12/19 — The major snowstorm has begun. I got here to my ringside seat at the Atlantic Health Training Center early this morning before the flakes had begun to fall. But shortly after 9 a.m. EST they arrived. They fell slowly at first, then faster and less vertically, more horizontally.

Now it's about 11 a.m. and the turf field outside my window is mostly white, with the yardlines still visible but the streaks of light green of five minutes ago now gone. But they'll be covered soon. We're still expecting 6-8 inches today into tonight.

The snow has me thinking about takeaways. The Jets' defense has done a good job of taking the ball away from the opponents this slow turnover season NFL-wide. Their 27 TAs are tied for fifth-most in the league.

True, the takes have come in bunches — seven vs. Arizona, five vs. St. Louis and seven combined in the two wins over Buffalo — but there's an aptitude there for this defense, and Darrelle Revis (5 INTs, 1 FR), Calvin Pace (4 FRs), Kerry Rhodes (2 INTs, 2 FRs) and Abram Elam (1 INT, 3 FFs) need to keep it up for the final two weeks of the regular season.

Problem is, the opponents may not be willing. In fact, by one measure, Seattle QB Seneca Wallace and now Miamian Chad Pennington are running the two stingiest offenses in the league when it comes to turning the ball over to the foes. Heading into Week 16, here are the five best QBs by turnover drive percentage this season (plus Brett Favre for the Jets);

So one of the many key matchups for both Sunday's game vs. the Seahawks and the following week's regular-season finale vs. the Dolphins will be which prevails: the Jets' takeaway tendencies or the enemy QBs' tightfistedness.

One thought for Sunday: Snow doesn't help ball protection. And now the forecast for Qwest Field is an 80 percent chance of snow on the West Coast.

One more thought for today: The yardlines are now visibe. That's because the plow is out and half the field has been cleared.

Head coach Eric Mangini will be speaking in 10 minutes and we hear the players will be practicing outside for the first time this week shortly after the coach concludes his remarks.

Update, 11:35 a.m.: Mangini opened his news conference by announcing with a smile: "We will be outside today."

Responding to a question about the Seattle weather report, he replied: "Yeah, it's supposed to snow out there, so I thought we'd enjoy it. I think Brett wants to make some snowballs."

Send Jetman to Tampa

Good luck to Rob Fulmer, a.k.a. JETMAN, the rabid rooter for the Green & White from the Granite State of New Hampshire who is one of the nine finalists in "The NFL: That's how I see it." contest. Check out the contest here and vote for Fulmer, even though in his thumbnail photo he looks like Napoleon in New Orleans. The winner will go to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa and into the Super Bowl commercial hall of fame. The contest began Thursday and runs through Jan. 4.