CLOSE CALL

Jets 28, Bills 20 (NYJ: 2-1, BUF: 1-2)

The Jets made this one (again) a lot closer than it should have been. But they won, and they're 2-1, and depending on how the Patriots do in the Sunday night game, the Jets are going to be either a game out of first or in a tie for first.

I'm going to tell you something else - the Jets have a very real chance of being 5-3, maybe even 6-2, by the time their bye week rolls around. We'll get into that a little more as the weeks progress - but I have now shifted from hoping for a decent season to the possibility that the Jets can be one of the top teams in the AFC and make the playoffs.

The reason? They looked that good against Buffalo, which isn't a great team, but has been good enough the first couple of weeks. The Jets came out slow, which may have been by design, because the wind was blowing in their faces. And the Bills jumped out to a 7-0 and then 10-7 lead. But the Jets let Willis McGahee do their thing, and stopped every other facet of the Bills' game, which is exactly what their game plan should have been. (Everything fell apart in the final couple of minutes, but I now know to expect that the Jets aren't going to get anything easily this year.)

Willis McGahee got his 150 yards rushing, but the Jets kept him out of the end zone. And the Jets themselves moved the ball on the ground - nothing brilliant, but 74 yards on 24 carries - including 2 for 10 by Cedric Houston, who scored a late touchdown! (Derrick Blaylock was inactive Sunday.) Houston looked good - I'm going to start beating his drum again.

The Jets defense forced 3 turnovers - 2 fumbles by J.P. Losman, and an interception, and didn't really allow the Bills to move the ball in the air until the final two minutes. Chad Pennington was brilliant again. This was more of a typical Pennington performance - 19 of 29, for 183 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown came inside the Red Zone, where in his career Pennington is now 44 TD's to 0 INT's. And it came on a beautiful play fake - I love watching Pennington do those.

There were some really great signs of life in this ballgame. The Jets running game showed promise. Pennington made some great decisions. The defense played great when it had to. I don't know if it will be enough to beat Indianapolis next week (although I'll find a way to pick the Jets by Friday), but it may be enough to beat Jacksonville in two weeks. But again, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself - let's just enjoy a winning record.

THE PICK

388 yards, 2 touchdowns. 129.3 yards per game rushing. That's what Willis McGahee has done in his past three games against the Jets. We could be witnessing the beginning of a very bad relationship - the development of one of those players who just kills the Jets every time they play. Then there's the fact that the Jets gave up 145 yards rushing to the Patriots last week, and it could be a long day for the Jets run defense on Sunday.

But in the end, it might be a successful day. No, the Jets can't run the ball, but they might be able to eek out enough yards against Buffalo that they could open up the passing game for Chad Pennington a little bit. And with what Pennington's been able to do with no running game, a little bit of a running game could be huge for him.

The Jets may never shut down Willis McGahee. But they can let him do his thing and stop J.P. Losman. Last year the Jets went 1-1 against Buffalo with Vinny Testaverde and Brooks Bollinger at quarterback. The Bills aren't much better now than last year (although they have played two pretty good games) - I expect the Jets, based on what I've seen from them so far this year, to be able to go 2-0 against Buffalo in 2006.

This is a big measuring stick game for the Jets. The Bills hung with New England from beginning to end, while the Jets came alive against the Patriots in the second half. New England won both of those games. Buffalo upset Miami, who hasn't looked good yet this year, but was supposed to be good, and the Jets beat a bad Tennessee team. So if the Jets beat the Bills Sunday, I'll feel good about their chances against the Dolphins, and perhaps their chances at making a playoff run this season. If the Jets lose, it's looking like a 3rd or 4th place finish this season.

I really do think the Jets will win this game - give them a 27-13 win. I think they're that much better than Buffalo (although I haven't seen anything yet this year from the Jets to lead me to believe they should be able to blow anyone out). And it will be a good season.

PICKS: Somehow, Dave in Brighton pulled off a 12-4 week last week. He was shooting for 4 wins, he tripled his expectation. The Wife stayed consistent, going 9-7, holding off an 11-5 week by the Southern Bureau. And Justin in NYC is holding his own in the middle of the pack after a 10-6 week. Cousin Eddie fell, going 5-11, and I'm in last after a 7-9 week. Here's how it looks:

1. The Wife: 19 (total wins)
2. Southern Bureau: 17
3. Justin in NYC: 15
4. Dave in Brighton: 14
Cousin Eddie: 14
6. johnnyjets: 13

Surprise!! A mid-week writing on the page. I'm going to try to be better at this...we'll see how that turns out.

