Game Preview: Jets v. Saints

The Jets travel down to New Orleans on Sunday to take on the offensive juggernaut of the Saints. The Jets defense will have their hands full at 4:00 Sunday as the Saints come into the game with the best offense in the league. The spread of Jets +7 seems to be spot on and right around where I think the game is going to be. The Saints should beat the Jets on their home field and I would be very surprised if the Jets came out and were able to win this one.

Here are a few thoughts on the game...

• Rex Ryan v. Sean Payton.. This is a great coaching matchup and will ultimately decide the game for both teams. Payton is an offensive mastermind who has the Saints offense playing as well as anybody in the league. However, he is going up against one of the great defensive minds of our day. Ryan will have a ton of blitz schemes ready to get pressure on Drew Brees. This is a fascinating matchup and it will be interesting to see whether the offense of Payton or the defense of Ryan wins out.

• Will the pressure rattle Drew Brees? This is one question that I have been trying to figure out all week. Drew Brees is traditionally very good when being blitzed because he takes a quick drop and has a quick release. This allows him to find open receivers before the blitz reaches him. This Jets defense will attack Brees and attempt to rattle him. They will overload to one side and will send multiple people at one blocker in an attempt to get pressure. The consistency of this pressure will decide the game.

• Lito Sheppard and Donald Strickland are both out for this Sunday's game. This is a disappointing announcement coming from the Jets today as Ryan seemed fairly optimistic about Sheppard all week. This is going to place an added pressure on the rest of the Jets DB's and will force them to take on larger, more prominent roles than they are used to. This could spell disaster for the Jets if Brees gets hot and they can't generate enough pressure.
  

Players to Watch:

• Mark Sanchez is going to have to win this game with his arm. I expect the Jets to come out semi-conservative in the first half in an attempt to eat clock and keep the Saints offense off the field. However, the Saints will end up scoring and Sanchez will have to start throwing the ball more than he has in the past 3 games. Based on how he has played in his first 3 NFL games (3 straight rookie of the week awards) I am not all that worried about opening up the offense a little more for him.

• Drew Coleman will have to step in for Strickland and Sheppard and play a good game. He played pretty well last week and he needs to maintain that, or play above that, in this game. The Saints have a potent offense and Brees likes to hit a lot of different receivers.
  

• Thomas Jones and Leon Washington will both have to have solid games on Sunday if the Jets hope to win. The key to beating New Orleans is keeping their offense off the field by eating up clock. Jones is going to need to put in a much better effort than previous weeks or the Jets are in trouble.

My Game Thoughts:

I am predicting a Jets loss this weekend. The combination of a great Saints offense, an overachieving defense, and the home crowd will be a little too much for the jets to handle. I predict that they will keep the game fairly close through the beginning and lose it around the 3rd quarter. If the Jets hope to win this game the defense will need to knock Brees around and frustrate him.

My Prediction:

Saints: 28
Jets: 17