Which is the Biggest Game of the First Quarter of the 2013 Season for the New York Jets?

May 22, 2013; Florham Park, NJ, USA; New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith (7) throws a pass as Mark Sanchez (left) watches during organized team activities at the New York Jets training facility. Mandatory Credit: William Perlman/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

Let’s get to a happy place this Friday morning, how does that sound? Any followers of this blog know that this has not been the greatest week for me, spending it in the hospital. So, like I said, I can’t be any happier sitting here talking football with you guys.

So, how do we get to our happy place? Let’s talk some J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS football. Specifically, let’s take a look at the upcoming schedule, and work our tradition for breaking the schedule down by quarter, and seeing which the biggest game is.

In case you don’t have it handy, here is the first quarter of the upcoming Jets schedule:

WEEK 1: vs TAMPA BAYWEEK 2: at NEW ENGLANDWEEK 3: vs. BUFFALOWEEK 4: at TITANS

Many times, you would take a look at a quarter like this, especially the first one, and look at the 3rd and 4th week, as the important ones. There are a lot of strong candidates here, such as two divisional games, one at home, and one in primetime.

But, in this case, the biggest game of the quarter is not the divisional games. Nor is it the team they may battle for a playoff spot with, (Titans). The biggest game of the quarter is the opening game, week 1, against Tampa Bay.

We have a new look team stepping onto the MetLife turf for week 1. We have a new running attack, a new concept on offense, a younger and faster defense, among other things. This team is going to attack opponents differently than they have in years. No matter who the quarterback is, it will be different. Can the offense take a step forward with a short passing game, and running game sprinkled in? Week 1 we will find out.

It will be interesting to watch whether or not Darrelle Revis steps in and makes his impact on the game that day as well. Can Marty and the gang gameplan around him? Who knows? The Jets will certainly be doing a great amount more passing than they have in the past, which will be music to Darrelle’s ears.

The point is, this team is going through a facelift. The colors will be the same, but the play on the field is going to be far from what we are used to seeing. This is going to be our first chance to see the new players and concepts in the big stage, regular season games!

Are those other games big? Of course they are. How could I say that AFC East games are not big? All I am saying is that, because of the blueprint week 1 is going to give us, it is the biggest game of quarter number one.