The NY Jets will look to remain competitive this week against the San Francisco 49ers.
Looking ahead on the NY Jets schedule the past several months, the Week 2 matchup against the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers certainly did not look like much fun for the young Jets team.
Even to this day, this is not a game many are expecting much out of this team against the Niners.
But if the Jets were going to catch the 49ers on any day of 2020, this upcoming Sunday would be the most suitable day with the number of key players the Niners have out.
The 49ers did not look very good last week against the Arizona Cardinals despite leading for a good portion of the game. Jimmy Garoppolo missed a bunch of throws and went 19-for-33 on the day while also failing three out of four times in the red zone.
On top of that, we now have a 49ers team missing its best cornerback in Richard Sherman, and their best pass catcher and run blocker in George Kittle — their best player, really.
I don’t know guys, this Niners team is still one of the best in the league, but this is about as good of a matchup as you could ask for if you’re the Jets. Two of their best players are out and offensively they’re not in sync yet.
The NY Jets matchup with the San Francisco 49ers could end up being very sloppy.
Here’s the thing, I think this has the capability to be one of, if not the sloppiest game in all of Week 2. Two quarterbacks who have turnover problems are going up against each other with their biggest weapons out of the picture.
Garoppolo is missing George Kittle and Deebo Samuel, but he does return Brandon Aiyuk as it appears as though the rookie is headed towards being active this week.
Sam Darnold, on the other hand, is missing Denzel Mims, Le’Veon Bell, and Jamison Crowder, and the Jets’ offensive line still isn’t great with a savage pass rush coming to town. The Crowder loss is the most devastating because we all know how comfortable Sam is throwing to him.
For as many guys are missing for the 49ers whose absences are going to hurt, the Jets just have too many more. If this team was at full strength and looked semi-decent in Week 1, this may have been a spot for the Jets to steal a game nobody expected them to.
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I think this game is going to be a lot of the 49ers reverting back to what they did last year, pounding the run with Raheem Mostert and then trying to go over the top to one of their big playmakers for a strike.
With Aiyuk expected to suit up, I can very well see him going off in his rookie debut because the Jets did not look very strong in the secondary last week. 306 passing yards allowed to the Buffalo Bills who went to sleep in the second half is not a very good indicator.
I think the 49ers dig in and try to win this game in the trenches. Lots of run plays. Lots of clock management. Playing from ahead.
San Francisco is 10-3 all-time versus the Jets and 6-1 on the road against them as well.
The last time I looked at the lines for this game, the 49ers were -7 favorites on FanDuel Sportsbook. I’m going to say they cover that and win 28-17 hitting the over of 41.5.
Niners control the game. The Jets put some points on the board late.