Guest Post: Why The Jets Will Beat The Patriots

Maybe we'll call him Optimist Prime for the Jets season: Russell is back for another guest post and he thinks the Jets will prevail on Sunday unlike the rest of our panel. For his last guest post before he becomes a full-time writer (and congrats to Russell on that!), here's Russell Simon back to tell us why the New York Jets will repeat their early-season performance and prevail against the Patriots in Foxboro on Sunday.

Mark Sanchez is licking his chops for a rematch with the Pats (NYT)

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The Jets will beat the Patriots on Sunday…While most of you probably think that’s the funniest joke you’ve heard all day, the Jets do have a shot--believe it or not--of winning. Last week I said the Jets would establish the ground and pound, and beat Indy. We all know how that turned out, and now they return for some payback…and this is how they’ll get it:

Keep Brady On The Bench

For the Jets to win they will have to go on the same type of drives they did in the second half against the Colts. The Jets had touchdown drives of 9:48 and 9:59 last week and it must be more of the same if the Jets will win. The Jets used the ground-and-pound to go on mind numbingly slow drives in the second half. On the first drive of the second half, Sanchez threw twice, and it has become clear that LT, Shonne Greene , and the offensive line will win it for the Jets--not Mark Sanchez. Both running backs carried the ball nearly 20 times and they will have to go on the slow drives, eat up tons of clock, and get into the endzone to beat the Pats.

Do Not Have Any Defensive Lapses

And we're looking at you, Antonio Cromartie. Garcon burned Cromartie for the Colts first touchdown on a hideous defensive lapse, and the Jets can’t have any repeats of that on Sunday if they want to win. Cromartie put the target on his back by saying about Tom Brady what Jets fans have been saying about him for years, and with whoever Tevis is covering (probably Welker vacationing on Revis Island) all the pressure will be on Cromartie to step up. Other then Revis, Brady will target the Jets secondary just as he did in the 45-3 bloodbath when he passed for 326 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Jets can’t have any defensive lapses that go for big yards for the Pats and it's up to the secondary to keep the Jets in it.

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The Jets' War of Words

With all the media attention and fighting words hurled up and down I-95 this past week, you'd think there is a prize fight scheduled for this Sunday in Foxboro.  There isn't, but let's pretend for a second that there is.  In the green corner, wearing the black sweater vest and white mock turtleneck, is the boisterous, big mouthed, super heavyweight REX RYAN!!!  In the blue corner, wearing the wrinkled, cut off, dirty sweatshirt stolen from a bum on the street, is the scowling, cheating, welterweight BILL BELICHICK!!!  This bout is going to get nasty.

On Monday, Ryan threw the first blow: "This is about Bill Belichick versus Rex Ryan. There's no question, it's personal. It's about him against myself. That’s what it’s going to come down to."  The instant Ryan said those words, Jets fans got bombarded with harsh criticism from Pats fans: “How dare your coach call out the legend that is Bill Belichick?”  “Does Ryan really think this game is about him versus Belichick?” “Doesn’t he know the players will win or lose this game, not the coaches? What an idiot!”

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