Florham Park, NJ — A few things the Jets need to be strong at tomorrow night against the Ravens.

1. Run Defense

2. Run offense

3. Offensive line play

4. Passing offense

Defense, defense, defense -- This Sunday the Jets defense needs to be strong in order to top the Ravens and their stars. (JetsInsider.com Photo)

Everyone knows by now, three weeks into the season, that the Jets are having a bit of a problem moving the ball on the ground and now they have to meet up with the Baltimore Ravens who have been arguably the best defensive team in the league for the past ten seasons, but that doesn’t mean they won’t at least try to run it.

“Are you going to run it against Haloti Ngata, over and over, and against Ray Lewis. We’ll probably have to throw it more than we want.” Coach Ryan said when asked about the offense.

This is another thing that is standing out so far this season, is the fact that the Jets are putting the ball in the hands of QB Mark Sanchez a lot more than last season. He, like all quarterbacks in the game has had some ups and downs this season but practice makes perfect and maybe through the year as he throws more passes his accuracy will rise and his interceptions will fall. He is returning to Baltimore where last season didn’t really shine and the first game of the season, Sanchez went (10-21, 74 yards, and no touchdowns) not a game to want to remember. Sanchez knows this time has to be a lot different in order for his team to stay in the game.

“This is one of the best groups we’ll face all year, a physical group. They know their schemes really well.” Sanchez said about facing the Ravens defense. “They’ve played together for a long time, so this is probably one of the best team’s we’ll play, and we need to play well on the road, answer the call, and play well against this really good team.”

The teams ‘ground and pound’ ways have been a bit rough and to make it even worse, their run defense last Sunday against the Raiders and Darren McFadden weren’t any better. They can’t let this happen again this week. RB Ray Rice is no slouch when it comes to carrying the rock and the Jets defense needs to be on their best behavior or Rice and the Ravens will punish them just like McFadden did. Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine made it clear this week that needs to change.

“Disgusted, frustrated. That was well below our standards.” Pettine said, making it known how he felt about the amount of yards the team is giving up.

Now it is time to move on and worry about the Ravens and Pettine wants his defense to do so.

“It’s Baltimore week”, he said, “So, if you can’t get pumped up for that one, if you can’t get your juices flowing for this week, Bart (Scott) always calls these, “double chin strap games”, we tell our guys, if you can’t get ready for this one, then you’re sitting in the wrong room.”

Lastly, the offensive line of the Jets played well the first half of last weeks game but in the second half they seemed to simply run out of gas. They gave up four sacks in the second half and Sanchez even suffered a broken nose after taking one of those hits. This week, the Ravens don’t fool around and they will attack Sanchez when needed. The offensive line must play the complete game in order to put a positive spin on the subject. (Side note… C NICK Mangold remains game time decision)

Overall, the Jets need to play as a team for the entire 60 minutes in order to make this game competitive. If that doesn’t happen tomorrow night, then you can count them out early because the Ravens will have their offense rolling and there will be no stopping them. If they do come out as a team and play the entire game, then get ready for a good Sunday night on your couch.

Prediction: I think the Jets defense will show up tomorrow, granted they will have some trouble moving the ball on offense against a top notch defense but I just don’t think they will have enough fire power to shoot the Ravens down. I think the Ravens come out on top with a (24-17) victory. Might be a lot of points for the Ravens but with the way the Jets defense has been performing, it’s not as high as one may think. The defense needs to step up in order to impress me and so far they haven’t. We will see if they can change that tomorrow night in Baltimore.
 
 
 

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