Game Day Preview: Jets @ Dolphins

Call me insane because I woke up at 6:30 this morning and I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I had butterflies in my stomach as if I was going to have to strap it up this afternoon. Lucky for me, I’ll be enjoying a burger while the Jets go to work.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Dolphins scare me this week. I think this game will boil down to a couple of factors. The Jets need to stop the run on defense, and secure the ball on offense. To accomplish this, it all boils down to one thing: Run the Ball early and often.

I believe the Dolphins have an underrated defense even with the loss of Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas. They have some good players in a revamped 3-4 D, that will play disciplined ball under the Parcells umbrella. In my opinion Ferguson, Porter, Ayodele, Crowder, Holliday & Merling are all guys that are built for a 3-4 system. The Jets obviously have a bunch of new faces on the offensive line and the way to get them going is to have them running down hill. Tony Richardson’s success opening holes for backs is well documented which is why the Jets need to let these guys loose.

The threat of Brett Favre’s arm alone will keep the secondary at bay. The Jets WR’s are excellent blockers as well, which is why they should spread it out, and pound Thomas Jones all game long. Will this be exciting? Probably not, but this is the way to get the win.

The defense is going to have it’s hands full with Ricky and Ronnie. Plus, Pennington didn’t throw a pick

against this defense for the first 4 weeks of training camp. So despite what many people say, he has the advantage! The Jets ability to keep these three on the sideline while keeping the defense fresh should go a long way into having fresh legs into the fourth quarter.

The humidity at this time of year in Miami is always unbearable. Fresh legs in the fourth quarter is going to be hard to come by. This will be the time of the game where if the Jets can continue to run the ball, they will wear out the home squad. Brett Favre just needs to facilitate this offense which I thought he did a fantastic job of in the preseason.

How do I see this one playing out?

I think this one will be a Field Goal Fest! I expect both teams to move the ball, but I don’t see many TD’s. I like both teams to have plenty of yardage between the 20’s but will end up settling near the goaline. Obviously I hope the Jets blow the doors off this Dolphin team, but in reality I expect a close one throughout. The more talented team prevails. The Jets have had the Dolphins number posting 4 W’s in a row, and 16 of the last 20! I have the Jets in a close one: Jets 22 – Dolphins 19!

The rest of my picks for week 1 are below! Enjoy!