First off, let’s tip our hat and drink our Scotch to the success of the Jets’ new coach, Doogie Howser. Looks like the Steelers missed out on him by a year, eh?

Let’s have a look at our potpourri bag of notes about the New York Jets.

  • Chad Pennington is one of the best quarterbacks in football. Always has been. Every year he’s been healthy since he first took over the starting job from my man Vinny, Pennington has been a terrific quarterback. His arm is strong enough to get the job done, he still throws a better deep ball than you know about, he doesn’t rattle under pressure, and he’s sniper-rifle accurate on anything shorter than 20 yards. You never know whether you can count on his health, of course, but when he’s under center, the Jets are in very good hands.
  • Credit the Jets for targetting the offensive line in the first round and making two very good picks, left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and center Nick Mangold. Mangold especially smells a little bit like Dermontti Dawson, and that’s very, very high praise, since Dermontti Dawson is perhaps the best offensive lineman of my lifetime (1980 - present). Mangold’s stronger than he looks and really moves out well.
  • I’m afraid we don’t have such glowing words of praise for what tries to pass as the Jets running game. Ferguson and Mangold, untypical of rookies, are both better pass blockers than run blockers. I expect their run blocking to improve, but as a whole, the Jets o-line specializes in pass protection and is only mediocre at run blocking. And you know about the Jets’ running backs. At least, you know that you don’t know anything about them. It’s a little Leon Washington here and was a little Kevan Barlow there. They’re not going to beat the New England Patriots by running the ball.
  • That brings us to the other problem: The Jets have been hopeless all year at stopping the run. In fact, DVOA rates them as even worse than the Indianapolis Colts, the most mind-blowing achievement since Quincy Carter somehow led the Cowboys to the playoffs a couple years ago. (That happened, right? That wasn’t a dream or something, right?) The defense needs some major work. To pick an obvious example, Jonathan Vilma isn’t a 3-4 inside linebacker. He’s a Mike, and if Doogie is going to insist on using the 3-4, he needs to see what he can get for VILLLLMAAAAAAAAA!

And now for the New England Patriots:

  • DVOA rates the Patriots as the second-best team in football this year, after the Ravens. This is largely because the Schedule Fairy rained fire and brimstone down upon them this year. To go 12-4 against the schedule the Patriots played is quite an achievement.
  • Tom Brady’s been playing with an injured right shoulder most of the year. His accuracy’s varied widely, everywhere from Joe Montana to Eli Manning, but mostly sitting around Drew Bledsoe level (that is not a good thing.) #37’s probably already hunting me down for saying this, but the fact is, Brady’s missed more than his share of open receivers, especially on long throws. He didn’t just suddenly lose his accuracy. He’s hurt, and about a week after the Patriots’ season ends, you’ll read an innocuous press release about how Brady had successful surgery to “clean up” his throwing shoulder. Dude has rotator cuff issues.
  • The Patriots run defense is really, really good. You probably didn’t need a guru to tell you this. Any defense involving Richard Seymour and Tedy Bruschi is probably going to be difficult to run the football against.
  • On the other hand, their pass defense is, once again, vulnerable. It takes a really good passing team to exploit it properly, but for the 294th consecutive season, the Patriots are the worst team in the league at defending against opposing #2 receivers. Th… That’s Jerricho Cotchery’s music!!! However, the Patriots remain very good at shutting down most other receivers, especially #1s. Yes, Laveranues Coles, that means you.
  • This may be the year Tully Banta-Cain finally captures that elusive Kimo von Oelhoffen Award.
  • Anybody know whether Laurence Maroney can play full-tilt? I sure don’t. If he can, he could go for 200 yards, but against the Jets, you’ll probably see an unhealthy dose of The Artist Formerly Known As Corey Dillon in this game.
  • I have the UTMOST RESPECT for the New England Patriots.

If there’s one thing Bill Belichick does well, it’s exploiting glaring weaknesses, and the Jets have two: They can’t run the ball, and they can’t stop the run. Tom Brady probably won’t have to do very much here. The Jets are a nice story and a feisty team, but they just aren’t good enough to defeat the New England Patriots.

The Patriots have a shot at pulling a Baltimore and running the table from a #4 seed: The Jets will be easy, you know what Belichick does to MartyWorld defenses and young quarterbacks (Chargers in round 2), and all it would take then would be Steve McNair getting hurt, which isn’t unlikely, and bam, the Patriots win another Super Bowl. It’s possible.

Patriots win this one big, 28-10.