08/23 — The first quarter of this 40th annual Jets-Giants preseason game was memorable not because of any throws by Brett Favre or Eli Manning but by the Jets' first sacks of the year by their starting defense.

Calvin Pace made his nicest move yet as a Jet on the Giants' opening drive to the Jets 33. Pace, who had a career-high 6.5 sacks for the Cardinals last year, showed his fluidity by hand-fighting with and then spinning off of Giants starting LT David Diehl and then closing the distance to QB Eli Manning, trying to escape to his right.

It was only a 2-yard sack, but it was the Jets' first QB takedown of the first half in their third preseason game, and it helped stall the Giants and force a punt.

On Big Blue's next series, the Green & White kept coming. This time LB David Harris, after a one-beat delay, took off from his inside perch — something he did expertly in the second half of last season in accumulating five sacks. The Giants' center and left guard went different directions, and RB Brandon Jacobs blew the blitz pickup as Harris roared down Paterson Plank Road for the 10-yard sack, which helped set up another Giants punt in a defensive-flavored first half.

Finally, in the last minute of the first half, Pace fought past Diehl again for a huge sack of Manning on third-and-goal from the Jets 8, forcing the Giants to try to break the tie not on a TD or a 26-yard field goal by Josh Huston (in for the injured Lawrence Tynes) but rather a 42-yard FG by Huston. His kick faded wide right.

And so, after Favre's kneeldown with seven seconds left to end the half, the Jets and Giants took a 0-0 tie into their locker rooms.

Here are the Jets' sacks by quarters so far this preseason, through halftime of tonight's game:

As far as Favre goes, even though his four first-half possessions produced no points, it was almost a superb half, had his 49-yard TD strike to Jerricho Cotchery with 3:52 to play in the half had stood.

TE Bubba Franks stepped away from the line and went in half-motion as Favre took the snap and looked left, looked left ... then unleashed a laser strike for Cotchery, who had beaten CB Kevin Dockery down the right sideline.

But the call by referee Jerome Boger's crew was an illegal formation. This is one of those calls in which the player flagged is not the guilty party. When Franks stepped back to go in motion, the WR on the far left, who I believe was Brad Smith, needed to step up to cover the LT and make the formation legal again.

But no matter whom the penalty was on, the Jets lost a great opportunity to break the scoreless tie in this defensive struggle.

Even without the 49-yard TD pass, Favre's first-half passing line was good: 9-for-12 for 96 yards, good for a 97.9 passer rating. The big beneficiary of No. 4's passing was, in fact, B.Smith, who had two receptions for 37 yards and would've had a third, off of an amazing one-handed grab for 29 yards, wiped out by an illegal shift.