I would like to see us go into the Eagles game 3-2, and I don't think it's an unrealistic feat. To make the playoffs, 10-6 is must, and we'd probably have to go undefeated against MIA and BUF, with wins against competing Wild Card teams like Cinci and Tennessee. It sounds doable, but with a defense that struggles to get a consistent pass rush (vital for a 3-4) and could struggle on stopping teams on 3rd down, it's iffy. 8-8 is a safe bet.
I still have hopes that the jets will end up in the 9-7 - 11-5 range this year. 4 Sun, Sep 30 at Buffalo (W) 5 Sun, Oct 7 at NY Giants (W) 6 Sun, Oct 14 Philadelphia (L) (Tossup game. Depends which eagles team show up) 7 Sun, Oct 21 at Cincinnati (L) (Tossup game) 8 Sun, Oct 28 Buffalo (W) 9 Sun, Nov 4 Washington (W) 10 BYE WEEK 11 Sun, Nov 18 Pittsburgh (L) (Tossup game) 12 Thu, Nov 22 at Dallas (L) (Tossup game) 13 Sun, Dec 2 at Miami (W) 14 Sun, Dec 9 Cleveland (W) 15 Sun, Dec 16 at New England (L) (We will see how bitchy Moss is in 2 1/2 months.) 16 Sun, Dec 23 at Tennessee (L) (Tossup game) 17 Sun, Dec 30 Kansas City (W) With my breakdown we end up 8-8. If they win just half of the tossup games they could end up 11-5. The teams that the jets should beat I marked with a W but we know nothing is guaranteed!
I still think it's 7-9 until we beat someone with a winning record which we haven't done in the last 19 games save the post bye week win against the patriots last year.
We have a good shot at wins @Buffalo, @NY Giants, Buffalo, @Miami, Cleveland and Kansas City. We'll lose one of these randomly and win the rest. We'll be in the game but not favored to win against Washington. No pass rush against Jason Campbell, Santana Moss and Antwan Randall-El, ugh. Throw in Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts to pound our D and we'll have to win a barn burner 38-35. We're going to lose most of Philadelphia, @Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, @Dallas, @New England, @ Tennessee. Might win one of these but not unless we get our pass rush going as all of them but Tennessee have an aerial game that could click for 400 yards and 5 scores against us the way we are playing these days and Tennessee could rush for 250. It's really looking like 7-9 right now.
Other than being incredibly optimistic all we can hope for at this point is that the North and South will beat each other up really bad and that the Chargers keep looking like crap.
Why is everyone riding high on washington? They almost lost to miami. They then got beat by an average giants team. In a few weeks we'll see where the skins are. Bengals arent looking so good. If baltimore didnt have 6 turnovers and get a bogus offensive pass interference with 1 min left, bengals would be 0-3 right now. They'll probably drop to 1-3 after monday night (against pats). I think we should beat buffalo 2x, miami, giants, washington, chiefs, browns split with: bengals, eagles, tennesse, pittsburgh loss: patriots, dallas I am sticking with 10-6. 9-7 probably makes the playoffs again in the AFC (because there are a lot of good teams). We should be thankful that miami and buffalo arent good this year.
We're not good enough to go undefeated through all the teams we're better than. We SHOULD beat them, but who is to say we're much better than any of those teams?
Who's to say we are worse than any of those teams I said we would split with? Eagles and Bengals havent looked that good. Steelers have looked good but there wins came against cleveland and buffalo. Its still really early. In about three more weeks we can really see who is good and who is not. Throw out the first game for a second. We should have tied baltimore (who won 13 games the previous year) and were pounding miami 31-13 before the prevent defense went into effect. By no means am i saying we are going to win 12 games, but I still think we are a better team than last year. If we get to 3-2, we'll be in good shape.
If we get to 3-2 then our season looks a lot like 9-7 or 8-8. I think we have excellent shots at beating Buffalo and the Giants. Then the schedule gets tough again with Philly and @Cincy neither of which I expect us to win knowing what we know now.
Cincy just doesn't impress me much this year....like a previous poster mentioned..Baltimore just kept giving..and giving..and giving...and it STILL took a bogus PI call to seal the deal. I'd be shocked if they beat the Patriots...absolutely shocked.
The Giants have an equally excellent shot at beating us. They are a flawed team but they are much stronger than us at the point of attack on both sides of the ball and Eli is playing really well so far. The only real advantage we have on them is our kicking game.
I didn't guarantee a win I just said the Jets have an excellent shot at one. The thing to remember is that having the homefan advantage in this case just means getting booed when something goes wrong.