After a week of hype, the Jets and the Patriots finally meet this afternoon in Foxboro, Mass. The forecast calls for a wintry mix at Gillette Stadium as kickoff nears for a highly anticipated game.
“I don’t really watch the NFL much out of here but you can’t help but hear it this week because it’s been everywhere,” said S Kerry Rhodes from a Weeb Ewbank Hall first- floor office as an NFL Network Jets-Pats preview appeared on a television screen just a few feet away.
The buildup has been impossible to ignore. There are a lot of juicy angles people have talked about and some of them have actually included football. Most “experts” have predicted a large Patriots victory over the 3-10 Jets. The Jets, who pulled off the most important upset in NFL history in Super Bowl III, are even bigger underdogs today against the 13-0 Pats.
“You just want to go out there and prove yourself as a competitor, as a player and as a man," Rhodes said. "We’ve been hearing a lot of things from people outside here that we don’t want to hear, like they might beat us by 70. It’s time to stop talking about it and just go out and play.”
Amen to that. Nobody’s arguing against the Patriots’ credentials. They are an excellent football team and might turn out to be one of the greatest teams ever, but they respect the Jets.
“They came in last year and beat us at home,” said DE Richard Seymour. “We don’t have to say any more. They are going to come in and fight hard. It’s the National Football League, any given Sunday. So we’ll be prepared for them.”
The Jets were indeed the last team to beat the Pats at Gillette Stadium. Last November, Eric Mangini’s team came up with a hard-fought 17-14 victory over Bill Belichick’s squad in a memorable quagmire.
Each year is so unique but there could be a strong parallel between ’06 and ’07 — the weather. Jerricho Cotchery, who scored the Jets’ decisive touchdown in last year’s regular-season meeting, remembers preparing for the elements.
“That Wednesday when we came in and it was just pouring down rain, crazy everywhere, everyone was expecting to go inside but Coach made us go outside,” he said. “He was like, ‘We have to play in these conditions, so we have to get prepared for when we go up there.’ ”
More than a year later, the Jets were hit by a mini-December ice assault Thursday. Cotchery and his teammates knew better this time around that the bubble would remain vacant.
“We knew we were going to be practicing yesterday in the snow,” Cotchery said Friday. “Everyone expected it and everyone had fun practicing.”
You get the feeling the Jets wouldn’t mind playing in a flat-out blizzard. Mangini has used the bubble more in his second year, but you’d still be able to count those occasions on your hands.
“We say the bubble’s for recruiting purposes, like college,” Cotchery joked. “We rarely ever go in the bubble.”
Cotchery is an Alabama native and attended North Carolina State, so it’s not like the fourth-year wideout was throwing too many snowballs during his youth. But he sounds eager for another inclement contest.
“You had a lot of fun with it,” he said. “When things like that happen, it brings a lot of that kid out of you and puts that excitement back into it.”
The Patriots have been exciting their fans throughout the year with a good defense and a super offense. They’ve been nearly unstoppable, with Tom Brady leading a unit that averages 38.7 points and 425 yards a game.
“They’re probably the best offense football has ever seen,” said rookie CB Darrelle Revis. “They have a dynasty, man, they have a powerhouse. They’re good.”
Chad Pennington, a player quite familiar with this rivalry, was asked about Brady’s individual stats this week and had an honest response.
“They’re unrealistic — that would be the word,” he said of the numbers put up by the man with 45 TD passes and 4,095 yards.
The Jets respect their opponents but there is no fear inside the locker room. This is a competitive group that also has a bit of league history on its side.
Over the past 10 seasons, only two teams have started 13-0 and they both ran into roadblocks in Game 14. The 1998 Denver Broncos were knocked off by the Giants at the Meadowlands on Dec. 13. Then in 2005, the San Diego Chargers upended the unbeaten Colts at the RCA Dome on Dec. 18.
Will winter lightning strike a third time?
