COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

 The final score read 28-25, but that was not indicative of what kind of game this was at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon.  The Miami Dolphins waltzed into the MetLife and punched the Jets right in the face, laughed, and the proceeded to step on them over and over and over again. The same Miami Dolphins team that came into the game winless at 0-5, having not scored a touchdown to open a game all season, and having played five games without ever having a lead, scored first, and never looked back.  And as the day wore on, the Jets committed self-inflicted wound after another. Geno Smith played scared; Offensive Coordinator Frank Reich again dipped into his bag of ultra-conservative tricks; Receiver Garret Wilson was targeted only three times and was seen either yelling at Smith or Passing Game Coordinator Seth Ryan, or maybe both; and, once again, head coach Aaron Glenn was completely and totally out-coached.  It was embarrassing.  On a beautiful sun-splashed ...

 A week ago Giants running back Cam Skattebo spent most of the time on the Giants bench, and didn't get a single touch of the football. When asked about it by the media, a testy Giants' Head Coach John Harbaugh said that the running back was never benched, and that the opportunities to get him the ball didn't come up.  When the media caught up with Skattebo later in the postgame, the star back said that he was being "punished" for his fumble that cost the Giants a chance at victory over the Washington Commanders, a game that ended in a 27-all tie.  Well, on Sunday afternoon against the Texans, Harbuagh dared his running back to prove something, and Skattebo rewarded his coach for such confidence with 124 yards on 17-carries, including a 42-yard scamper on second and one with 8:42 to go in overtime that set up Devin Singletary's walk-off 30-yard score to give the Giants a 27-21 victory.  That huge run wasn't the only one for Skat on Sunday. Earlier in the g...

 The New York Knicks celebrated the success of last season that culminated in the franchise's first NBA Championship in 53 years just 3-1/2 months ago when they took down the San Antonio Spurs in five games.  Players, coaches and staff received their championship rings before watching a blue Championship banner get raised to the rafters to join the 1970 and 1973 champions for all eternity. Fans, some of whom had to pay upwards of more than $1,900 just to secure a seat in the nosebleed section, witnessed something that many thought was not possible.  The ceremony itself was a thing of beauty. Knicks television play-by-play man Mike Breen, who called the Knicks NBA Finals series nationally for ABC MC'd the event, while Knicks and NBA Hall of Famer Walt Clyde Fraizer handed the rings to all the players. It was emotional, and gave the sold out crowd at MSG a collegial feel.    Then reality set in, and the Knicks, who for decades have always been the hunter, were now...

 This much is clear from the New York Jets 26-19 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday: there is a clear and obvious coaching discrepancy between the two teams.  In a game that wide receiver Garret Wilson rightly called a "big ass game" on Friday, the Jets shot themselves in the foot one too many times,  and when you do that a team as well coached  as the New England Patriots you are bound to lose.  Aaron Glenn is not Mike Vrabel. He's not as calculating and involved as Vrabel appears to be on the field, and even that was obvious on Sunday as well.  What really killed the Jets Sunday was three plays. Two of those plays involved Gang Green's inability to convert a simple fourth and one to move the sticks, keep a drive going, and perhaps put points on the board.  And that inability not only falls on Head Coach Aaron Glenn, it falls on Offensive Coordinator Frank Reich, who once again showed an inability to put together a creative game plan.  ...

 There are two huge storylines that came out of the Giants stunning 34-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.  1) Cam Skattebo was all but benched by Head Coach John Harbaugh. Skattebo didn't have a single carry in the game on Sunday, and when asked by reporters, the running back said he was "punished" for his fumble against the Commanders that cost the team a chance at victory last week.  That was last week. The Giants meanwhile this week, couldn't establish a running attack. Their leading rusher on Sunday was back-up quarterback J.J. McCarthy who had two carries for 26 yards, and he didn't come into the game until there were 11 minutes left in it.  Harbaugh denied that Skattebo was benched, saying it was "not by design, It’s just when he was in the game, we didn’t call any runs.”  You have to respect what Harbaugh is doing here. Skattebo's fame skyrocketed early last season before his rookie year was cut short at midseason with a brutal leg injury...

 It has been a long time since the New York Jets last won a game of any significance up at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.  While New York's most recent victory there came just three seasons ago, a 17-3 win in Week 18 of the 2023 season, that game was pretty meaningless. The Jets finished 7-10 that season, a season that was supposed to be about Aaron Rodgers first in New York. Of course all the dreams of Rodgers succeeding in different shade of green was hijacked in Week 1 when he went down with an Achilles Tear.  As for the Patriots they were an awful 4-13. It was Bill Belichick's final game as Patriots Head Coach, but nobody really seemed to care that the Jets sent him out of the NFL with an 'L.' Not in a snowy, cold Week 18 game with both teams already looking forward to the off-season.  So if you are looking for the last Jets win at New England that had any real significance as far as playoffs, or AFC East standings, or even division titles are con...

