Week 1: A must win?

I know it’s early, and it’s hard to call any game a must win, but a loss to Miami this week would shake the new look Jets confidence for weeks 2 & 3 where they will play New England and San Diego respectively. Week 4 they welcome in Arizona, and then will have the bye in Week 5 to regroup. This first four games are going to be critical for how the Jets move forward for the rest of the season. THEY NEED TO BE 2-2 going into that bye week to have a fighting chance.

There are a couple of reasons why the Dolphins scare the “you know what” out of me.

1. The Jets have all the pressure to perform after all the offseason aquisitions they brought in, while the Dolphins have no pressure because everyone knows the Parcells plan takes some time to build.

2. The Jets haven’t shown much this preseason as far as stopping the run, Miami will have the 2 headed monster in Ronnie and Ricky.

3. The Jets offensive line has yet to show a push, and as admitted by Alan Faneca, it takes a while for a offensive line to gel.

4. The Miami humidity & a crowd who has been dying to forget last season.

5. Bill Parcells

6. A motivated Chad Pennington and a bunch of guys who want to help him get revenge.

7. The Jets have thrived off Miami Turnovers in recent history, and Pennington is the most accurate QB in NFL History.

WITH THAT SAID, I think the Jets are the superior team in talent and I hope that they can game plan for Pennington the way everyone else has game planned for him while a Jet. They know his tendencies and if the Jets can stop the run and force Pennington to win the game, then the new look pash rush should hopefully prevail!

Some other positives are that the Jets have owned the Dolphins in recent history. They’ve posted 4 wins in a row and 16 of the last 20. If Gang Green wants to start this things off right, it boils down to controlling the line of scrimmage. They need to pound Thomas Jones and Leon Washington, and open things up for Favre to manage the game. They need to set that tone for the season! This needs to be a run first team, and I hope Mangenius will stick to his guns and make it happen!!!

So far I’m really nervous about this one, but I’ll talk myself into confidence by weeks end! Either way, Don’t lay any chedder on this one… Miami/New York always provides something weird… and like I said, the Dolphins have nothing to lose!!! Except to us this weekend!!! It’s finally here!!! Week 1 Baby!!! J-E-T-S, JETS!!! JETS!!! JETS!!!