New York Jets-New England Patriots Week 2 Game Preview

As long as the play calling is better, the Jets should be fine. The Jets have to score 21 points. That's the number. We score 24, we win. Hopefully the ground game can get that rolling; the Ravens have a top three run defense and we still had a 5.5 YPC. This Patriots run defense is nothing compared to them. They're gonna need Patrick Chung and Brandon Meriweather to stack the box in order to stop the run. That'll leave a deep ball (one of the very few things Mark Sanchez is actually good at) open at least once in this game.

I think the Jets control the top with the ground game. They'll mix it up a bit more, but they still have probably the best O-Line in the NFL, and they'll still run the ball on anyone. The Patriots run D is weak. Nick Mangold on Vince Wilfork is a HUGE matchup. It's always a good one, but Mangold plays Wilfork better than any other center in the NFL.

Matt Slauson played outstanding in Week 1 outside of the one sack he gave up against Haloti Ngata where he was really off balance. But that was only one play, and he looks great other than that. Moore and Woody will dominate whatever DE/OLB combo the Pats throw out there against the run. Same with D'Brick. The O-Line will dominate and help Sanchez a lot.

On the outside, I love the WR matchup and whoever Keller's on matchup. I hope it's Brandon Spikes. If Keller's on Spikes, that's one of the biggest mismatches ever. The Pats are gonna be forced to play Gary Guyton, who is still a mismatch on Keller, but not nearly as bad as Spikes, and Guyton is terrible against the run. I'll take the WR's on the outside against a rookie and second-year player any day. Especially because Butler was horrible last week. 11.5 YPA against him last year is terrible.

As for Sanchez, I didn't think he played that bad last week; he was just played ridiculously conservative, which is what he was told to do. He won't be asked to do that this week. Will the Jets tell him to open it up? HELL no. But will he only throw three passes all game long that travel 10+ yards in the air? Hell no. That's just sad, I wonder if that's an NFL record.

I don't think he plays well this week, but he doesn't need to. He just needs to play below average, which he's definitely capable of. He won't have the pass rush he had last week, his WR's have better matchups than last week, and he'll be more calm than last week. He'll improve over last week and go 15-25 for 170 yards, 2 TD's, and 1 pick.


On Defense

Darrelle Revis on Randy Moss will be Revis on Moss. Tom Brady probably won't look that way too often, because he's a smart QB. He'll take a shot or two, but he usually stays away.

Wes Welker on Kyle Wilson+Bart Scott+David Harris+Jim Leonhard+Brodney Pool+Eric Smith is the big matchup. Teams always go three covering two with the Patriots, with three players spotting Moss and Welker. Most teams have the two on Moss most of the game. Well not the Jets, because they'll have the two on Welker, sometimes even three. That's the advantage Revis brings to the table that other teams don't have the luxury of.

The Jets drafted Wilson purely to cover Welker. Well, Austin Collie too, but mostly Welker. This is the pure reason we got him in the draft. He's perfect for this situation, because he's extremely quick and has good hands and acceleration. He's great in man to man coverage. Can he cover Welker by himself? Hell no. But you can bet that if Welker goes short over the middle, David Harris, Bart Scott, Bryan Thomas, and Jason Taylor will be bumping the hell out of him on every play.

You can bet that Wilson will have a lot of help from the safeties too. It's not a matchup that I'm too worried about. Welker will get his own, but I don't see him going off for 15+ catches like he did in the second game last year on Lito Sheppard. I say he'll get eight catches for 76 yards.

The big matchup is Cromartie on Tate/Edleman if he plays. If Cromartie plays like he has all offseason and preseason, we'll be in great shape. If he plays like he did in Week 1, we could be toast.

The key will be the Jets pass rush. Mankins being out could be key. Brady hates the blitz, especially up the middle. The more he gets blitzed, the more he struggles. The Jets won't be playing anything like the Bengals three-man rush prevent D last year, they'll be sending guys after Brady. How will the O-Line hold up? That's the key. The Patriots will be one dimensional in this game, they won't get anything done on the ground. That helps the Jets.

Jets win 24-17

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