Saturday, January 16, 2010

Awaiting Jets vs. Chargers...

Tomorrow's the big day, when we'll see if the Jets have what it takes to get past the San Diego Chargers and move on to the AFC Championship game. The Jets haven't been to a Championship game since 1999 when they lost to the Denver Broncos in Denver.

The team truly believes they can and will win this game, which is the only attitude you can have if you have any hope of winning. They also know what everybody else knows - the Chargers are going to pose a huge problem across the board.

I talked to Jerricho Cotchery earlier in the week as he and Philip Rivers go back to high school. Rivers team beat Cotchery's team in the second round of the high school playoffs and Cotchery is itching for revenge. Of course, the two were incredibly successful together at NC State - in fact, Cotchery told me that Rivers was one of the reasons he chose that school because he knew he wanted to go somewhere with a great quarterback. The two have remained close friends and Cotchery says he sees the same player he always has, incredibly accurate with an amazing instinct for the game.

With Rivers, Antonio Gates, LaDanian Tomlinson, Darren Sproles and Vincent Jackson the defense has their hands full and they know it. Gates is especially hard to cover because of his size. Jackson too is a tall, big receiver. Expect to see Darrelle Revis on Jackson a lot - but not exclusively.

Field position, as always, is going to play a big role and it seems as though Steve Weatherford will be fine. Although Jay Feely ended up doing a great job, it wasn't really his idea of fun. As he said this week, "I would have been more comfortable returning punts."

Weatherford had a re-occurrence of a heart condition that developed when he was in high school and which he had a procedure for during his sophomore year of college. His heart beat was up around 175 -180 beats per minute and the doctors weren't going to let him go on the field. Even after he pulled out his IVs, he was stopped by GM Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan.

Although he will need another procedure after the season, they expect him to punt this week without a problem.

Everybody else is pretty healthy. David Harris' ankle has improved, which has to be a big relief to the entire organization.

So, who's your money on?

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