 I don't know what goes through the heads of gamblers when it comes time to setting the betting lines for an NFL game, but I truly am aghast at the very idea that the bumbling New Orleans Saints are a -1.5 point road favorite this week at the New York Giants.  I just don't get it.  Sure the Giants are lucky to be 3-1-1 right now. They had to win two games on the final play, and get a brain fart on the part of Jayden Daniels and Dan Quinn to pull out a tie in Washington. Still though, the G-Men are 3-1-1, and the Saints (1-4) are in my mind have been the most overhyped team in the NFC South since the season began.   I mean people were not only picking the Saints to win this division, which might still happen, but they were already putting Saints Head Coach Kellen Moore on the Mt. Rushmore of brilliant young head coaches, and quarterback Tyler Shough as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Really? Are we really that serious?  Outside of their one-point...

 The New York Jets Sack Exchange is back! At least the latest version anyway.  Props to Aaron Glenn for putting together an incredible game plan as his defense came to life amid tropical rainfall to defeat the Cleveland Browns 17-12 at MetLife Stadium. Much maligned rookie defensive end, David Bailey led the way with three sacks, as he dominated the Browns at the line of scrimmage.   Defensive end Will McDonald also got into the action with a sack, as the Jets collected eight sacks on the day.  Meanwhile the Jets had to rely on some Browns mistakes to make this win happen. Trailing 12-10 midway through the fourth quarter, a muffed punt by the Browns gave the Jets the football at the Cleveland 23-yard line. A couple plays later, running back Branden Allen was in for the score to give the Jets the lead for good.  New York is 2-3 in a much needed victory to alleviate the pressure that had been mounting in recent weeks.    As for Big Blue, well they w...

It was Jeffery Maier but in reverse for the 2026 New York Yankees.  With a runner on in the bottom of the sixth inning, and trailing 4-2, Yankees short stop Anthony Volpe crushed a Griffin Jax fastball toward the left field wall. And for a split second it looked like the ball had cleared the fence just past the outstretched glove of left fielder Victor Mesa Jr., tying the game at four.  The Yankee Stadium faithful exploded! Volpe's homer signaled the second time that the Yankees stormed back to tie. Surely it was only a matter of time before the Bronx Bombers would win this game.  But, it was all a mirage.  Thanks to modern day technology and the fact that Baseball now reviews every home run that is close to the wall, it became painfully obvious that a fan had reached over, touched the ball and pulled it into the stands.   The review overturned the home run as fan interference. Instead of touching home,  Volpe was rewarded with an RBI double to cut the...

For years the Giants and Jets were on similar trajectories downward.  Since 2017 until this season, both New York City based clubs were one and two for the worst winning percentage in the NFL.  That is finally changing.  The Giants are 3-1 following a thrilling 36-24 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Deonte Banks'  98-yard pick six with seven seconds to go sealed the deal for Big Blue, as they took sole possession of first place in the NFC East.  It is the first time in any season the Giants have been in first since 2015.    As for the Jets, well, they remain the Jets. An embarrassing 23-12  showing in Chicago on Sunday, saw the Jets get totally outcoached and outplayed by a superior Bears team. The Bears held the ball for nearly 43 minutes, and outgained the Jets 492-157.  Ouch!     So here we sit! One team has a direction and a head coach to be respected in John Harbaugh. The other team has one of its all time best pl...

 The New York Yankees are on the brink of elimination, yet again.  And yet again, the Yankees face the prospect of watching someone else celebrate on the Yankee Stadium turf in October when the Rays bring a 2-0 ALDS series lead to the Boogie Down on Wednesday and Friday for Games 3 and 4, if necessary.  The Yankees find themselves here after a 5-2 loss to the Rays on Monday night where New York was charged with an inexplicable four errors! Three of those errors came in a nightmarish first inning as Ryan McMahon and Jazz Chisholm struggled to make what are normally routine plays look anything but routine.  First McMahon couldn't field a ground ball by Yandy Diaz that immediately swung momentum the Rays way.  Two batters later, Junior Caminero reached on a Fielder's Choice after Chishom threw the ball away while trying to make an acrobatic play at second base. The resulting error allowed Diaz to score from third, handing the Rays a 1-0 lead.   Chisholm w...

 Fair or not, Game 1 of the 2026 American League Division Series will forever be known as the Austin Wells Game.  That is because Wells got caught trying to turn a big play into a monumental play when he thought his double down the right field line took an extra hop and committed himself toward going to third.  Turned out to be a big mistake. As Luis Rojas' had his hands up in the air motioning Wells to stop at second, he admitted in postgame, that by the time he saw Rojas he was committed.  "I tried to make something happen in being aggressive.  After I was passing second I picked his hands up, but I was committed," Wells said, adding in the moment he was trying to be aggressive.  His answer was understandable, but it was a mistake nevertheless.  Had Wells stopped many assume that manager Aaron Boone would have pinched hit Ryan McMahon for Giancarlo Stanton, who hadn't batted in a live Major League Game since April 24. The very thought of Stanton, who...

