AFC Wildcard Saturday – Take The Jets

The AFC playoff picture will become much clearer this weekend.  The New York Jets take on the AFC North champion Cincinnati Bengals to AFC wildcard Saturday, Jan 9, 2010. On Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens head to Foxboro to take on the AFC East champion New England Patriots. Here are some pre-game insights and predictions for the AFC matchup between the Jets and the Bengals.

Jets coach Rex Ryan says the Jets should be the favorite to win the Superbowl, but not even all-time Jet Joe Namath agrees. For a first-year NFL coach those are pretty big words, especially with a rookie QB leading the team. But there could be some credence in what he says – just take a look at the NFL regular season statistics.

The Jets are ranked 1st in the total defense (1ST against the pass/8th against the rush). Offensively they are ranked 20th in total offense but 1st in Rushing and 31st in passing. Pretty impressive statistics! And remember, the Jets beat the undefeated Colts in week 16 and routed the Bengals in week 17 to get an AFC wildcard spot.

However we know the Bengals are no slouches defensively. They are ranked 4th in total defense (8th against the pass/7th against the rush). Offensively they are ranked 24th overall (9th in rushing/26th in passing).

Many of the NFL analysts say you can throw away the stats from last week’s matchup, but some are too startling too avoid:

• The Bengals had only 5 first downs in the entire game to the Jets 21
• The Bengals averaged 1.8 yards per play to the Jets 4.4
• The Bengals rushed and netted only 72 yards – the Jets 257 on the ground with a net of 320
• Starting QB Carson Palmer had 0 yards passing (1/11 with 1 interception)
• The Bengals time of possession was 18:46 minutes to the Jets 41:14

While we don’t expect another shutout by the Jets, we do expect a repeat performance by the Jets running attack. We also see Mr. Revis shutting down Ochocinco (or is it Johnson?) and the Bengals passing game.

Yes, the Bengals are playing at home but we feel the pressure is on them to win since they’ve been in the playoffs only twice since 1990 (1990, 2005 – both division championships).

The Bengals are favorite by 2 points In this AFC playoff match-up. The under/over is 34 points.

Thenflthisweek.com prediction for AFC Wildcard Saturday

Jets 28 Bengals 7