It has to be said: I hate New York. Not any of the teams, per se, but New York or, better stated, the "idea" of New York. It's an irrational hatred, I know, and one I fully expect to be reciprocal. It's different than the dislike I have for Indy and its fans; they simply won't accept the fact that statistics aren't the only measure of a great quarterback. Oh well, back to NY. I firmly believe it has a lot to do with two geographically close, major market, east coast cities vying for superiority. As far as football, there have been many back and forths to get the blood going. The most prominent, in my opinion, was Bill Parcells' crowning of Belichick as head coach of the Jets and Belichick's subsequent resignation to take the HC job in New England. Oh, and let's not forget Eric Mangini's less than popular departure to the Jets; compare and contrast Mangini's departure with McD's and I think you'll get the picture.
It's an irrational hatred, one borne of geographic closeness, the same division, and the fact that they don't know how to make a decent cup of chowdah (it's criminal to put tomatoes in chowdah). Anyway, in order to prepare for our upcoming matchup with the Jets, I thought I'd give you some thoughts on their recent matchup against the Texans.
I was down on Mark Sanchez after he was drafted. I thought New York would barely sniff a .500 season with a rookie at the helm. But if one game is any indication of how their season will play out, AFC East rivals have a long year ahead of them; this division has just gotten stronger. After Sanchez settled down this past Sunday, he looked dang good. Throwing 18/31 and 272 yards, Sanchez had 1 TD and 1 interception. Offensively, the rushing attack was the key to this win with RBs Thomas Jones and Leon Washington accounting for two touchdowns and 107 and 60 yards respectively.
As good as the offense was, that's not the real story. Just take a look at NFL.com's statistical leaders by team. When was the last time you saw the Jets in ANY of those categories, let alone all three defensive sections? Oh, and second in total defense. The key? As much of a loudmouth as Rex Ryan is, he's no defensive slouch. Rex knows D and he knows how to bring the house. And that's exactly what he did against Houston's Matt Schaub. Schaub simply couldn't get his receivers to the tune of no TD's. Heck, Houston never made it to the red zone!!
Belichick has already said New York will bring the house. The difference is Matt Schaub vs. Tom Brady. With the emergence of Benjamin Watson as a viable threat, Brady has a lot of weapons at his disposal. I wouldn't be surprised to see Brady eat fertilizer at least twice, but Rex and Co. better not forget about checkdown threats Kevin Faulk and Wes Welker. Ryan's blitzes may take away the long ball, but you can never forget about those two.