Oh, how I miss the days when Red Sox - Yankees used to mean something.  The days when the series was an intense border war with games that had a razor thin margin for error, combined with an intense, boiling hatred that filtered through the clubhouses and the fan bases alike.  Oh, how I miss the days of Pedro Martinez head hunting Yankees and dropping quote like "Who is Kareem Garcia?" and "Whose you Daddy?"  The days when A-Rod got booed; when A-Rod and Jason Varitek fought one another at home plate. The time when the Yankees stormed back to beat the Sox in the '03 ALCS. Aaron Boone's home run. Then the 2004 ALCS when the Yankees choked on a 3-0 series lead.  Those were the days, my friend.  Because this iteration of the Yankees-Red Sox war has as much enthusiasm as a Yankees-A's game in mid-May.  It's sad.  And that sadness was on display for two consecutive nights in the Big Apple as the Yankees dismantled the Red Sox by a combined score of 18-2....

 The New York Giants have swung a very intriguing deal with the acquisition of former first round pick, J.J. McCarthy to back-up Jamies Winston, who struggled in Big Blue's 12-7 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.  McCarthy, once drafted 10th overall in the 2024 draft, was supposed to be the apple of the eye of Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, but failed to live up to expectations.  McCarthy lost the starting job last season when it was given to him, despite going 6-4 in 10 games as the Vikings starter in 2025.  This summer McCarthy became the odd man out, as the Vikings brought in two veteran quarterbacks in Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz, both of whom have helped lead Minnesota to a 3-0 start the season.  Giants Head Coach John Harbaugh is certainly familiar with McCarthy since his brother, Jim, coached the quarterback at Michigan over three seasons, winning a National Championship in 2024.  The Giants gave up a fifth round pick to th...

 Not only did the Giants battle the elements on Sunday, they found a way to hold off a stubborn Tennessee Titans team 12-7 in an ugly rain-drenched affair at the Meadowlands.  The Giants managed only 238 yards of offense, and could only score four field goals, but it was more than enough this time.  The biggest play of the game of course came in the final seconds with the Titans in position to take the lead for good. Tennessee had 24 seconds and two timeouts in their back pocket at the Giants' own seven yard line, but Cam Ward couldn't handle the prosperity.  The second year signal caller threw up a duck on the run that was picked off in the end zone by Giants safety Jevon Holland to seal the deal and get the banged up Giants back over .500 at 2-1.     

 At what point should we get tired of hearing about moral victories? Following the Jets heartbreaking 31-24 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Aaron Glenn stressed to reporters that his players are closing the gap.  " We're right here. It's this gap that we have to close. We're fighting to close that gap and we will. We'll be on the other side of these games. I truly believe that." Even if the Jets "closed the gap" the same problems still persisted for the Jets and Glenn on Sunday, that helped contribute to a disheartening loss. Whether it be time management at the end of halfs, the use of timeouts and challenges, or even the inability to adjust the game plan, the Jets failed in many respects to cover themselves, and as a result played right into the hands of the Lions.  Call it a young team, or a moral victory if you want, but the facts are 20-games in, Aaron Glenn is 4-16 as a head coach. Not that anyone expected them to win on Sunday in Detroit....

 The 2026 season isn't even over, and moves are already being made for 2027.  The New York Mets have removed the interim label from Andy Green, naming him the full time manager of the club with a brand new three-year contract extension.  Green who took over a brutal situation in late June with the Mets all but out of contention following the firing of Carlos Mendoza, settled things down to the best of his ability. He got the team to play better, got the most out of many of the young players like AJ Ewing and Carson Benge, and as a result the Mets went 37-38 in the 75 games since June 26.  "I think Andy brings to us an ability to connect the organization in ways that very few people could," Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns told the media in Texas on Tuesday.  Green was serving as the Mets VP of Player Development with a specific focus on the Mets farm system, when he was asked to step into the managerial role in late June to take over for Men...

 The prognosis for quarterback Jaxson Dart is not good. Dart, who was injured on the seventh play of the Giants opening drive on Monday night in Los Angeles, could miss the entire season, or at least an extended period of weeks, as tests revealed the damage to Dart's left knee is worse than anticipated.  Dart got hurt when he was sandwiched in mid air between Rams linebackers Byron Young and Josiah Stewart. Dart then fell to the ground in a heap, while holding his knee. He left the game and didn't return, although reports early Monday indicated that he wanted to come back in, and was seen on the sideline in street clothes moving around just fine.  There was also ESPN, incidentally, capturing a member of the Giants training staff mouthing to Head Coach John Harbaugh what many assumed was him saying Dart could miss four to six weeks. Of course that was never confirmed.  Harbaugh did not reveal any diagnosis following the Giants 28-6 loss to the Rams, and then declined...

