Hell, you would think NE lost by three touchdowns as much furor as there is on this site.
Now, what does all this remind me of?
hmmm.....
Oh yes, I remember. The week before
this game. NE had just looked listless and uninspired against a pretty pathetic team. This pathetic team took advantage of a weakness most agreed could be a potential achiles heel for the Patriots. The Jets were coming off an impressive victory over a moderately well regarded opponent and appeared to have NE right where they wanted them.
The only thing was, they got their arses kicked.
NE was never in a weakened state, they simply had a bad game. Just like that long ago Miami loss on Monday night, other than a couple key mistakes, NE largely controlled the action. Sure, Matt Light looked like trash against Jason Taylor, but he
always looks like trash against Jason Taylor.
Admittedly, the Pats played the underneath stuff horribly this past week. Superficially, Leon Washington looks like he is going to get at least 300 yards on screens and draws. But there was a reason the underneath was so open, NE used both safeties to double TO and Evans all game. Buffalo wisely just went were there was a lone defender trying to cover a lot of ground, and a backup lone defender at that.
But are the Jets anywhere near as much a threat on the outside? Doesn't it make sense that NE might just alter their defense a little to combat NY's primary assets, their RBs?
And as bad as NE's OL looked at times, NE still went up and down the field on Monday. The difference between their struggles to get to 25 points and them putting 40+ up was very small. Very small.
Unless you assume what we saw out of them two days ago was the best they've got, it is going to take a monumental defensive effort for NY to hold the Patriots under 20 points. Hell, even Ryan's 2007 Ravens that Breer mentions above allowed 27 points on a rainy, windy night. And that includes them mugging Welker on every snap and Watson dropping an easy TD.
Listen to
this BB interview with the 2-6 boys over on WEEI starting at the 18:30 mark. Does he sound concerned to you?
BB all but comes out and says that NY didn't do anything impressive, it was just that Houston was completely inept. He appears to really be giving it to the Houston coaching for an idiotic approach to stopping NY's blitz. It reminds me of BB going out of his way prior to the 2006 AFCCG to show that Indy's defensive "improvement" was really a combination of poor coaching and execution by the opponents.
I will be shocked if NE puts up less than 24 points and I will be genuinely surprised if they don't slap a 30-spot on the board.
The last time NE lost to the Jets in NY was 2000. The Jets have snuck off with a W a few times this decade against the Patriots, but it was always in NE. The Patriots have owned the Meadowlands.
Forgive me if I am not cowering in the corner at the thought of the big, bad New York Jets.
