NFL Power Rankings Week 12: Comparing the New York Jets and New England Patriots
Week 12's Thanksgiving's slate of Thursday games featured three of the NFL's top teams, and all came out victorious.
The New Orleans Saints took out the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Jets defeated the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots beat the Detroit Lions.
With the Jets and Patriots looking like the class of the AFC at the moment (some Ravens and Steelers fans might disagree), one question remains: Who's better going into next week's Monday Night Football Matchup between the two AFC East Rivals?
Let's compare the Pats and Jets at each position on the field.
Quarterback
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As well as Mark Sanchez is playing lately, Tom Brady can easily stake a claim as being the league's best quarterback.
This one's a no-brainer.
Advantage: Patriots (heavily)
Running Back
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The Jets duo of Ladainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene gets more recognition, but the Patriots have had surprising success with "The Law Firm" BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Jets-castoff Danny Woodhead playing the do-it-all Kevin Faulk role.
New York has the league's fourth-ranked rushing offense at almost 150 yards per game, averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
The Patriots run the ball less and are far behind in yardage, but they do average a respectable 4.3 yards per carry.
This one's closer than you'd think, but Tomlinson's elusiveness in space and Greene's tough running give the Jets the nod.
Advantage: Jets (moderately)
Wide Receiver
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The Jets have two number one caliber receivers in Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes, and a bonafide number two in Cotchery manning the third wide receiver position.
Brad Smith (and now Patrick Turner) have filled in capably when Holmes and Cotchery have been out, and overall this group is among the league's best.
The Patriots group is much less acclaimed after the departure of Randy Moss, but Wes Welker is back to his usual act, Deion Branch is rekindling his past love with Tom Brady and Brandon Tate is a serious playmaker.
New York clearly has more overall talent, but the Patriots are getting nearly as much production out of their group.
With Holmes's recent emergence (4 TDs in his last 3 games) you have to give the Jets the edge here, but again, not by much.
Advantage: Jets (moderately)
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Tight End
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The Jets' Dustin Keller started the season off on fire, with 254 yards and 5 TD in his first four games.
But he's cooled off considerably, with just two games over 50 yards since. And he's still stuck on 5 scores.
New England's two-headed rookie monster of Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski have been tearing up defenses all year, with a combined 772 yards and 9 TD.
They've each had their bad games, but one of them seems to always step up when opponents key on the other one.
Combine that with the 275 pound behemoth Alge Crumpler blocking, and the Patriots have arguably the best tight end group in the NFL.
Advantage: Patriots (heavily)
Offensive Line
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The Jets oft-praised line of D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Matt Slauson, Damien Woody, Nick Mangold and Brandon Moore are leading the Jets to the NFL's fourth-ranked rushing attack.
Mark Sanchez has been sacked 19 times, but many of those are Sanchez's fault, when he tries to do too much to extend the play.
The Patriots line is always among the league's best, and the return of Logan Mankins has only helped.
For the record, Brady has been sacked 15 times.
Advantage: Jets (slightly)
Defensive Line
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The Jets' defensive line has no elite playmakers with the loss of Kris Jenkins, but the group of Sione Pouha (37 tackles), Mike DeVito (4 TFL) and Shaun Ellis (3.5 sacks) does a great job stuffing the run on the NFL's 3rd-ranked rushing defense.
They don't get to the passer often, but that isn't their job in Rex Ryan's 3-4 defense.
New England is merely average against the run (17th-ranked), and the loss of Ty Warren didn't help its cause.
Advantage: Jets (heavily)
Linebacker
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The Jets duo of Bart Scott and David Harris on the inside is arguably the league's best, and while Calvin Pace has been hampered by injury, he and Jason Taylor (4 sacks) are great pass-rushers when they are at their best.
New York's pass rush has been struggling lately, but this unit has the talent to turn things around, especially as Pace continues to recover.
New England never gets enough credit for its linebackers, and Jerod Mayo is turning into a star (he leads the league with 132 tackles, no one else has 100).
But still, their linebackers are not up to par with the Jets'.
Advantage: Jets (moderately)
Defensive Back
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Darrelle Revis is the league's best cornerback and teammate Antonio Cromartie isn't far behind.
They showed that last night by shutting down T.O. and Chad Ochocinco (combined 7 receptions, 58 yards).
The Jets safeties have struggled covering Tight Ends this year, but are solid overall.
New England's cornerbacks have struggled mightily (31st-ranked pass defense), but rookie Devin McCourty has shown a lot of promise.
Pat Chung and Brandon Meriweather are playmakers at safety, but there's just no way a defense that gives up 288.5 passing yards per game can be considered good.
Belichick's bend but don't break defense is just a cover up for his secondary's lack of skill.
Advantage: Jets (heavily)
Kicker
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Nick Folk started the season off hot, but has missed five field goal attempts in his last three games, and nearly missed an extra point last night.
He's just 22/30 on the season and is making Jets fans nervous as of late.
If he turns things around in the next couple of weeks, he should be fine, but if not, it's back to the unemployment line.
And as for the Patriots, their situation is equally shaky.
With Stephen Gostkowski on IR, they were forced to sign Shayne Graham, formerly one of the league's top placekickers, but one who has received (well-deserved) criticism for choking in the big moments.
He's four-for-four so far (with a long of just 36) and has actually missed an extra point.
There's no need for concern yet, but come playoff time, Pats fans should cross their fingers if Graham is forced to win them a game.
Advantage: Even
Punter
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The Jets' Steve Weatherford has been unbelievable this year, with a 44.5 yard average and 26 punts downed inside the 20.
New England's rookie Zoltan Mesko—a fan-favorite during his career at Michigan—has been a success too, with a 43.7 yard average and 13 punts inside the 20.
Weatherford has 18 more opportunities, but the fact is that he's been remarkable.
Advantage: Jets (moderately)
Kick Returner
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Brad Smith is second in the league (behind former-Jet Leon Washington) in Kick Return average among full-time returners (29.2 yards per return).
He has four 40-plus yard returns, and returned his first for a touchdown last night against Cincinnati.
And by the way, you're not seeing things; he is running for a touchdown with only one cleat in that picture.
But for the Patriots, Brandon Tate is no slouch either, at 26.3 yards per return and two touchdowns.
Tate's two touchdowns make up for some of the difference between he and Smith's averages, but Smith is clearly the more consistent threat.
Advantage: Jets (moderately)
Overall
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The Jets win most of the head-to-head battles, but that doesn't tell the whole story.
Both teams sit at 9-2, although the Jets do own the AFC East tiebreaker for the moment by virtue of their 28-14 win in Week 2.
The Patriots will get a chance for revenge a week from Monday, though, and that chance will come at home in Foxboro.
Right now, the teams are too close to differentiate, with the Jets defense holding a clear edge, but the Pats offense holding a similar one.
Monday will go a long way in deciding who has the better team, but don't be surprised if it isn't their last meeting of the year, with both squads looking primed for long playoff runs.
But for the sake of making a pick, I'd have to call the Jets the better team at the moment since they've beaten the Patriots and been winning games late (not that Brady and Co. can't), a much-needed commodity in the playoffs.
Advantage: Jets (very, very slightly)
Comments
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Do you agree?
Disagree?
Who's going to win their Monday Night showdown?
Voice your opinion in the comments.
Matt Rudnitsky is a student at the University of Michigan and a Featured Columnist/writing intern at Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Mattrud.
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