COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

 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....