Week 2 Preview, @ New York Jets

Well, the first full week of the Matt Cassel Era is against the one of the Patriots hated rivals, the New York Jets. The Jets were a busy team in the off season, rebuilding their offensive line, getting defensive depth, and trading for Brett Favre.  The Jets are in “win now” mode with coach Eric Mangini on the hot seat after a playoff birth his first year follow by a sub .500 record last season.  Usually these games have lots of bad blood, as it was last year’s game in New Jersey where the Spygate saga broke, not to mention the history with Bill Parcells including Bill Belichick’s day as “HC of the NYJ.”  This game might be more important for the Jets than the Patriots, as the Tom Brady injury now takes a lot of pressure off the Pats, as now the Pats went from thinking of another run at perfection to just another team.  Anywhere, here is a preview of this week’s game.

When the Pats have the ball

With Matt Cassel starting, I expect a lot of the Pats spread em out offense to be reigned in and the Patriots to use the run game along with a shorter, more ball control focused passing attack.  The Jets on defense have plenty of playmakers, a secondary with second year corner Darrelle Revis and safety Kerry Rhodes being future Pro Bowlers, along with a very good front seven led in the middle with nose tackle Kris Jenkins and linebackers Eric Barton and David Harris, along with Calvin Pace bringing a pass rush from the outside and first round pick Vernon Gholston.  Last week, the Pats didn’t expect to have Matt Cassel leading the offense, so now with a week to game plan, I expect a little less predictability out of the offense, as last week they seemed to be predictable and Kansas City took advantage of it by staying close in the game.  I expect the Pats offense to put up some points, but they won’t come easy, because the Jets defense is very underrated and right now, Matt Cassel is and unknown, he could come in and be like Tom Brady was in 2001 and manage the game, not make turnovers and give the team a chance to win, or the preseason Matt Cassel could show up and the offense could stall.

When the Jets have the ball

When facing the Jets the last few years when they had Chad Pennington, you didn’t need to defend the full field. Pennington’s lack of arm stregnth  meant defenders only had to defend the ball 10-15 yards past the line of scrimmage.  Now with Brett Favre at quarterback, you have to defend the whole field.  But you have to keep in mind that Favre is more turnover prone than Pennington, and will force balls into places.  The Jets have a rebuilt offensive line which features offseason signing Alan Faneca and Damien Woody, which as already led to starting running back Thomas Jones matching is 2007 rushing touchdown total after last week’s season opener.  On the outside, the Jets best pass catcher is Jerricho Cotcherry, as Coles is dinged up and not at 100%, and tight end Chris Baker just exetended his contract. The Pats secondary, which had a couple of questionable moments last week will be under fire this week. Cotcherry will be a handful, but I think the Pats will be able to keep everybody else in check.  The Pats defense was solid last week except for one play at the end, and I know with this being a rivalry game and without the gut punch that was Brady getting knocked out early the team will be ready to roll.

My prediction, even without Brady, I think the Patriots are still the class of the AFC East.  The Jets struggled vs Miami last week at full strength, and with a week of preperation for Cassel as starter, I think the Pats will come out with a game plan to make the offense productive while forcing Favre to make plays and hopefully make mistakes.  Pats win 24-14.