It’s Pats-Jets Week. Here We Go!
Monday, January 10, 2011
It’s “Jets Week” and here are the things you should be looking for in the coming days and, of course, on game day next Sunday:
-Rex Ryan, when not sucking on his wife’s toes, will stick his foot in his mouth. As hard as he may try, you just know that he will say something that will create a stir leading up to Sunday’s game. He’ll probably try to back off of his comments about Brady not studying as much as Peyton Manning, but he’ll still say something to fan the flames of this great rivalry. As Jason Taylor said on CBS Sunday, “he writes some pretty big checks that we have to go out there and cash.”
-Ryan’s players may also be good for a bulletin board nugget or two this week. One thing’s for sure, they will try to convince themselves and all of us that the 45-3 beatdown they suffered at the hands of the Patriots in week 13 means nothing. They might be right. But they will have to prove it to us on Sunday.
-It will also be business as usual in Foxboro this week where the chances of an inflammatory comment about the Jets coming out of Gillette Stadium are about as great as Rex Ryan choosing the salad bar over an all you can eat buffet.
-Quietly, however, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will do their very best to see to it that Ryan and the Jets eat their words on Sunday. Don’t think for a moment that Tom Terrific didn’t take to heart what Ryan said about him last week. As if Brady’s competitive fire needed to be stoked. It should be a raging inferno come game time.
-LaDanian Tomlinson will do the best to bite his tongue this week, but this man hates the Patriots with a passion. It all goes back to his days in San Diego when his Chargers talked trash leading up to their divisional playoff game in San Diego following the 2006 season. After a 24-21 Patriots win, some New England players mimicked Shawne Merriman’s “lights out” dance at midfield. Tomlinson and his teammates were furious with the Patriots. It was a simple lesson in, “if you want to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.” San Diego did a lot of talking leading up to the game but failed to back it up with a victory. The Pats remained silent all week, went to San Diego and won on the Chargers’ home turf. It was at that point that they decided to celebrate and talk a little smack and Tomlinson did not like it.
-On the field, you would think that the Jets will try their best to do exactly what they did in the second half of their win over Indianapolis. In that game, the Jets ran the ball very effectively in the second half which kept Peyton Manning and the Colts offense on the sidelines. It will be up to Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo & Company to see to it that this does not happen Sunday in Foxboro.
-Brady and the Pats offense need to be prepared for one of two things: either an aggressive defense that will be blitzing all afternoon or one that decides to drop extra men into coverage against the Patriots receivers. In either case, Brady is going to have to be ready to dissect both as he did in week 13. Whether it’s Welker, Branch, Hernandez, Gronkowski, Woodhead or someone else, the Pats will have mismatches to exploit in the passing game and will need to do that in order to win this game.
-Tom Brady is (14-4) in the playoffs as compared to the man he is often compared to – Peyton Manning, who is (9-10) in the postseason.
-The Jets’ Mark Sanchez is (3-1) as a playoff starter. While his overall statistics don’t wow you, the kid has shown the ability to get the job done in the clutch. He’s somewhat reminiscent of a young Brady in that regard.
-Turnovers will be huge on Sunday. The Patriots have has a record setting year by taking care of the football while turning over their opponents. If that trend continues, the Pats will roll. If the Jets can force a couple of turnovers, they could walk out of Foxboro with the big upset.
-The crowd at Gillette Stadium should have no trouble getting up for this game thanks to all of the history between these two franchises. Pats fans were ready for that week 13 blowout and need to amp it up this Sunday to make life difficult for Sanchez and the Jets offense. Sometimes Gillette Stadium isn’t the loudest or the best home field in the NFL. That cannot be the case for this game.
-No matter who wins this game, they’re in for a rock fight the following week in the AFC Championship game. Pittsburgh hosts Baltimore in the other AFC Divisional playoff game. Both teams feature good, tough, physical defenses.
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