Jets vs. Patriots: New England Will Overcome Injuries to Take Charge in AFC East

The New England Patriots' injury report heading into a pivotal AFC East matchup with the New York Jets looks potentially devastating. Despite all the ailments that currently plague the team, the Pats will fight through them and take charge of their deadlocked division.

As the ESPN injury report shows, the status of many key players for the Patriots is up in the air. On offense, wide receiver Wes Welker and tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are listed as questionable. Backup running back Brandon Bolden is out.

The leader of the Pats' secondary, Patrick Chung, is also questionable, as is rookie linebacker Dont'a Hightower, who hasn't played since suffering a hamstring injury at Buffalo in Week 4.

All of these players will likely roll the dice at home with a division lead on the line. But it will have to hurt them moving forward with so many players questionable week to week, without time for them to recover adequately.

The Jets have been dealt some horrendous injury blows themselves, with elite cornerback Darrelle Revis blowing out his knee and Super Bowl MVP receiver Santonio Holmes suffering a season-ending lisfranc injury.

These things happen in football, and they will likely help level the playing field in this intense rivalry. As the Jets' Twitter account points out, though, these two teams almost couldn't play each other more evenly:

"

The Jets are 51-51-1 vs the Patriots in regular season contests. RT if you think we can take the lead tomorrow. #NYJvsNE

— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 20, 2012"

Perhaps the Jets could pull off the upset, but fewer playmakers at the disposal of Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez will be more detrimental to him than it will be for his future Hall of Fame counterpart in Tom Brady.

What's most important is that the New England defensive line is healthy, which is bad news for the Jets. Against an inferior Indianapolis Colts team, New York ran for 252 yards as a team in Week 6. Shonn Greene worked his yards per carry back to respectability in one brilliant outing.

That won't happen in Foxboro. New England has the fifth-best run defense in the league in giving up just under 83 yards per game.

The play of first-round pick Chandler Jones has been particularly good. He has been stout facing the run and edges out fellow top pick Bruce Irvin of the Seattle Seahawks for the sack lead among rookies with five.

Jones will be able to get pressure on Sanchez when he is forced into obvious passing situations. The Patriots' balanced attack of Brady and breakout runner Stevan Ridley will be too much for the New York defense to handle. Because outside of linebacker David Harris, the Jets' front seven is rather weak, and ranks 28th in the NFL against the run.

A strategy of running the ball and stopping the run has been the trademark of the Jets teams under Rex Ryan that have succeeded in his short tenure as coach.

Ironically, the Patriots will utilize the same tactics to overcome injuries to their skill positions and send the Jets flying home with a tough loss.