Nine weeks ago, the New England Patriots, the defending Super Bowl champions, defeated the New York Jets 30-23 in New England—a game that Jets fans think they should have won.
In actuality, the games the Jets should have won were against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3 and the Buffalo Bills in Week 10. The Eagles or Bills don’t have a Tom Brady, a veteran Pro Bowl quarterback who’s led his team to four Super Bowl titles.
The Jets, now 9-5, play the 12-2 Patriots Sunday at MetLife in an AFC East conference game that the Jets desperately need to win in order to make the playoffs. It’s a game in which they can’t afford to commit seven penalties, miss field goals, extra points and not convert 4th and 1s or anything comparable to the way they played during the Cowboys game this past Saturday. They realize that there are only two wild card positions available. They’re fighting the Piittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs, both 9-5 for one of them.
The Jets, who finalized Dallas’ season, actually took them out of their misery, officially pulling the plug19-16 in Texas for a fourth straight win. “It’s good to string some games together,”
said New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles. “Playoffs or not, we have to string some games together. It’s a good time to start playing some good football,” Bowles continued. “It wasn’t
pretty today. All of them are not going to be pretty. But good teams win the ugly games.”
Defense kept the Jets in Saturday’s game. An interception in the closing minutes by cornerback Marcus Williams saved it for Gang Green. They finished with four interceptions and two sacks. Said Bowles, “We didn’t blow the game like we did with Buffalo. We continued what we learned from the Giants game and played a good second half.”
The Jets will have to lean on that defense again Sunday, as well as their offensive weapons, the strong run game of Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell and receivers Brandon Marshall (11 touchdowns,1,293 yards, 93 catches) and Eric Decker (10 touchdowns, 72 catches, 930 yards).
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones summed up the meaning of football at this time of year, week 15. “You wanna be in this thing at this particular time,” he said, realizing that his team’s season is over.
