Without Kris Jenkins, Rex Ryan and Jets Will Continue Nose Dive

Rewind to three weeks ago. The New York Jets were 3-0, and many people, myself included started jumping on the bandwagon. After all, they'd beaten the New England Patriots, and their Defense was playing incredible.

Boy, can things change in the NFL over the course of a few weeks. Now they seem like the same old Jets. You know; the team that gets your hopes up, only to let you down hard.

Mark Sanchez started off as well as anyone could hope for a rookie QB; playing with confidence and easily winning the hearts of Jets fans.

However, in the last three games he's been the main reason for two of the Jets' losses, combining for eight interceptions against the New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills.

Sanchez will continue to start, though, and hopefully he'll rebound when the Jets face the Oakland Raiders this week.

More troubling than the Sanchez situation, however, the Jets have lost nose tackle, Kris Jenkins, with a season-ending knee injury. 

Jenkins was an integral part of the Jets defense, and was the last person they could afford to lose. Without the big nose tackle the Jets 3-4 defense will suffer against the run.

It doesnt help that their next few games are against teams who run the ball well, and feature good running backs.

The Raiders are considered one of the leagues' worst teams, but they did just beat the Philadelphia Eagles, in a game where they rushed for 116 yards.

Jets cornerback, Lito Sheppard, will not play this week against the Raiders, and defensive end, Shaun Ellis, is questionable. So, a weakened Jets defense might not be able to hold down the Raiders running game that includes Darren Mcfadden, Michael Bush and Justin Fargas.

After the Raiders they'll face the Dolphins, and after a bye week the Jaguars. The Dolphins, who used the "Wildcat" to beat the Jets just a week ago, should run all over the Jets using Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams extensively.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but the Jets could very easily end up with a 3-5 record heading into their bye.