Giants and Jets on Track to Make History

If you haven’t been following the 3-8 Giants and the 2-9 Jets closely this season, you might be excused for missing the teams’ combined bid for New York football history. If the season ended today (and man, wouldn’t that be a blessing to both fan bases), the five combined wins would be the lowest such total since the NFL expanded to a 16-game season in 1978.

Did you know you might be witnessing history? You’re welcome.

Since 1978, the lowest combined win total for the two teams came in 1996, when the 6-10 Giants and the 1-15 Jets splashed the back pages of New York newspapers with seven total wins. The next worst win total came the year before, when 5-11 Giants and the 3-13 Jets combined for eight victories, a total they also accomplished in 1980.

I’m not merely taking the opportunity to bash the two franchises during a down year (OK, way down). It should be noted that there have been years since 1978 when both teams were very good (and in one team’s case, even won a Super Bowl or four).

But more often than not the two teams have never been on both sides of the see-saw at the same time. They’ve both reached the playoffs in the same season just five teams since 1978, the last time in 2006.

Apparently spoiling the concessionaires who get to watch both teams at the Meadowlands has never been a going concern.

In the Giants’ five Super Bowl runs, the Jets were also in the playoffs just once, in 1986, when the Jets went 10-6, won their playoff opener against the Chiefs, and then lost to the Browns in overtime in the divisional round.

Was 1986 the best year for New York football? Probably. The combined win total (24) is the most in the 16-game era. The Giants won the Super Bowl, and the Jets started out 10-1; but they lost their last five games, and limped into the playoffs with a negative point differential, which is very Jets-like.

When the Jets had their best team in the 16-game era, the 12-4 team from 1998 that had a positive point differential of 150 points, the Giants had 8 wins. Even when the Jets are great, the Giants have traditionally been average, never awful.

The biggest disparity in wins (to the Jets favor) came in 2004 and 1983, when Jets won four more games than the Giants. Conversely, the G-Men had eight more wins than the Jets in 1989 and seven more wins in 1990.

Here are the combined win totals since 1978, with the dual playoff years in bold and some additional comments below.

2013 -15
2012 -15
2011- 17
2010 -21
2009 - 17
2008 - 21
2007 - 14
2006 - 18
2005 - 15
2004 - 16
2003 - 10
2002 - 19
2001 - 17
2000 - 21
1999 - 15
1998 - 20
1997 - 19
1996 - 7
1995 - 8
1994 - 15
1993 - 19
1992 - 10
1991 - 16
1990 - 19
1989 - 16
1988 - 18
1987 - 12
1986 - 24
1985 - 21

1984 - 16
1983 - 10
1982 - 10 *strike year
1981 - 19
1980 - 8
1979 - 14
1978 - 14

It’s notable that the teams won 10 games in the strike-shortened 1982 season, which only comes in tied for fourth in the most win-starved years in New York football history.

Also notable? The last time both teams had new head coaches was in 1997 (Bill Parcells and Jim Fassel), or the year after the teams combined for seven wins and the worst season in New York football history.

Does that portend pink slips for Tom Coughlin or Rex Ryan? For both?

Safe to say, if the combined win total doesn’t creep any higher than five, New York professional football will be getting its first complete head coaching overhaul in nearly 20 years.

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