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The Giants started off 5-0, but have lost three games in a row and been outscored 112-61. It's the most points they've given up in a three-game stretch since 1973. Now they have the Chargers coming in Sunday. Can you imagine Tom Coughlin's mood if the streak hits four as the Giants enter the bye week? He might not give them a day off.

The Jets wasted their 3-0 start and reached their bye at 4-4. That means they've lost four of their last five games, including that rough one against the Dolphins last week. Rex Ryan elected to have the players come in Monday and then gave them six days off.

That's an interesting concept. I'm not sure I've seen that too many times before. Coaches will usually have the players stick around and practice until Thursday of the bye week and then give them a three-day weekend. The Jets have been at this since reporting to camp on July 30, so perhaps giving them a mental health break will help them as much as giving them a physical break.

After such a promising start to the season with victories over the Texans, Patriots and Titans, the Jets' undefeated season ended in New Orleans, just as the Giants' did two weeks later. At the beginning of the year, if you said the Jets would reach the midpoint of the season at 4-4, it would have been considered a success, especially with a rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez.

But the Jets raised expectations, particularly when they beat New England in the second week. They have since lost three straight AFC East games, including two to the Dolphins. The latest one on Sunday was ludicrous: The Jets held Miami to 104 yards offense, but during a stretch of more than 12 minutes in the third quarter when the Dolphins did not have one offensive snap, they scored three touchdowns -two on kickoff returns by Ted Ginn Jr., and one on a fumble recovery by Jason Taylor.

Here's my major complaint with Ryan: He has a coaching arrogance, a belief that his guys are better than your guys and that it doesn't matter what they do because we will stop you. That philosophy sometimes should be overruled by common sense.

After Ginn's 100-yard kickoff return, common sense screamed: Don't kick it to him again, especially because Miami's offense couldn't get out of its own way. So, what do the Jets do? They kicked it to Ginn again. This time he didn't take it back 100 yards. He took it back 101 yards. The Jets actually kicked it to Ginn the next two times following scores, but escaped.

Ryan obviously does not believe in two things: Overruling special teams coach Mike Westhoff; and the value of squib kicks. When career assistants become head coaches, the great unknown is how they will handle the game management aspect of the job. Ryan is a good motivator, he's very good preparing his team, but he needs work on his game day skills.

Sanchez has had the typical ups and downs of a rookie quarterback. The Jets are investing in their future by playing Sanchez now and letting him learn. Whenever a quarterback plays for the first time, whether it's the first game of his rookie year, later that year, or even in his second year, he invariably is going to struggle. So, the Jets are better getting this tough part with Sanchez out of the way now. It may not pay off with a playoff spot this year, but they will be a much better team in 2010 because of it.

And that's not to say the Jets can't make the playoffs this year. I think it's going to be tough to stop New England from winning the division, but the Jets should be in the middle of the wild-card race for most of the rest of the season. They come back from the bye and play the Jaguars at home before a big game at the Patriots the following week.

The Giants are a big disappointment and it now looks like their 5-0 start was a product of their weak schedule. As it turns out, their only quality victory came in the second week against the Cowboys. Their other victories are against the Redskins, Bucs, Chiefs and Raiders. They don't throw any parades for beating those teams. And they've been exposed by the Saints, Cardinals and Eagles.

The defense has had so many key injuries, but I think if Eli Manning can snap out of his own three-game slump, the Giants can overcome what is going on with the other side of the ball. Manning denies his foot injury has impacted his mechanics throwing the ball, so we'll just call it a bad funk that he's in. In the last three games, he's thrown six interceptions and lost a fumble. Prior to the last three games, he looked like an MVP candidate.

After playing the Chargers and taking a week off, the Giants don't have it easy. They have the Falcons at home, at the Broncos on Thanksgiving night, then the Cowboys and Eagles at home. Coughlin better figure out very quickly how to fix the problems.

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The dismissal of George Kokinis as general manager of the Browns raises the issue of Eric Mangini's job security as the Browns coach. Kokinis was Mangini's hand-picked choice for the job and he lasted just a half a season. I'm still not sure why Browns owner Randy Lerner felt compelled to hire Mangini just 10 days after he was let go by the Jets. And I think Mangini might have benefitted by going to work as a defensive coordinator for a couple of years before he became a head coach again ... Cleveland has scored just five offensive touchdowns in its 1-7 start. Saints safety Darren Sharper has scored three touchdowns by himself on interception returns ... Brett Favre surprised me. I thought he would play poorly in the Vikings two games against the Packers. Why? I felt he would be so excited for those games he would make a bunch of mistakes. Instead, Favre threw seven touchdowns and was not intercepted or sacked in the two victories. Very impressive. If Favre stays healthy, doesn't wear down and plays at this pace into January, then the Vikings can get to the Super Bowl. I just don't know if he can keep it up ... Two big division games this weekend: Dallas at Philadelphia and Miami at New England. The Cowboys are different team when Tony Romo doesn't throw interceptions. The Pats have scored 94 points in their last two games, although it came against the Titans and Bucs.