HATE WATCH
OBJ VS. WILLIAMS GRUDGE MATCH HIGHLIGHTS MNF BATTLE
HERE comes Baker Mayfield, looking for a fight, and here comes Odell Beckham Jr., looking to own the night and looking to own Gregg Williams in his old MetLife Stadium, and here comes Jarvis Landry, looking to own Adam Gase, and here come the 0-1 Cleveland Browns, more angry than humbled, looking to show America that if you knock them down, there will be hell to pay when they get back up.
And here stand the 0-1 Jets, their young franchise quarterback quarantined with mono too far away, looking to rally around backup quarterback Trevor Siemian, looking to defend their defensive coordinator’s reputation and looking for Beckham — if they are lucky enough to catch him — and looking to save a season that would be doomed long before Sam Darnold returns given the foreboding schedule should they fall to 0-2. Monday night madness. Monday night mayhem. And here stand the Jets,
needing to figure out away to keep Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon off Siemian, and here stands Williams, tasked with defending Mayfield & Co. with invaluable defensive quarter back C. J. Mosley( groin) and rookie Quinnen Williams (ankle) unavailable.
The Jets weren’t supposed to lose the home opener to the Bills, weren’t supposed to choke away a 16-0 lead en route ending their eight-year playoff drought, and the Browns weren’t expected to lay an egg against the Titans in their home opener en route to the first Super Bowl appearance in their history.
It immediately gave pause to the idea that Gase can truly help Darnold make the second-year leap and that Browns rookie head coach Freddie Kitchens, hired instead of Williams by GM John Dorsey, is the right man to keep all his stars aligned and all his outsized personalities from imploding.
Beckham reigniting the Bountygate flame and Williams turning it into a five-alarm fire are just what the “MNF” doctors could have ordered, especially since Darnold, the quarterback spurned by Dorsey when he made Mayfield the first pick of the 2018 NFL draft, will be sick to his stomach watching it all on his TV in isolation.
Beckham vs. Williams is far more of a show-stopper than Mayfield vs. Siemian. Williams suggesting that the media stop paying so “much attention” to Beckham is, of course, the pot calling the kettle black. Beckham’s first prime-time game following his trade from the Giants and all the vitriol he has spewed on Dave Gettleman would have shined the spotlight on him anyway, whether he is allowed to wear his $190,000 wristwatch or not.
Aside from rattling Williams’ cage, Beckham’s accusation that Williams successfully targeted him in a 2017 preseason game in Cleveland may have been a brilliant calculated attempt at alerting the zebras to any and all diabolical skulduggery.
Williams has spent a lifetime lusting to cut off the head of the snake with unrelenting pressure, but he is handcuffed by the absence of an elite pass rusher, and you can bet Mayfield will be eager to ingratiate himself to Beckham by exploiting him early and often against Jets cornerbacks who should apologize if they so much as dreamed they could stop him. And Landry hasn’t forgotten that Gase, as Dolphins head coach, traded him away following a personality clash.
It is unlikely Siemian, given his experience, will show up with that deer-in-the-headlights look, but his best chance is Le’Veon Bell carrying the offense until Darnold is back. Bell chipped off the rust following his 20-month layoff and now Ryan Kalil and the offensive line will need to do likewise.
Bell tweeted: “I need MetLife going CRAZYYYY this Monday!” And Jamal Adams tweeted back: “We need them more than they even know right now!”
The Jets need them because the Patriots on the road and Eagles on the road, and the Cowboys and Patriots at home follow, and Darnold might not return for any of them. An 0-2 start isn’t a death sentence, but 0-3 almost certainly is. Darnold would have helped the Jets more than MetLife Stadium will.
Adams tweeted: “Us against the world.” Unfortunately for the Jets, the defiant Mayfield lives that rallying cry every single day, and everyone will see it on this night. For the Jets, the world has lost only once in their history, and that was 51 years ago.
Season on the line, months too early.