Noise.
There can be so much noise when quiet and calm are the better-served reactions.
This is not going to be one of those times.
The Giants are desperate to finally put together back-to-back wins.
The Jets, coming off their bye week, are eager to show they can be more than just a middling team.
These sides clash Sunday at the MetLife Stadium home they share and, above all else, conflicting noise — and more than a few raindrops — will be part of the proceedings in what is a home game for the Giants.
“There’ll probably be hopefully a ton of Giants fans there, I’m assuming they are,’’ Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “They’ve been great all year. Obviously, there’ll be some Jets fans there. Got a lot of respect for this tradition, the competitiveness. Every four years, we get a chance to play one another in the regular season, so anticipate it being loud.’’
This will be the 15th regular-season meeting (the Giants lead the series 8-6) between franchises, which have met every summer since 1969 (other than the 2020 pandemic year) in the preseason.
The owners are friendly and business partners, with joint ownership of the stadium they built together, but there is no doubt Steve Tisch and John Mara do not want to play second-fiddle to Woody Johnson and the Jets.
There is that long standing big-brother aura the Giants like to cultivate.
There is the real or imagined second-citizen status (it was called Giants Stadium, remember?) the Jets desire to wipe clean.
“Big brother, little brother, whatever that is,” Jets defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers said. “At the end of the day, I just want to be the winner. I don’t give a f–-k about no big brother, little brother, small, medium, large.’’
Sterling Shepard, the longest-tenured Giants player — this is his eighth season — said it is an unspoken truth: “Everybody knows the importance of the game.’’
He said he can feel it from the top down and also within the fanbase.
“It brings a little bit more hype to the game, being two teams in New York and trying to see who’s the better one,’’ Shepard said. “You see [Jets players] out at dinner from time to time. Lot of us use the same drivers, so you kind of run into them every now and then.’’
Both teams braced for a few bumps on the accent of the season, realizing the early portion would be exceedingly demanding.
Both teams view this current stretch, with the quality of the opponent taking a dip, as a chance to stack a few wins.
The Jets overcame the loss of anticipated franchise-savior Aaron Rodgers four snaps into the season to get to their bye week at 3-3.
Beating the Bills, handing the Eagles their only loss of the season as well as taking the Chiefs to the wire are highlights on a 2023 ledger that is decidedly more impressive than what the Giants have on their résumé.
The 2-5 Giants at are on shaky footing.
There are four one-sided losses, a desperation comeback to overtake the Cardinals, a close-call loss in Buffalo and an inelegant 14-7 victory over the Commanders last week to snap a four-game losing streak.
This will be a battle of the backup quarterbacks.
Tyrod Taylor will start for the third straight game — subbing for Daniel Jones, who remains out with a neck issue, not yet cleared for contact.
Taylor played well but made a monumental mishap at the 1-yard line in a 14-9 loss to the Bills and a week later tossed two touchdown passes to finally get the Giants in the end zone.
Jets QB Zach Wilson commands the NFLs lowest-rated passing attack (159.5 yards per game) but has cleaned up his act, with no interceptions in three of his past four starts, leaning on a running game to get by.
“I think it’s really cool for the fans, I think it’s great for sports talk radio and all the different newspaper outlets and all that, but it’s a championship opportunity,’’ Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “Lot of respect for them, they’ve got a tremendous history.
“It’s my first experience, so I’ll let you know after the game, I guess.’’
There will be blue. There will be green. And noise. Plenty of noise.