Watching ESPN and the NFL Network following New York’s win over New England would have you thinking the Jets victory was an upset.
As hard as it is to believe, most of the experts considered the Jets win completely unexpected. Well, that tells you everything we need to know about the experts.
The Jets won on Sunday because they did what any good team does in cold weather NFL playoff games. They ran the football, put pressure on Tom Brady and covered the Patriots receivers tighter than O.J. Simpson’s glove.
New York sacked Brady five times while the Pats couldn’t get to Mark Sanchez at all, giving him time to make several big plays.
The biggest play of the game was Santonio Holmes’ touchdown reception in the third quarter that put the Jets up 21-11.
Holmes seems to have a penchant for making spectacular catches in big games. He caught the game-winning touchdown for the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII that rivaled one of the greatest receptions in NFL history.
Perhaps the pundits were surprised to see the Jets win because of New England’s 45-3 beat down of New York just six weeks ago.
But that game is a distant memory, but not so distant was all the trash talking done over the past week leading up to the game.
Doing the most talking was Patriots wideout Wes Welker, who used eleven foot references in poking fun at Jets coach Rex Ryan’s wife Michelle.
That clearly didn’t sit well with the Jets players, a team that loves their coach and wanted to make the Patriots eat those words.
And eat them they did. The Patriots could only muster one decent drive in the game against a Jets defense that had Brady frustrated.
The fact is, despite New England coming into Sunday’s game with the NFL’s best record, the Patriots don’t have the type of receivers that scare anybody.
Ryan’s defensive genius was on full display as the Jets used multiple blitzes and coverage packages that kept Brady guessing.
Some will say that the Patriots lost because they didn’t play well on Sunday. That’s true, they didn’t play well, but it was because the Jets made them play poorly.
New England fans will deny it, but the New York Jets were the better team on Sunday and their victory wasn’t an upset.
Just as they did last season, the Jets are on the cusp of making their first appearance in the Super Bowl since Joe Namath led New York over Baltimore in 1969.
If they beat Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game next week, it won’t be because they upset the Steelers – they will have earned their way to Dallas.
