Breaking Down the Jets vs Patriots

According to ESPN.com : As is their custom, the New York Jets have been doing plenty of talking leading up to Sunday's divisional playoff game against the New England Patriots.   
When these AFC East clubs renewed their rivalry last month, New England's play on the field spoke volumes.
The Jets seek to back up their words Sunday and pull off a second consecutive road upset of a perennial AFC power -- a task that won't be easy against a
top-seeded Patriots team that's run roughshod over the league the past two months and coming off a bye.



The 51-year-old rivalry between these two original AFL franchises could not be any closer -- including two playoff wins for New England, the Patriots and Jets have each defeated the other 51 times with one tie.
Especially since Rex Ryan took over as New York's coach prior to last season and returned the Jets to title contention, it's also hard to imagine the rivalry being any more entertaining.



The Patriots ended the season with an eight-game winning streak and were undefeated at home. The Patriots also scored a whopping 205 more points than they allowed in 2010 -- by far the best mark in the league. They are 6-1 against 2010 playoff teams. New York has lost only two games on the road this season. The Jets beat New England in Week 2, but in the most recent meeting (Week 13), the Pats utterly dominated play, eventually winning 45-3. In both games, the losing team turned the ball over three times and the winning team did not have a turnover. The Patriots were best in the NFL at valuing the ball, committing only 10 turnovers. And only the Giants had more takeaways than New England. The Jets get the edge here on special teams, but that advantage is marginal.


The Jets' ground-and-pound approach was a big part of their wild-card round win over the Indianapolis Colts. The Jets had opened the Dec. 6 loss to the Patriots in a no-huddle attack with quarterback Mark Sanchez in the shotgun, but that plan didn't work. One line of thinking is that the Jets will go back to ground-and-pound this time around, so it's up to the Patriots' front seven -- which has depth concerns along the defensive line and with inside linebacker Brandon Spikes returning from suspension -- to answer the challenge up front

As far as entertainment value, this is the best game of the weekend. Two teams who don't like each other and this will also be a very close game so I got the Jets covering the 8 point spread. Can the Jets pull off the victory? Your Thought?