One thing we can all be assured of is the Jets are not going to roll the Bengals to the tune of a 37-0 shellacking this Saturday.

A few things to consider when analyzing this game before making your pick:

* The Jets needed last week’s game badly to make the Playoffs; the Bengals didn’t.

* The Bengals, with a win, would have secured the 3rd seed and faced the Ravens for the third time this season.  They’ve won the first two and beating a team three times in one season is something very difficult to accomplish.

* The Bengals sat Cedric Benson and a few of their other key defensive players.

* The Jets showed everything in their arsenal (offensively and defensively) while the Bengals showed very little.

Now to the rematch and how we see things shaping up on Saturday.

When the Bengals are on offense, look for Palmer to feed the ball to Cedric Benson between 25 and 30 times. It is imperative that the Bengals can get a solid running game going because their pass offense has been unable to carry them over the last six weeks of the season. What’s becoming more apparent is that when the late Chris Henry was placed on IR, the threat of a deep passing game went with him.

Aside from Ochocinco, who’s now slowed by a knee injury, Coles and Caldwell have failed to step up and this has defenses shifting focus to his side of the ball. The Jets have the luxury of being able to put CB Darrelle Revis on No. 85 in single coverage so the other receivers will need to step up and make plays when the opportunity presents itself.

When the Jets are on offense, expect them to follow a similar blueprint to the one they used in their blowout victory in Week 17. They will run the ball with Thomas Jones and Shonne Greene and hope that they can continue to pick up 1st downs in bunches.

But they’ll find things aren’t as easy this week when Mike Zimmer actually prepares his defense to take away the Jets lone offensive weapon: the running game.

Zimmer will keep his talented corners on an island against Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery and they’ll be able to lock them down. He’ll then bring extra help from the Safety position up to the line in order to render the Jets running game ineffective.

The lack of a running threat will induce Mark Sanchez into mistakes because he’s shown time and time again that he is not ready to carry this offense as a rookie.

This fact might have us seeing Brad Smith run the Wild Cat more frequently but although it caused some confusion and led to a score last Sunday, you can bet  the Bengals defenders will have things cleaned up by Saturday.

When the clock reaches 0:00,  expect Cincinnati to pull out a close 17-13 win. They’ll play exceptional defense and force Sanchez into a few turnovers which will be the deciding factor in the game.

The O/U of 34.5 is a good bet too.

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