Tony Massoriti, a baseball guy but a keen follower of the Patriots and football, said this today: "After finishing 26th in the NFL in defensive passer rating last season, the Buffalo Bills went out and signed Mario Williams to a blockbuster contract. The Bills subsequently drew a Week 1 opponent, the New York Jets, who have major questions at quarterback after finishing last season with a team passer rating of 78.4. So what happened? The Bills got lit up and the Jets looked like the only team in the AFC East with even a remote chance of challenging the Patriots. Let's remember that the AFC East this season is scheduled to play the NFC West and the AFC South, which means there are a lot of wins out there for New York, too. Don't sleep on the Jets, folks."
After one week the Jets have an explosive offense and a defense that gave up a lot of yardage on the ground and the Patriots have a stingy defense and a top running game. Just one game of course, but it makes you wonder why anyone tries to predict what will happen in the NFL.
I think that the Pats' Defense will be very solid, although maybe not quite as good as they looked yesterday. I also think that despite the Jets' desire to be a ground and pound team, they are going to need Sanchez to step up and play at a consistently good level as he did yesterday.
I didn't see any of the Jets game save for highlights (Hopefully it replays on NFLN this week sometime). But it looks like Sanchez made a lot of GREAT... not just good... throws. Just based on what I saw yesterday, the Patriots aren't going to let anyone run on them. The secondary still needs work but the front seven looks fantastic. Still a long way to go though. And FTR, Tony Mazz is a good writer. Mostly a baseball guy, but he also co-hosts an afternoon show on our FM talk station in Boston.
I kept saying it all throughout summer but the Jets will surprise people. Plus the Jets will go as far as Sanchez takes them. I believe this will be the year he turns the corner.
Sanchez looked very good, it's amazing when you have time. He made a few poor throws and one bad decision but he looked like he was ready to step up and lead the team. I think Stephen Hill is going to be a major part of our offense and will probably by this time next year be the teams's #1 WR. Of course I also said that when we drafted him. I think our biggest question mark will be consistency and flow. How will Sanchez being yanked for Tebow affect the flow of the team. At this point I don't know but as long as Sanchez plays well I think we'll see less and less of Tebow on the field (at least lined up at QB)
Hill seems like he's also going to provide the piece that was missing (vertical threat) from the Jets since Braylon Edwards left. And Hill looks like he could be worlds better than Edwards if he plays to his potential. Good thing Rex drafted him. :wink: He will also be a handful for the Patriots, who don't have a real big, rangy CB who will be able to stay with him (unless Dowling makes major strides). If they put McCourty on him, Hill will have 150+ yards and at least two TDs. Exactly the kind of player - and play - that McCourty struggles with. Again, just one game, but could things have possibly been less predictable in the Pats-Jets rivalry world?
While I'm ecstatic about the win, we also have a history of thrashing the Bills, and even though they got better I'm still in the "eh, it was just the Bills" mindset. Hopefully the "Clown prince" will perform just as well as he did yesterday.
What's funny is I think the Jets made moves to counter exactly what the Patriots have. They draft Hill who will give you guys fits. They bring in an OC who had success albeit mild against you guys with a style that should keep the ball out of your hands. We get a hard hitting safety who will attack Gronk and Hernandez. A potential dominant pass rusher to attack Brady.
Maybe I'm overreacting based on one game, but I think he'll be our #1 WR much sooner than next year ...
I disagree, I think "mazz" outside of baseball is an idiot, period. His partner Felger is much more insightful and who has said prior to yesterday: 1) the Jets will be decent/good 2) as a Pats fan you want this it makes the rivalry so much more enjoyable, which is true. Bit early after 1 week to make any predictions but good start for both clubs
I certainly hope he can be good enough for #1 that soon but I'm not sure yet. At the very least the better he plays the more it frees up Holmes and Kerley, which is extremely valuable. Honestly I was pretty happy with our receiving core yesterday. Granted I wasn't as down on them before as many were, but I was still surprised and impressed at how often they were able to get open. How much of that is on the play-calling/receivers and how much is on the potentially very weak Bill's secondary is hard to say, though.
To be fair, part of my line of thinking is that I don't value Holmes very much as a #1 WR. I think he's a very good -> great #2 WR, but he's probably in the lower tier of #1 WR's. Hill is just blessed with better physical tools to be a true #1 IMO and based on all reports he sounds like a very hard worker. He had a nice "show me" game yesterday. The question at this point, IMO, is how quickly can he become consistent? Oh, and just to reiterate, he was sick yesterday.
I completely agree about Holmes. He can be a very explosive playmaker at times but I don't think he's that good of a fit as a #1 receiver. Which is why I definitely hope you're right about Hill developing this year. Hill looked fantastic yesterday, no disagreement here. I guess I'm just waiting to see a few more games, and specifically next week against the Steelers D, to see how he does. As you say, his consistency is going to be important to watch especially since we've seen him have trouble with dropping catchable balls at times.
I think enjoying what we saw yesterday is defintely warranted, however let's realize it is one game. One helluva game but one game. It defintely should make us Jets fans happy and optomistic about what this season may hold for our beloved Gang Green.
Having been a fan for a long time, I can see how that would work and make sense. The first step in winning a championship is to win the division and get at least one home game in the playoffs. Plus I'm sure that kind of thing does happen... I think to some extent some of the Patriots' moves prior to 2007 were so they could outscore Manning and the Colts. Of course not. That's why I said "just one game." I doubt the Patriots' defense will be as good as they were yesterday for 15(+) more games, nor will the Jets' offense put up 48 points a week! Felger knows more football but I like Mazz. I guess it's just a difference of opinion. But you're right, Felger's been saying all along that the Jets will be a challenge. He seems like to get under the skin of Pats fans.
What pisses me off about the Patriots is not just that they were able to draft studs like Hightower and Jones. It's that they find these diamonds in the rough like Arrington who was statistically one of the better CB's in football last year. I want to say that they're just lucky but it must be that their scouting dept. just does an incredible job of finding the right players to fit their system. Steelers are the same way.
