The 3-0 Saints will host the 3-0 New York Jets this Sunday October 4, 2009 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The mass-media is mostly still viewing this matchup as a battle between the strength of the Jets’ defense versus the strength of the Saints’ offense but that definitely does not tell the whole story in this particular case.
Sure the Jets’ defense is getting lots of attention from the media around the nation so far and all, but the Saints are meanwhile fielding a very aggressively competitive defense of their own this season under the tutelage of new Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams. Their week 3 victory over the Bills in Buffalo was a shut-out by the Saints defense even though the scoreboard showed the Saints giving up seven points in the game. Those seven points came from a trick-play fake field goal by the Bills over the Saints’ special teams unit and not against the Saints “defense”.
The Jets’ defense is currently ranked #3 while the Saints’ registered as #10 in the league by NFL.com/stats after a total of 3 games fully played so far this season.
All of the offensive fireworks in this matchup will probably not belong solely to the Saints either. The Jets are playing top-notch offense in the league right now themselves.
Saints head coach Sean Payton argues a call at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Saints’ offense is currently ranked #1 overall while the Jets are tied at #12 (with the Bills) in the category of “Scoring” and they registered tied for #11 (with the Falcons, Bills, Jags, Chargers 49ers and Titans) in the category of “Touchdowns” by NFL.com/stats.
This promises to be a physical game on all sides of the ball and, judging from the over/under numbers being in the ballpark of 45 points, I would definitely have to side with the under in this particular matchup since I personally foresee more of a defensive battle over a shoot-out type of scenario. But that’s just me…
DISCLAIMER: Do not empty your savings account and bet the farm on the under in this game just because I said so! Please!
There was an interesting article which came out this morning at 9 AM from 14 year New York Jets reporting veteran Dave Hutchinson of the New Jersey newspaper “The Star Ledger” (aka: NJ.com) where he essentially whined about the Saints denying him all of his 5 requested interviews of:
1) current MVP candidate QB Drew Brees
2) ex-Jet LB Jonathan Vilma
3) former Hofstra WR Marques Colston
4) ex-Giant TE Jeremy Shockey
and
5) media-attracting RB Reggie Bush.
The article can be linked here:
http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2009/09/are_the_saints_running_scared.html
The man was offered an interview with veteran safety Darren Sharper by the Saints and he decided to essentially say a thanks but no thanks in response where he did say, and I’ll quote, “the Saints turned down requests from media members covering the Jets for five players; they finally said ‘yes’ to safety Darren Sharper. Nevermind, guys.” as well as “I’m sure Sharper is a nice guy and all but …”.
What this veteran sports reporter apparently fails to realize in this situation is the plain and simple fact that the 2009/10 Saints could actually care less about making any pre-game headlines in the larger than life New York City sports news market. The only thing these 2009/10 Saints care about doing is winning as many games as possible on their way to a legitimate Super Bowl run for this long suffering franchise from the beautiful and still very alive and lively city of New Orleans as well as the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Alabama.
Darren Sharper (an interception machine)
Unfortunately for Mr. Hutchinson, denying Darren Sharper a pre-game interview will not likely translate into denying him interceptions on the football field this Sunday afternoon in NOLA.
I am going to try something a little bit out of the ordinary here on this game preview article of mine, so bear with me for a minute or two if you could please:
The history of these two franchises (New Orleans Saints versus New York Jets) is currently tied at 5-5. The total points from those 10 games played so far is Saints 193 and Jets 162. I took those numbers and figured their per game averages by simply dividing the total points scored for each team by 10 and got Saints 19.3 and Jets 16.2. Based on this very simplistic formula of my own invention just now, my prediction for the final score of the game this weekend is:
Saints 20
Jets 17
3 DID U KNOW(S)???
1) In their history, the Jets have started 3-0 four times (1966, 2000, 2004 and now in 2009).
2) The Jets have made the playoffs only one time (2004) so far after starting the season at 3-0.
3) The Saints have won 4 of the last 5 meetings between these two teams.
No matter what happens this Sunday in NOLA between these two teams on the gridiron, there is one thing that I do know will happen for sure.
The Dome will be-a-rockin’ so don’t come-a-knockin’ unless you mean serious business!!!