Are you ready for some football? This Monday night the New York Jets will host the Baltimore Ravens in the first of two Monday Night Football matchups. Rex Ryan will lead the New York Jets against the defense he helped create in Baltimore, in what should be an entertaining first game of the season.

Looking at the NFL odds for this game, the oddsmakers have the New York Jets two-point favorites over the Ravens with the over/under sitting at 36 points.

After an impressive run in the postseason last year, the New York Jets come into the 2010 season with high expectations of not only getting back to the playoffs, but winning the Super Bowl.

The Jets have made a number of moves this offseason to bolster their chances, but none was more important than the recent agreement the team made with Pro Bowl corner Darrelle Revis, who held out the entire preseason.

With Revis back and the offseason additions of Antonio Cromartie, Kyle Wilson, and Brodney Pool, the Jets secondary is one scary unit, and you know Ryan is going to blitz the crap out of opposing teams and let his playmakers go to work.

The Jets also made an interesting move at running back this offseason, as they essentially replaced Thomas Jones and Leon Washington with future Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson. While Shonn Greene is going to be the workhorse, Tomlinson will give Sanchez a nice third down back who can catch passes out of the backfield and move the chains.

The Jets also added wide receiver Santonio Holmes, but he is suspended the first four games of the season. As good as the Jets look, it is all going to come down to the play of quarterback Mark Sanchez, who did play well late in the year, but he is also the same guy that threw for just 12 touchdowns to 20 interceptions. If Sanchez can step up his game, the Jets are going to without question be one of the elite teams in the AFC this season.

The Ravens also have high hopes of making the Super Bowl this season, and while the defense is still pretty good, it’s the offense that is going to cause problems for the opposing teams.

The Ravens have one of the best young running backs in the game in Ray Rice, but really added some weapons in the passing game for quarterback Joe Flacco, as the Ravens traded for Anquan Boldin and recently signed wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

The Ravens defense is going to be missing a very key player in this game, as safety Ed Reed is on the PUP until at least Week 7. The Ravens could also be without rookie defensive lineman Terrence Cody, as he is questionable for this week's game.

The defense still features one of the best middle linebackers in the game in Ray Lewis, but it will be outside linebacker Terrelle Suggs that really plays a big role in how good this defense is. Suggs must improve on his 4.5 sack total of 2009 for this defense to really be a force this season.


Looking at the Odds: I think you have to take the Ravens and the two points in this one, as I think they are one of the few teams that really matchup well with the Jets. I don’t think the Jets are going to have a ton of success running the ball against the Ravens defense, and I think the Ravens have one of the few offenses that can put points up on the board against a very good Jets defense.

With that, I think the Ravens will win this game outright, so it might not be a bad idea to just bet the money line and avoid having to pay the juice on the spread. My final score prediction is Baltimore 24-Jets 17.


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