Jets Blog: Another Visit To Peyton's Place
By Peter Schwartz
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A watered-down version of the New York Jets crushed the Buffalo Bills 38-7 on Sunday. The likes of Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Ladainian Tomlinson, and Shonn Greene were all inactive.
Mark Sanchez might as well have been inactive. He only played the first series and did not throw a pass. Joe McKnight made his first NFL start and rushed 32 times for 158 yards. The defense forced six turnovers including a pick-six by Marquice Cole that he ran back 29 yards for a touchdown.
It was basically a glorified pre-season game that took place in week seventeen of the regular season. To be honest, the Jets could probably have rolled out the East Meadow High School Jets (shameless plug for my alma mater on Long Island) and they would have beaten the Bills.
That's really all you need to know about Sunday because it's time to turn our attention towards the post-season.
On Saturday night, the Jets head to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for a meeting Peyton Manning and the Colts. It's a rematch of last year's AFC Title game won by the Colts. We'll get into all the match-ups later in the week but suffice it to say that there will be two concerns for the Jets at practice this week.
Can the Jets offense keep up with Peyton Manning and the Colts offense?
Or....
Can the Jets defense, unlike last year, get some pressure on Manning?
If either or those things fail to occur, then the Jets will not be going on any kind of run this season. I know we're not breaking any news with that, but it certainly makes light of just how difficult this road to the Super Bowl will be for Gang Green.
A win against the Colts would send the Jets to New England against Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Not exactly an easy road, but it's not like the Jets don't believe that they can do it.
"I thought we'd win it last year," said head coach Rex Ryan. "I think we're going to win it this year, so we'll see. Regardless of who we play, we think we're better than any team out there."
There's Rex being Rex again, but the players believe too. They are following Ryan's lead that the Super Bowl is the only goal and that they have as good a chance as anybody to exit Cowboys Stadium in February with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
"We excited for this next step," said quarterback Mark Sanchez. "We're a solid football team. We know we have a lot of talent but we need to show up."
They'll need to show up with more than just words. They'll need to show up with their "A-game" and a pass rush.
Here are some other news and notes from Sunday:
*The Jets have now won eleven games for just the fourth time in franchise history (1968, 1985, 1998, and 2010).
*Head Coach Rex Ryan now has twenty wins in his first two seasons with the Jets. That ties him with Herman Edwards for the second-most in team history behind Bill Parcells who won 21 in 1997 and 1998.
*Joe McKnight became the third Jets running back to record 100 yards on the ground in a game this season. That's only happened one other time in franchise history and that was back in 1970.
*Mark Brunell threw his first touchdown pass since 2006.
*The defense forced six turnovers, the most since they forced seven against Arizona in 2008.
*Drew Coleman forced his fifth fumble of the season which ties him with Calvin Pace and Dwight Lowery for the Jets single season record. Pace and Lowery did it in 2008.
*Jason Taylor's fourth quarter sack gave him 132.5 for his career. That ties him with Lawrence Taylor and Leslie O'Neal for eight place on the NFL's all-time list.
*The Jets have now recorded at least one sack in 18 straight games.
*Steve Weatherford booted four punts inside the twenty, running his season total to 42. That ties him with former Jets punter Ben Graham (2009) and Andy Lee (2007) for the NFL's all-time single season record.
That's all for now. Check back later in the week for a preview of Saturday's AFC Wild-Card game between the Jets and Colts.
