Patriots want it, too, but Jets need it more

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Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Mike Parente, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

This might be as tough a game to pick as we’ve had in weeks – maybe years. To put it all in context, Monday Night’s showdown between the 9-2 New York Jets and 9-2 New England Patriots marks just the fourth time that two teams with 9-2 records have faced one another in the 41-year history of Monday Night Football. And it’s only the sixth time in NFL history that a team with a 5-0 road record will square off against a team that’s 5-0 at home.

No matter how you spin the numbers, this game is big – so big that Bill Belichick has taken the preventative measure of warning his players about the distractions they’ll face this week from not only the New England and New York media, but from the scavengers at ESPN as well.

The winner takes sole possession of first place in the division with four weeks to go and also grabs at least a one-game edge in the race for the No. 1 seed in the AFC, which guarantees a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

The latter might seem more important to the Patriots, who haven’t lost a regular-season home game under Tom Brady since 2008, but the Jets have more to prove on Monday night. They already won their installment of this annual rivalry at the New Meadowlands Stadium in September, and if the Patriots do the same this week, it tells us nothing about the testicular fortitude of either team. Road wins build character, and it’d be a tremendous boost for the Jets if they can invade Gillette Stadium and snap Brady’s 25-game win streak at home. They’d basically have a two-game lead in the AFC East, too, because they would have swept the season series, thus giving them the advantage in the event of a tie-breaker.

We have an idea of what the Patriots can do when the calendar hits January. Though he’s struggled of late, Brady is still 14-4 lifetime in the playoffs, and Belichick is as feared by opposing quarterbacks as any coach in NFL history. More importantly, the Patriots have withstood the pressure of being the No. 1 team with the target on its back, winning back-to-back Super Bowls in 2003 and ’04 after winning 14 games in each of those seasons.

Until now, the Jets haven’t faced this kind of pressure. The hype started during the preseason when they appeared on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” documentary in which TV cameras followed them around throughout training camp, capturing all their inner-most thoughts. Throughout the show, the Jets reflected the hopes, aspirations and infectious swagger of their head coach Rex Ryan, who signed reporter Adam Schefter’s training camp tour bus with the tagline, “Soon to be champs” in August.

Ryan’s lofty predictions have drawn what some coaches might consider unnecessary – and unwanted – coverage from the national media, but the Jets have answered every challenge so far. At 9-2, they’re tied with New England and Atlanta for the best record in the NFL. They’ve won on the road. They’ve won in overtime. They’ve won in overtime on the road – in back-to-back weeks, to be exact, making them the first team in league history to do so.

What they haven’t done all that often is win convincingly, which is something the Patriots have done with ease of late. While the Jets have had to eek out wins against the Lions, Bengals and Texans, the Patriots enter Monday’s game on a three-game win streak with blowouts against the Steelers and Lions sandwiched around a nail-biter against the Indianapolis Colts. Their recent play, coupled with the fact this game is on their turf, is a major reason why the Patriots are 3 ½-point favorites; and it’s why most of the pressure is on New York to prove its bark is as big as its bite.

Last year was much different. Last year, the Jets started 5-6 and then snuck into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season with a blowout win over the Bengals, who had already wrapped up a playoff berth before the game, leading some to suggest they weren’t pushing as hard as they would have if they needed to win. As an underdog with no pressure on its shoulders – a team many felt didn’t belong there in the first place – New York surged all the way to the conference title game before losing to Indianapolis.

Now the stakes are much higher. The Jets are in a position where they need to walk the walk since they’ve already talked the talk. And even though second-year quarterback Mark Sanchez started three playoffs games last year, you could argue that Monday’s game might be the biggest of his career based on the fact more is expected of him now than what was expected of him at this time last season. With 16 touchdowns, only eight interceptions and a passer-rating that has improved by nearly 20 points this season, Sanchez is no longer the quarterback everyone expects to fail. We’ve seen him come through in big spots this year in the fourth quarter of games the Jets were on the verge of losing. As unfair as it may seem based on the sample size, a game like Monday’s is the kind that can define a legacy long before it has a chance to define itself.

Brady wants this game as badly, if not more, than Sanchez, but it’s Sanchez and the Jets who need it the most. The ball’s in their court, even if the game is in New England’s backyard.

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