A bleak New York turns its lonely eyes to a team that has a losing record; that in fact has had a losing record seven years straight; that has lost its prized quarterback and that generally has been a running joke around the NFL for nearly a decade.
Can the Jets, of all teams, save us and ensure fall sports in this city will be relevant?
The Yankees couldn’t. The Mets couldn’t. The Giants — 31-16 losers Sunday afternoon to fall to 1-4 — sure can’t. The Liberty have started slowly in the WNBA Finals. The NHL and NBA seasons are approaching, but not here yet.
Maybe the Jets can’t, either, but a 31-21 win Sunday in Denver at least keeps Robert Saleh’s 2-3 group in the conversation.
In what otherwise was yet another discouraging day for local teams, it was the Jets — the team that had lost Aaron Rodgers to injury and had lost three straight games — who kept their season alive.
By the time the Jets began play, the Giants already had been manhandled by the Dolphins — and the result might not have qualified as the worst development for Big Blue, which also might have lost Daniel Jones to a neck injury.
The Liberty were on their way to a blowout loss to the Aces. The Yankees’ and Mets’ disastrous seasons essentially have been over for months and actually over for a week.
The Jets entered the second half down, 13-8, having ended the first half by bungling the clock and allowing a promising drive to finish without any points. They were on the verge of joining a crowded garbage can of New York teams, on the verge of inspiring draft talk and tanking talk.
And then the Jets perhaps saved their season and perhaps stumbled upon their new (and old) blueprint to winning games. If the Jets’ defense is as good as it looked in the second half — and as good as the unit promised it could be — and Breece Hall is Breece Hall again, the Jets can thrive in a fashion that would make Rex Ryan proud.
Early in the third quarter, Zach Wilson handed to Hall and watched the second-year star burst through a hole and run past the entire Broncos secondary for a game-changing, 72-yard touchdown. Hall sure looked like the player who was on his way to becoming the Offensive Rookie of the Year last year before he tore his ACL (also in Denver).
“He’s pretty good, isn’t he,” Saleh said after a game in which the Jets removed the training wheels from Hall. He no longer played with any snap restrictions that stemmed from the surgery.
The Jets are a different team when Hall can touch the ball repeatedly, which he did in running 22 times for 177 yards and catching three passes for 17 more.
His speed put the Jets on top, and their defense kept them there.
The Jets held Russell Wilson to 169 yards passing, the majority of which came in the fourth quarter when the Jets played safer with a lead.
Any positives from the Broncos quarterback’s fourth quarter were stripped in the final minute, when blitzing linebacker Quincy Williams flushed Wilson out of the pocket and then delivered a strip-sack. Bryce Hall scooped up the ball and ran 36 yards for the final score.
The celebration — focused around offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, in his return to Denver — could begin.
Maybe the Jets’ defense can be the kind of dynamic and imposing unit that its offense hoped to be under Rodgers. Maybe their deep defensive line can continue to create consistent pressure, a defensive backfield led by Sauce Gardner can come away with plenty of takeaways.
Maybe not. The Broncos’ offense is nothing special, and the Jets’ defense has been merely solid too often in the first few weeks.
Maybe Hall, fully past the operating table, can run his way to a Pro Bowl season as the Jets become a ground attack and simply ask Zach Wilson not to lose games.
Maybe not. Alijah Vera-Tucker, the Jets’ best offensive lineman, is due for an MRI on a calf injury and would loom as a significant loss.
Maybe this game will turn the tide for the Jets, who undoubtedly have talent.
Maybe not, and the undefeated Eagles invade MetLife Stadium next week. The heavy odds will be that the Jets enter their bye week just 2-4.
But that’s next week. For this week, there is at least a trace of hope in New York — from a source that has largely been hopeless for a decade.
Today’s back page
Sunday scaries
Speaking of hopeless, here’s a quick, minute-by-minute breakdown of a Sunday that started poorly and got worse until the Jets saved the day:
11:40 a.m.: Saquon Barkley is officially ruled out for the Giants, his third straight game missed with an ankle sprain.
2:45 p.m.: After the Giants hung in the game for the first half, the Dolphins gain separation quickly in the second. The Giants leave rookie cornerback Tre Hawkins III on an island with Tyreek Hill, which rarely ends well. Hill catches a 69-yard pass from Tua Tagovailoa, and the game is just about over.
3:38 p.m.: The game is about to end; is the Giants’ season over, too? Daniel Jones is ruled out for the rest of the game with a neck injury sustained on one of the six sacks the Dolphins racked up. He has been sacked 22 times in five games, the second-most in the NFL. Later, Jones tells reporters his injury feels similar to the neck injury that forced him to miss the final six games of the 2021 season and led to a procedure.
As the game becomes final, the Giants have been outscored, 125-31, in their four losses this season.
4:34 p.m.: With the Giants losers and the Jets losing, the Orioles’ Aaron Hicks hits a two-run single against the Rangers’ Jordan Montgomery. Hicks later would add a three-run home run to finish with five RBIs. Though Montgomery did not pitch well, he pitched better than Orioles rookie Grayson Rodriguez in a Rangers victory.
A poor season has become a poor offseason for Yankees GM Brian Cashman.
5:16 p.m.: The Liberty — who had been up three at the half — fall apart late in a 99-82 loss in Las Vegas to dig a 1-0 hole in the WNBA Finals.
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello told reporters the Aces’ defense, particularly during third and fourth quarters as the Liberty scored a combined 33 points, “was as good as I’ve ever seen it.”
Brondello’s crew is in the same hole it dug in the semifinals before ripping off three straight wins against the Sun.
Rust falls
Through six Division Series games, the top-seeded teams — the ones that opened the series at home and entered the postseason with a bye — are 1-5.
Only the Astros, knotted at 1-1 with the Twins, have taken a game from an opponent that had won a wild-card series. The AL’s No. 1 seed, the Orioles, are down 2-0 to the Rangers. The NL’s No. 1 seed, the Braves, are down 1-0 to the Phillies, and the NL’s No. 2 seed, the Dodgers, are down 1-0 to the Diamondbacks.
Did nearly a full week of rest lead to rust for baseball’s best?
It’s at least a possibility under the new playoff style in which four teams earn byes, and it will be curious to see whether the higher-seeded teams begin complaining about the layoff.
Still, the Astros have not had to face Minnesota’s Sonny Gray yet because he was burned in the wild-card round; the Phillies essentially turned their Game 1 victory over Spencer Strider’s Braves into a bullpen game because Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola had been used to knock off the Marlins.
It still feels as if the bye should serve as a large advantage, but it has not played out that way thus far.
What we’re reading
🏒 Adam Fox will wear the ‘A’ this season, an overdue recognition of his Rangers leadership role.
🏀 The Post’s Stefan Bondy breaks down the battle for the Knicks’ final roster spots.
🏈 Say this for the Giants: At least they’re not the Patriots!
🏈 Miami’s Mario Cristobal was “the leader of the bonehead brigade,” The Post’s Zach Braziller writes in his takedown of college football coaching.
🥇 Simone Biles, four gold medals. Take a bow.
⚽ Arsenal 1, Manchester City 0 — and the Premier League race is on.