The Jets and Giants both gave more valuable playing time to their starters in their annual preseason clash, with positives and negatives for both teams in a competitive first half. Devin Singletary’s one-yard touchdown run, set up by an 80-yard bomb from Russell Wilson to undrafted rookie Beaux Collins, gave Big Blue a 7-6 halftime lead.

For the Jets, Justin Fields completed just one short pass, but their running game was working well as they racked up 85 yards on the ground in the first half to set up two Nick Folk field goals.

However, it was Giants rookie Jaxson Dart who made the biggest impact as he completed 14 of 16 passes as the lead was extended to 21-6 midway through the third quarter. He connected on a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Dulcich and scored on a quarterback sneak to highlight an encouraging performance.

After a Giants field goal, Gang Green cut it to 24-12 on Quentin Skinner’s diving four-yard touchdown catch from his fellow undrafted rookie Brady Cook.

Another quarterback sneak, this time by Jameis Winston, provided the final margin halfway through the fourth quarter.

Here are the key takeaways…

While the Jets had their starters in on defense, they were without Quinnen Williams, Sauce Gardner and Jermaine Johnson, so not exactly at full strength. Perhaps surprisingly, Braiden McGregor got the start at defensive end with Qwan’tez Stiggers starting in place of Gardner at cornerback.
The Giants were without Malik Nabers, Dexter Lawrence and Deonte Banks. For Banks, who is trying to hold onto his starting role, he lost valuable ground to Cor’Dale Flott, who started in his place and broke up a third-down pass intended for Garrett Wilson.
The Jets’ offensive line was back at full strength with John Simpson returning to start at left guard. Despite the ongoing narrative about a competition with Josh Myers, Joe Tippmann was the first team center. Rookie right tackle Armand Membou, who stayed in for an extra series when the backups entered, was badly beaten on a slick inside pass rush by Kayvon Thibodeaux but made some good contributions in the running game.
Giants rookie defensive lineman Abdul Carter had his own welcome-to-the-NFL moment as he was lit up by Jets tight end Stone Smartt coming out of his stance on one play. Carter was in on one run that was stopped at the line, though.
Wide receiver Jalin Hyatt needs a strong preseason to make the Giants’ roster, and he impressed with good route running to get open for a 21-yard catch working against Stiggers. It was a difficult game for Stiggers, who was involved in a coverage mix-up on the long play to Collins that set up the first touchdown, although he did later bounce back with an end zone interception as Wilson and Collins weren’t on the same page. The Giants ended up with 399 passing yards.
One positive for the Jets was that their discipline was much better this week. Penalties had been a concern after the Jets, who led the league in many penalty categories last year, had 10 last week in Green Bay. However, they didn’t have any in the first quarter and ended up with just seven.
One interesting wrinkle for the Giants was that they used Elijah Chatman as a fullback a few times. Chatman, who also started at defensive tackle, was effective within that role and it could be something the Giants do during the regular season.
Rookie Arian Smith had an up-and-down day as he caught two passes for 39 yards but was unable to hang onto two other catchable balls, although one of these looked like it may have been pass interference. The rookie’s hands were a concern in college but haven’t been an issue so far in camp, so this is worth paying attention to. His namesake, Brandon Smith, helped his roster chances with five catches, four of which were in the first half.
An undrafted safety on each team bounced back after making a key mistake in their debut last week. After giving up a long completion just before halftime last week, Giants safety Makari Paige responded nicely with a diving interception of Jets’ backup Adrian Martinez. For the Jets, Dean Clark had a missed tackle that led to a long touchdown run last week but had a sack and a pass breakup in the red zone to force the Giants to settle for a field goal, then intercepted a Tommy DeVito pass with 3:24 to go.
When the Jets signed tackle Chukwuma Okorafor during the offseason, there was some speculation that he might be in the mix to start for them. This was, of course, before they had drafted Membou. Right now, Okorafor doesn’t even look like a sure thing to make the team after he gave up a pressure that led to an interception and was beaten badly and called for a hold on another pass rush.

Here are the key takeaways…

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