As though it didn't already seem that the Jets were headed in this direction with the whole Vinny Testaverde thing...now Kevin Mawae is out for the rest of the season (and the Jets couldn't even make the center-quarterback exchange with the Pro Bowler at center), and Ty Law looks like he might not play in Monday night's game versus the Falcons...at Atlanta. This season is now headed in the same direction as....well, it's easier to list the seasons that this season is NOT headed in the same direction as - 1968, 1998, 2002, and 2004. Yup, such is the sad life of a Jets fan. You could toss 1986 in there too...but it only makes it sound like they're a better franchise than they are.

With all that said, this blog will become more of an NFL recapper, instead of focusing on the depressing, slowly maddening Jets. And this was some weekend for us DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers (especially those with TiVo - well, not really, but I had to work TiVo in). I'll start with the Monday nighter, because I didn't stay up to see how the Colts came back - but you just had a feeling the Rams weren't exactly going to blow the doors off of Indy, in Indy. After jumping out to a 17-0 lead, Saint Louis lost Marc Bulger, and things just weren't the same. They also couldn't stop Edgerrin James, apparently, because he ran for 143 yards and 3 TD's. The Colts are 6-0 - the only undefeated team left in the NFL. The way the rest of the "favorites" are playing right now, they should win the Super Bowl. I think the next best team out there is the Falcons, and I don't think the Falcons could beat the Colts in the Super Bowl. I wouldn't mind seeing the Colts win it. I like Peyton Manning a lot - I only hate him when he's playing the Jets. And I only wouldn't want to see the Colts win if they had to go through the Jets in the playoffs - but since that's NOT going to happen, "Go, Indy!"

The Giants blew a great chance to win in Dallas, but that game was still pretty exciting for a Giants game. Actually, only the final minutes were exciting, but that's all I watched, so it's all good. The Giants had a chance to tie late, needing a touchdown. And after Tiki Barber got them to the three, Brandon Jacobs fumbled on the 1, and the Cowboys recover, and it looks like it's over. But remember, the Cowboys' QB is Drew Bledsoe, one of the dumbest men alive, so you always have a chance in this situation. Two handoffs got stuffed by the Giants, then Time Outs, and then Bledsoe threw an incomplete pass out of his own end zone, stopping the clock. The Cowboys punted, and Eli Manning proceeded to throw two great passes and got the Giants into the end zone in the final minute to tie it. Unfortunately for the Giants, they blew a bunch of chances to blow this one open early and lost on a field goal in overtime. The Cowboys had been driving on the Giants all day - they just couldn't get into the end zone - that didn't matter in OT.

Atlanta and New Orleans was sort of an unexciting exciting game. It ended anticlimactically, with a Falcons good field goal after the bad field goal was taken back by a bad Saints penalty. I don't know how Jim Haslett still has a job - he's as bad a coach as Mike Tice.

Pittsburgh was brutal this week, led by Tommy Maddox. Maddox threw three picks, the last coming in overtime, and returned for the game-winning touchdown by the Jaguars. That came after the Steelers took the overtime-opening kickoff (or a punt, I forget), into field goal range, only to fumble it away. Then the pick on their next possession. Is it any wonder that the Steelers will start Roethlisberger next Sunday?

The Jets game I won't dwell on, I will just say that I logged my first-ever correct prediction this week - Curtis Martin ran right through the Bills defense. They stink against the run. And the Jets stink, period. Willis McGahee is the worst thing ever to happen to them in the division. He owns them...every time they play him, he has a big game. He's like Michael Jordan was to the Knicks back when I gave a crap about the NBA.

Here's my favorite game of the weekend - Carolina at Detroit. I don't know, first of all, how Detroit was favored in this game (by a point), and I don't know how they almost won. But they led the Panthers by 6 late, late, late in the game, and Jake Delhomme is driving the Panthers down the field. He takes off on a run, slides feet first, and gets laid out on the field...15-yard penalty, and in comes Chris Weinke. I don't like Weinke, but I enjoyed seeing him lead the Panthers to the win - a touchdown with about a minute left. Maybe it's because I picked the Panthers...I can't say. But it was exciting.

My final thoughts - Dom Capers is going to get fired. The Texans stink, and who else can be more responsible than him?...Shaun Alexander is a touchdown machine - it's ridiculous - but he's still the guy who put himself before the team in last season's final game, and that's just bush league....LaDanian Tomlinson is definitely the best player in the NFL right now...I wonder if my jersey jinx would work on other teams - like if I bought a Tomlinson jersey, would he start to be brutal?...Tampa Bay is done - Chris Simms isn't a winner, and Tim Rattay isn't good...I was actually right on another prediction - the Broncos are a different team at home. They have an almost unfair home-field advantage.

It was a very exciting Sunday in the NFL, and it was a very exciting Saturday in college football - but I won't get into all that. Monday night was also a very exciting night for the NLCS - for more on that, check out johnnymets.blogspot.com.