Chargers vs Jets Playoffs

?The New York Jets kicked off Wild card weekend last week with an inspiring win in a rematch of their week 17 game against the Cincinatti Bengals. This week they travel to San Diego to face the Chargers with a chance to move on to the AFC championship game. The Jets face a tough test this week against a San Diego team riding a 12 game win streak and as a result are 8 point underdogs.

?Like the other AFC divisional game these 2 teams play very different styles of football. The Jets like to run the ball and play stifling defense while the Chargers pass very efficiently and play mediocre defense.  The Jets led on offense by rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez finished the regular season with rankings of, 20th overall yards per game, 1st in rushing yards per game, and 31st in passing yards per game. The Chargers franchise QB Philip Rivers led their offense to rankings of, 10th overall yards per game, 31st in rushing yards per game, and 5th in passing yards per game. The real strength of the New York Jets is their defense driven by shut down cornerback Darrelle Revis ended the regular season with rankings of, 1st in overall yards per game, 1st against the pass, 8th against the run, and 1st in scoring. The Chargers defense is anchored by pro bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman and finished with rankings of, 16th in overall yards per game, 11th against the pass, 20th against the run, and 11th in scoring.

? In this game look for the jets to try to do what they do best, play great pass D and run the ball down the throat of the San Diego defense. The most important thing however is for the Jets D to get pressure on the quarterback and force mistakes. The Jets’ offense will need help in this game, they are not very impressive. If the defense can cause pressure and force a turnover or more that will help keep the pressure off the offense. New York can win this game if they run the ball effectively and work play action off of that, they need to wear down the Chargers defense with long drives and more importantly the long drives will keep the ball out of Philip Rivers hands.

?Keys to the game for the Chargers include running efficiently, shutting down the run, and shutting down play action passes. Now the Chargers don’t need to change philosophy for this game and suddenly become a running team, but if they can run efficiently and get that into the defenses mind it will help to slow down the Jets pass rush and give Rivers more time against Revis and the secondary. If the Chargers can shut down the run and force the Jets to pass the ball this game is theirs for the taking; Mark Sanchez had an alright rookie year but he will not be able to pass this team to victory unless the run game is working. The play action pass is where the Jets can hurt you big time, the secondary cannot get beat deep on these passes or even allow short completions on these types of plays.

Neil Spanton