Jets v. Bills Pregame

The Jets will return home after two weeks to take on their division rival the Buffalo Bills.  The Jets are coming off an extremely disappointing Monday night performance against the Miami Dolphins and the Bills are coming off an even worse loss against the Cleveland Browns in a game where neither team seemed to want to win.  The word out of the Jets this week is that they are moving on and forgetting about last week.  The Bills come into the Meadowlands playing some of the worst football in the NFL.  They lost a game last week where they only allowed 2 completed passes by the opposing quarterback.  The Jets should have their way with them at 1 P.M. Sunday but anything can happen in division matchups.

What to watch for:

• Can the Jets grab the momentum early?  An early lead should go a long way in the Jets securing this win.  No game in the NFL is easy and if you allow a team like the Bills to make a few plays early it can result in them gaining momentum and potentially pulling off the upset.  The Jets defense will come out attacking and they are going to force Trent Edwards to beat the blitz by passing the ball.  The Bills have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL so don't expect a repeat performance of Monday night when Miami offensive lineman were blowing people off the line of scrimmage.  

• How will the Jets defensive leaders respond after last weeks terrible showing?  Bart Scott, Kerry Rhodes, and Kris Jenkins (among others) are the key leaders of this Jets defense and  I think they will be out for revenge after their poor showing in front of a national television audience.  I think  they will come out playing with a passion and physicality that will not allow the Bills to get any momentum.  I am expecting to see a defense that looks like the one who shut down the Texans.  

• I was wrong about this last week but it looks like Jerricho Cotchery is really not playing in this game.  He seemed to be out there as a decoy on Monday night and Sanchez was really not targeting him that much in the passing game.  It appears that he aggravated the injury during the game and he has been held out of practice all week.  On another injury note, Lito Sheppard will return at full strength and Donald Strickland appears to be sitting another one out as he is only back to practice in a limited capacity.

Players to watch...

• Braylon Edwards came up huge in the Monday night game making several spectacular catches.  I expect even better things this week as Edwards now has had a whole week and a half to study the Jets playbook.  He will have to make some plays with Cotchery out and I expect the Bills to roll all their coverages to his side.  This should open up some running lanes for Leon Washington and Thomas Jones.

• Darelle Revis is the Jets MVP so far and should be on a short list for MVP in the league.  He has played at an incredibly high level and I expect him to bottle up Terrell Owens this week.  When you can only point out one bad play a cornerback has made in four weeks, you know that he is playing extraordinary.  Revis is the top cornerback in the league (sorry Asomugha) and he shouldn't have a problem with Owens this Sunday.

• I can guarantee that Rex Ryan did not get a lot of sleep this week after his defensive game plan blew up in his face and allowed the Dolphins to come back 3 separate times in the 4th quarter.  Ryan will have an improved scheme for this week and I expect great results.  

Game Thoughts:

The Bills are not a good football team and I find it hard to believe that they will come into New York and find a way to win this game.  However, this is the NFL and crazy things do seem to happen every week so I will not look past this game and I don't think the Jets players are either.  I am expecting huge games out of both the offense and the defense and I expect that the Bills weak offensive line will be their downfall.

Prediction:
Jets- 24
Bills- 3