Patriots Vs. Jets: How the Patriots Offense Matches Up Against the Jets Defense

NOTE: This article was first seen at PatriotsPlus.net.

This upcoming Sunday is going to feature a game of polar opposites. The New York Jets against the New England Patriots. 

The Jets are a bunch of loud, trash talking players, led by their head coach Rex Ryan. They love to blitz a lot on defense, while on offense they haven't found their identity. 

The Patriots are a team; if every player does their job, they'll win. On defense, they hardly blitz but throw different packages and looks at the opposing quarterback to confuse him. Offensively, they're the best offense in the NFL, led by quarterback Tom Brady. 

The Patriots and Jets strengths will line up against each other this Sunday, with the Patriots top offense against the Jets' defense. So, how do they match up against each other? 

I am sure that every remembers the Dec. 6 thrashing the Jets suffered at the hands of the Patriots. The Patriots outscored the jets by a 42 point margin with a 45-3 victory, and Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes. 

However, the Jets keep reminding everyone that this next game will be much closer.

The Jets defense is ranked sixth in the league, allowing only 19 points per game. But, Tom Brady and the Patriots have been scoring at least 30 points for the last eight weeks. New England is averaging 32.4 points per-game on the year, and they show no sign of slowing down. 

New England's strength offensively is obviously their passing attack with Tom Brady.

Brady has had an amazing year: he has thrown 36 touchdown passes and only four interceptions, without throwing a pick in 335 pass attempts. 

In two games against New York this year, Brady has thrown an average of 287 yards compared to New York's average of only 200.6 yards allowed per game through the air. 

So, it's clear that Brady can over-power the Jets secondary. 

New York's corner back, Darrelle Revis, will likely line up against Patriots' Wes Welker. 

With Revis being a so-called "shut-down" corner, Welker played pretty well against Revis back on Dec. 6. Welker caught seven passes for 80 yards and one touchdown. 

With Revis covering Welker, New York's other corner, the trash-talker Antonio Cromartie, will line up against Deion Branch. 

With Cromartie being so tall and so fast, he doesn't particularly match up very well against Branch. Branch is a small, shifty, great routing running receiver. Not to mention, Cromartie isn't the smartest player out there when Branch is a highly intelligent receiver. 

Cromartie is better suited to match up against a Randy Moss type receiver, not a Welker/Branch receiver. 

Cromartie didn't have a great game defensively against the Indianapolis Colts last year, and no one knows why he is running his mouth. 

I can bet that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will pick on Cromartie a lot this week. Not only because he likes to run his mouth, but because he is simply over-rated.

He isn't that good. Branch adds a match up problem against Cromartie.

New England's three other top receivers are Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez, and Danny Woodhead.

Gronkowski adds a huge target down in the red zone and presents a match-up problem for the Jets because a line backer has to keep up with his speed and physicality. 

Hernandez, on the other hand, can be lined up where ever you want; he is going to get open. If he lines up as a down tight end, or as a wingback, a line backer will be forced to cover him. Let's put it this way: Hernandez runs like a running back in open field, and he's just too fast. If you put him split out, he's just too strong for a corner, and he will gain a position on him with his huge body frame. 

Woodhead causes problems when he comes out of the backfield. On Dec. 6, the Pats utilized Woodhead very well. They would do a lot of a play-actions with Woodhead and would sneak him in the backside flats with a line backer covering him. It just won't work for New York, Woodhead will burn you.

When all is said and done, New England's strength, offense, is just much stronger than New York's strength, their defense.

I am predicting that New England will score at least 24 points against the Jets, and I believe that the Patriots will win the game.

Bill Belichick just won't allow his team to lose against the trash-talking New York Jets.  

Be sure to follow Tony Santorsa on Twitter @     TonySantorsa