride down the sideline with room to run for the touchdown, but he decided to hug the sideline and slide out of bounds, which made no sense at all. In short, the Dolphins could have been up 21-0, if it weren't for their own bone-headed mistakes.

After that, Miami shut down. The Jets tiptoed their way through the rest of the game, making enough plays to put some distance between themselves and the Dolphins, but the fact remains this Jets offense was so poor in their ground game and air attack against a dreadful Dolphins defense with no pass rush that the offense was offensive.

Plaxico Burress, invisible once again, hauled in only one catch for the entire game. If fans thought the Jets problems with their wide receivers ended with the trade of Derrick Mason, for get about it! Burress was petulant, didn't run his routes, and appeared disinterested on the sidelines mainly because Sanchez hadn't thrown him the ball.

Santonio Holmes was also having a quiet day until Sanchez found him on a slant down the middle; Holmes hauled in the pass, and dashed down the sideline for a 38 yard touchdown to put it away at 24-6.

To say that the Jets didn't look good would be an understatement, and, with Phillip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers coming to town this Sunday, if things don't improve, the Jets will be back under .500 with the flick of his wrist. The Jets can't run the ball, can't throw the ball, and they can't stop the run; they give up way too many big plays in the passing game. Look for the Chargers to pick the Jets apart on Sunday.

Giants win ugly as Manning nearly throws it away

GIANTS 27
BILLS 24

It was not pretty, but the Giants somehow found a way to outlast a Buffalo Bills team that clearly outplayed them at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

The Giants couldn't tackle an ant yesterday as Fred Jackson ran for 121 yards and had a 168 all purpose yards in Buffalo's defeat. Jackson was a man possessed, breaking free from tacklers like The Flash. Jackson's 80 yard touchdown run tied the game at seven late in the first quarter and signaled this was to be a wacky game for Big Blue.

Late in the first quarter, the Giants spotty tackling continued to plague the team, as Ryan Fitzpatrick found Naaman Roosevelt on a slant, and the speedy receiver turned it up field for a 60 yard touchdown to give Buffalo a 14-7 lead.

When the Giants needed to make plays however, Eli Manning was able to make them. Midway through the second quarter, Manning's 22 yard pass to Jake Ballard, and his 60 yard bomb to Hakeem Nicks, set up Ahmad Bradshaw's second 1-yard touchdown run to give the Giants a 17-14 lead.

That lead wouldn't last long; Buffalo marched the ball down field, thanks to a few big runs by Jackson to get into field goal range for Ryan Lindell, who tied the game with a 49 yard field goal.

From there it seemed at times that the G-Men did everything they could to lose this game. On their first drive of the third quarter after Manning had completed four straight passes, Manning found Mario Manningham in the end z0ne for the touchdown, but it was reviewed and ruled that the wideout was down at the one yard line. The Giants got the touchdown anyway, on Bradshaw's third TD, but red flags were indeed out.

After Giants safety Corey Webster picked off a Hail Mary pass by Fitzgerald, the Giants couldn't move the football. Two striaght dreary incompletions, including a dropped pass by wide open Victor Cruz forced the Giants to kick a field goal; of course the kick by Lawrence Tynes was blocked, giving Buffalo renewed life.

Fitzpatrick moved the Bill methodically down field, highlighted by a 19 yard pass to Jackson. The drive culminated in a nine yard touchdown pass to an open Stevie Johnson to tie the game at 24.

After another ineffective Giants drive, the Bills got one last shot to win this game. Fitzpatrick hit three straight precision passes before hitting David Nelson for 32 yards to the Giants 27. It appeared that the Bills would score until Fitzpatrick's bomb to Stevie Johnson was picked off, again by Webster.

Manning was sloppy. Three incompletions could have cost the Giants dearly, but a clutch 30 yard run by Bradshaw, and a 15 yard penalty on Buffalo spotted the ball at the Bills five yard line. Then Manning did one of the dumbest things a quarterback can do: On third and five at the five, Manning dropped back to pass out of the shotgun and nearly threw an interception to Ledious McKelvin. McKelvin had the ball, but dropped it at the last second; if he held onto it, he had 90 yards of open field to run it back for a Bills touchdown.