 Not only did the Jets blow a 17-7 lead on Sunday, and lose to the Green Bay Packers, 20-17, but they did something that hadn't been done in the NFL since 1941, and that is they held Green Bay under 200 yards, had a plus-one turnover margin, and Green Bay was flagged for over 100 yards, and still the Jets managed to lose.  The loss reminded us all what its like as the Same Old Jets.   

 Legendary New York Mets broadcaster Howie Rose called it a career Sunday in his final radio broadcast as the Mets lead play-by-play voice.   Rose who covered the Mets for 39 years beginning in 1987, built a lasting legacy as one of the many great local voices to lend his pipes to the Amazin's. When you think of the Mets and broadcasters, Rose is right up there along with Gary Cohen, Bob Murphy, Lindsay Nelson, and Ralph Kiner.  Rose began his career as the host of the Mets pre and post game shows in 1987. By 1995 he moved into the broadcast booth as the voice of the Mets TV telecasts, first on Sports Channel, and then on Fox Sports Net New York.  In 2004, he took over the slot vacated by Murphy when he retired, sitting alongside Gary Cohen for two seasons, before Cohen switched over to TV and SNY.  Since 2006, Rose has been the lead voice of Mets radio broadcasts joined by a cast of different broadcasters from Eddie Coleman, Wayne Hagen, Josh Lewin, Wayne ...

 Pete Alonso wouldn't admit it when asked about the emotions of this moment when he returned to Citi Field as a member of the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, but this was personal, and he had to love every minute of it.  Nine months ago Alonso said good bye to the city he called home for over a decade, when he signed a five-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles, after the Mets front office, led by President of Baseball Operations David Stearns, decided against going into an aggressive bidding war for his services.  In fact, the Mets didn't even make an offer last winter.  How could they do that?   Alonso is the Mets All-Time Home Run Leader. His bat alone catapulted the Mets onto an incredible postseason run in 2024 when he launched a Devin Williams fastball over the right field wall in Milwuakee to send the Mets past the Brewers in the wild card.  Alonso was a home grown Met; one of the franchise's best overall players (even if he wasn't fleet afoot at fi...

 Behind a three-run bomb by Aaron Judge, the Yankees clinched a spot in the 2026 postseason in an 8-3 win over their favorite whipping boys, the Minnesota Twins.  Judge, who was 3-of-20 since coming off the I.L. after missing most of the season with a rib injury, launched a pitch into the second deck, signifying the Yankees slugger was finally back!  Judge wasn't the only one to go long. Both Jose Caballero and Austin Wells went long for the Yankees as they blew away the Twins in the later innings.  Now as far as that postseason thing is concerned the Yankees have a lot of work to do, and need some help.  They still trail the Rays by 3.5 games. Tampa has been in first place seemingly everyday since mid-June.  Can the Yankees catch them? We are running out of days. The Yankees are six games ahead of Boston for the top wild card, meaning New York will have home field in the wild card series, but for the second straight season, the Yankees are starring down fa...

 It has been 17 years since the last time both the New York Football Giants and New York Jets opened a season winning their season openers.  17-years.  Rex Ryan and Tom Coughlin were the head coaches. The Giants were - at that time - two years removed from winning Super Bowl 42.  The Jets were beginning a new era under Rex Ryan that would take them to the first of back-to-back trips to the AFC Title game.  It's truly been that long since both teams have been good in this town. And for the first time in seemingly forever both teams appear to finally be heading in the right direction.  The Giants dominated the Dallas Cowboys 28-20 on Sunday night. It wasn't as close as the score indicated. The Giants had 396 yards of offense in the game, and Jaxson Dart absolutely ate the Cowboys lunch tossing for 250 yards and three touchdowns. He even added 54 yards on the ground on 11 carries.  Cam Skateboo chipped in 81-yards and a score himself.  The Giants loo...

 25 years ago, radical terrorists tried to take away our freedoms, filling us with nothing but fear when they hijacked four planes on a crisp Tuesday, September morning. Two of those planes as we known crashed into the World Trade Center; another was driven right into the Pentagon, and, thanks to the heroics of the passengers aboard United Flight 93, the last plane wound up crashing into a field in Pennsylvania.  2,977 people were killed.    I shake with sadness and anger because it's just too horrifying to think about, let alone type into words.  September 11 changed everything in our Nation and around the world.  Not only did radical Islamic terrorists try to take away our freedom, they declared war on it, and led us down a path toward seemingly never ending wars in Afghanistan and later, Iraq.   Moreover our way of life changed forever.  Security checkpoints at airports changed; even security at big social gatherings like stadiums and...