Have you ever seen an accident with a brand new car smashed up with dealer advertising still present where the license plates will go once they arrive?
That scene is parallel to what the New York Jets experienced in first week National Football League action when their newly acquired quarterback was lost for the season with an injury. All the preseason hype on how high the Jets would rise this year with an experienced championship quarterback at the controls of their offense was erased by Aaron Rodgers suffering an Achilles tear.
About an hour later, during the halftime show on ESPN, Peyton Manning addressed the injury with the prediction that the Jets would be in for a rough second half against the highly regarded Buffalo Bills. The Bills had taken a 10 point lead to the halftime locker room, and Manning expected that gap to be expanded in the second half.
Athletes often see the game through matchups more than motivation. Manning assumed that the loss of their starting quarterback could only hurt the Jets and help the Bills. In my world, where motivation is even more important than rushing or passing stats, the opposite is true. I only saw the advantage the Jets got in the locker room being down, without their new superstar quarterback, and facing 30 more minutes against a Bills team now only needing to halt an offense being directed by the questionable skills of Zach Wilson.
The Bills were confident in their locker room of their opener in New Jersey, the Jets desperate to find some way to compete with a team that already had a double-digit lead. On this night, it was motivation that ruled the second half, and while the Bills went through the motions thinking victory would be theirs, the Jets scraped together every fiber in their bodies to try and fend off an overwhelming set of circumstances from the physical realm pitched against them.
With motivation at their backs, the Jets talented defense limited the Bills to 25 rushing yards in the second half and outscored them 13-3 to force overtime. The extra period ended in the Jets favor when Xavier Gipson returned the Bills punt, after Buffalo went three-and-out, 65-yards for the winning touchdown.
Off that result, an inspired Bills performance countered their opener and led to a 38-10 triumph over the visiting Las Vegas Raiders. On the same day, the Jets came up flat in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-10.
Now what?
The Jets host the New England Patriots tomorrow, not off the glow of a comeback win over the team that has won the AFC East Division title the past three seasons, but following a humbling setback in Dallas. They are still apparently in the market for a veteran quarterback to replace the injured Rodgers, but currently are making due with an athlete they have about as much confidence in as you would of trying to start an old car on a cold morning with a weak battery.
Now the team that won the AFC East title in 17 of 19 seasons beginning in 2001, come calling and the line has them favored over the Jets at MetLife Stadium. Bill Belichick is leading a New England Patriots squad that shows little resemblance to those dominant teams he paraded around the league for two decades. The Patriots are still looking for their first win this year, as Belichick has suffered his first season of opening with back-to-back losses since 2001. He hasn’t lost three games to start a campaign since his first year as head coach of New England in 2000.
The books opened this game with the visitor favored by two points, and the public doesn’t expect New England to get beat three weeks in a row. Thing is, while the Patriots of the past may not have been a likely candidate to lose three straight games, the players wearing New England uniforms today have only a single prerequisite for that fate … losing their first two contests of the season.
The Jets high hopes this season were not exclusively pinned to Rodgers, they also field a talented stop unit and a lot of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. And the public, well they still think this is the Patriots of old, they are not, they are a mere shadow of the quality squads Belichick led into battle during all his days of glory.
On Sunday, the winless team is favored on the road, and the home team is motivated to play the Patriots, not an oh and two team.
Qoxhi Picks: New York Jets (+3) over New England Patriots