Why was Manning throwing? Why were the Giants in a shotgun? These questions were not answered because the Giants won this game. After that stupid play, the Giants settled for the field goal to take a 27-24 lead.

The Bills got one last shot, but three incompletions by Fitzpatrick sealed the deal for the Giants.

It wasn't pretty, and Manning was not good. He had a lot of overthrows in this game, and a lot of bad incompletions including the near interception. Manning is killing this Giants team. On top of that the Giants defense is terrible. Sure, they can rush the passer, but with all of the injuries in the secondary, the Giants haven't been able to stop anyone.

Ironically, the Giants find themselves in first place, thanks to Philadelphia's 20-13 win at Washington; nevertheless, don't be fooled; this is NOT a good Giants football team. These guys are going nowhere.

Open Mike 10-14-11; Santonio Holmes upset at Jets, Giants falling apart

In this latest edition of Open Mike, Michael Cohen welcomes in Lincoln Head Football Coach Robert Hampton to talk about his team's 4-1 start to the season, as the prepare for a Hudson County show down with Hoboken.

Then, Michael takes on the manifold issues that concern both the Giants and Jets after hideous losses for both teams last week. Can the Giants rebound? Is this the end of Tom Coughlin? For the Jets, was Derrick Mason a scapegoat? Is Mark Sanchez the real problem with this ineffective Jets offense?

Listen to the podcast. Mike Sanfilipo, co-host of Triple Coverage pays a visit to discuss these issues and more. Click on the link here to MTRMedia.com, then click on the Open Mike 10-14-11 play button. Enjoy.

Jets send Derrick Mason Packing

A week after Derrick Mason made headlines twice for ripping into his new team, the Jets have decided to part ways with the disgruntled wide receiver by shipping him to Houston for an undisclosed draft pick.

After New York's hideous 34-17 defeat to the Baltimore Ravens, Mason said that there were "cracks" in the Jets offensive scheme and that unless those "cracks" were filled, the problems would persist. Who knows if he was talking about Mark Sanchez or Brian Schottenheimer or both, but the implication was clearly there.

Then before the Jets-Patriots game, Mason, along with two other receivers whom many presume were Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress, complained to coach Rex Ryan about Brian Schottenheimer and the Jets offense.

Ryan, who loves Schottenheimer, decided to bench Mason on Sunday, has now booted him off the team. Mason was becoming a major distraction on this ball club, a club that is showing more and more each week that it is a team that can't take any criticism.

Over the past few weeks, Joe Namath has come out publicly criticizing Rex Ryan, Brian Schottenheimer, Santonio Holmes, Mark Sanchez and Mike Tannenbaum. As a result, the Jets response has been simply: "Who is Joe Namath?"

Ryan doesn't like guys who rock the boat. He said so in his book. He is a fellow who wants only people who are positive, and if any one individual comes across as a negative influence, they are thrown out; case in point, Mason.

Will ridding the team of Mason cure the Jets ills? I find that hard to believe, but, as the football Zen master says, "We'll see."

Giants fall on their faces in shocking loss to Seattle

SEAHAWKS 36
GIANTS 25

So much for all that good feeling that the Giants developed over the past two weeks. The Giants put together a bush-league performance against the hapless Seattle Seahawks; Pete Carroll's crew came into the MetLife Stadium and smacked the Giants in the mouth in a 36-25 drubbing that was really never close.

The blame for the latest Giants disaster falls at the feet of Big Blue's offense and quarterback Eli Manning, who couldn't throw a football accurately if his life depended on it. It was the kind of performance we have gotten used to from the Giants during the Tom Coughlin era anytime this team seems to be on the move to bigger and better things. Instead, the Giants came out flat, unmotivated, and, as a result, were totally outplayed by Seattle.

From the outset, trouble was on the horizon.

The Seahawks opened the game with a long opening drive, culminating in a Travaris Jackson 11 yard touchdown pass to Ben Obomanu (not Obama ;P) to give Seattle a 7-0 lead.

