Patriots at Jets

It's that time of week again as Thursday is upon us. Here is my weekly preview of the Jets matchup.

Things to Watch For:

• In the recent years there has always been one thing to watch for after every Jets-Patriots game: the handshake. This year is no different as the Jets and Rex Ryan have made a splash in the media with some bold, confident statements about the upcoming game. Rex Ryan started out the fun by saying that, "I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick's, you know, rings," Ryan said. "I came to win. Let's just put it that way. So we'll see what happens. I'm certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else." The talking continued with Kris Jenkins saying this week that the Jets will be preparing for this like its their Super Bowl. Kerry Rhodes jumped into the fun by saying that the Jets want to "embarrass" the Pats on Sunday. Now, these statements have been generating a lot of talk between Jets and Patriots fans. However, there isn't one statement that a Jet has said that has disrespected the Patriots or anything they have done. Rex Ryan simply came in with the objective of not worrying about Bill Belichek and the mystique of his unbeatable team. Ryan simply came on confident and focused on his own objective. If Bill Belichek refuses to answer a question about another team its just Bill being Bill. When Rex does the same thing (in a little more of a rash manner) it becomes bulletin board material. As far as the other two comments. Kris Jenkins is just saying that this is a huge game for the Jets (which it is) and that they are going to prepare harder than they usually would for a regular season game. I still can't find anything "bulletin board material like" about that. Kerry Rhodes said he wanted to embarrass the Pats. Isn't the objective of every NFL team to go out and embarrass the other team every week. No player in the NFL will take a 3 point win over a 50 point dominating win. He simply said what everyone else is thinking. So again, watch the handshake, it may be based on nothing but I promise it will be interesting.
• The crowd will play a huge factor in the Jets success on Sunday. They have to be in early and they have to be making noise. Nothing pumps these players up more than knowing that they have 50,000 people behind them wreaking havoc for the opponent. We need this noise to slow down the potent passing attack of the Patriots and to keep Brady from being comfortable when making pre-snap reads.

Players to Watch:

• Leon Washington will play a huge factor in Sunday's game. The Patriots had trouble containing the small, speedy Fred Jackson last week and now they will be faced with a player with twice his play-making ability. Washington should pose huge matchup problems for the inexperienced Patriots linebackers and I fully expect him to be well over 150 total yards from scrimmage. The Jets will throw a ton of quick screens (disguised in many ways) to keep the Patriots off balance and Washington should be on the other side of many of those screens.
• Kris Jenkins was bothered by back issues this week but he will play in this game and should be his normal self. He needs to disrupt the Patriots OL and open up lanes for Bart Scott, David Harris, Vernon Gholston and others to rush Tom Brady. If Jenkins can eat up two defenders in the middle it will go a long way in the Jets goal of getting consistent pressure on Brady.
• Kevin Faulk of the Patriots is one player that could have a huge game on Sunday. With the Jets blitz I fully expect Faulk to get 5-7 catches in the game and turn most of those into first downs. This could pose a huge problem in getting the formidable Patriots offense off the field.
• Darelle Revis will have the job of shutting down Randy Moss. Both of these players are key to their reams success and if Revis can shut down Moss the Jets will have a very legitimate shot to win this game.

My Game Thoughts:

How do I think this game will go? It is hard to say what is going to happen Sunday in the Meadowlands. The Jets will show up to play and match up very well on both sides of the ball against the Patriots. The Patriots defense has lost many key members and will be without star linebacker Jerod Mayo on Sunday. This could make them very susceptible to the Jets short passing attack and their heavy dose of running. I think the Jets have the capability to put up over 25 points on Sunday against the Patriots defense. I think the Jets defense will come out strong with a heavy dose of blitzing to try to rattle Brady. I am worried about a second half surge from their offense as Brady and Belichek get adjusted.

My Prediction:

Jets- 23
Patriots 17