What kind of effect will it have on your season if the Jets do win? To me it will bring up a lot of questions. Where is the intimidation you used to bring to the game? Some of the casual fans may begin to wonder where the dominance has gone. A weak win against the Bills, combined with a loss to the Jets in week 2 could hurt pretty bad.
No disrespect intended, but this statement shows the difference between the Pats and most teams, including Jets.
If the Jets lose, it will be a damaging blow to their psyche. They are revved up for this game as if it is the SB, they believe that they are as good as the hype, and they believe the Pats are vulnerable. A loss, especially a convincing one, will be devastating. I don't know your team well enough - no one does right now, given a new coach, a rookie QB and a lot of new personnel - to know whether they'll take that adversity and use it to raise their game to a new level, or fall apart.
But I
do know how the Pats would handle a loss. Sure, they also have a lot of new personnel and some young players, but the core of the team is intact, and there's no reason to suppose they would react any differently than recent Pats teams. If the Pats lose, it's just another game. They'll go back to the drawing board, make the necessary adjustments, and fix what's broken. A divisional game is important, no doubt about it, but the ultimate goal is to go deep in the playoffs, and September is
never critical. This team got blown out 31-0 in 2003, was in disarray with pundits predicting a mutiny against their coach and a collapse, and turned it around and went 14-1 the rest of the way and won the SB.
Some casual fans may panic if we lose. Heck, people panic on this board when we
win. Who cares. We're used to it. As long as Belichick and Brady are with this team, there will be no panic. There wasn't any panic when we were down 11 points to the Bills with 5+ minutes left, and there won't be any panic if we lose a game to the Jets, or any other team.