Even though the Giants answered with a 12 yard score from Manning to Jake Ballard to tie the game, the Giants offense couldn't move the ball with any consistency. For a better part of the first half, Seattle forced the Giants into three-out-ands and even sacked Manning on a couple of occasions and forced him to fumble the ball at one point.

In the third quarter, the ineptitude of the Giants offensive line continued. On a first down inside the Giants own five yard line, Seattle blew through the Giants offensive line and tackled D.J. Ware in the end zone for the safety giving the Seahawks a 16-14 lead.

The game would continue to become bizarre. Trailing 19-14, the Giants turned around their fortunes when Manning's tipped pass ended up in the hands of Victor Cruz who dashed 68 yards for the touchdown. The Giants then converted a two point conversion to take a 22-19 lead.

Then the Giants offense coughed it up again when Cruz fumbled the football on the Giants next possession, giving Seattle great field position. The Seahawks kicked a field goal and tied the game at 22.

Then a long Giants drive resulted in a Lawrence Tynes field goal to make it 25-22, but the Giants defense had no answer and couldn't shut the door. Charlie Whitehurst completed three passes for 52 yards to move the ball to the Giants 27 yard line and hit a wide open Doug Baldwin for a 27 yard touchdown to retake the lead 29-25.

Still the Giants weren't out of it. Manning hit Cruz for 41 yards to the Seattle 24, then he hit Cruz again for 19 more to the Seattle six-yard line. It appeared the Giants were about to score the game winning score, erasing a haunting day of football, but the ghosts wouldn't go away. Manning was picked off by Brandon Browner who scampered 94 yards for the touchdown to ice the game for Seattle.

It was a horrible afternoon for Big Blue, a huge step backwards after their great 2-0 road trip against Philadelphia and Arizona. Manning was awful, one of the worst performances of his career and continues to prove that he is not and never will be an elite quarterback in this league.

Sanchez, and Jets embarass themselves in New England

PATRIOTS 30
JETS 21

The Jets are in free-fall. After two hideous losses to the Raiders and Ravens on consecutive weeks, the Jets came up snake eyes yet again, this time against the hated New England Patriots, 30-21, as the Pats covered the spread.

While the Jets running game was solid this time around; Shonn Greene actually showed up and ran for 83 yards, so the full blame for this disaster falls at the feet of Mark Sanchez and Brian Schottenheimer.

Against the worst passing defense in the NFL the Jets managed only 255 yards of offense, threw for only 166 yards through the air, and had eight three-and-outs against a defense that forced eight three-and-outs all season!!

Sanchez really stunk it up. He was terribly inaccurate for the first three quarters of the game, failing to complete a pass for a first down in the first quarter and throwing for only 70 yards through 45 minutes of action. Even though his quarterback rating was good, it doesn't paint the picture for how horrible he was.

As for the play calling? What can I say? Brian Schottenheimer doesn't get it. He has four huge weapons in Dustin Keller, Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards and Derrick Mason, and these guys never get a chance to touch the football. Holmes and Edwards were again silent through the first three quarters of the game, held to four catches and three catches respectively. Keller was held to one catch against the worst defense in football. Unacceptable.

Defensively the Jets were terrible. They couldn't get off the field on third down, and when the team needed them to get a stop, they never did, as Ben Jarvis Green-Ellis ate up the Jets run defense for 136 yards.

Even Tom Brady found wide open holes in the Jets secondary, completing huge passes to Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Aaron Hernandez. Welker had a catch of 73 yards on a slant, clearly out-playing famed Revis Island.

Even though the Patriots didn't play great in this game, turning the ball over before halftime, keeping the Jets within three, the Jets defense didn't have an answer. That 73 yard catch by Welker helped set up a two yard scoring strike to Branch to give the Pats a 17-7 lead.

After Gang Green cut the deficit to 17-14, the Patriots rammed the ball on an 11 play 77 yard drive, culminating in a Green-Ellis touchdown to make it 24-14.

It was an uneven, abysmal night for the Jets -- one that has this team in complete free fall as they stand at 2-3 on the season, a full two games behind the Patriots and Bills for first place in the AFC East.