The 2-2 New York Jets have lost their last two games, and their task does not get any easier this Sunday. The Jets travel to Foxboro, Mass. to take on the rival New England Patriots in an AFC East matchup. New England is 3-1. Game time is 4:15 p.m. ET (CBS).
"This is the team we have to beat," says Jets head coach Rex Ryan about the defending AFC East champions.
Led by quarterback Tom Brady, the Patriots have the NFL's top passing (384.8 yards per game) and overall (507.5) offense. Brady leads the league in passing yards (1,553; the second-most by a player in his team's first four games in NFL history) and 13 touchdowns. Last week, he threw two TD passes in New England's win at Oakland and tied Peyton Manning for the longest streak with multiple touchdown passes in NFL history (13 games). Brady's two TD passes give him 274 in his career and he passed Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana(273) to move into ninth-place all-time.
After the Jets' offense was terrible in Sunday's 34-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Ryan has promised a return to the "ground and pound" style New York employed during Mark Sanchez's first two seasons as Jets quarterback. The Jets, however, are 30th in the league running the ball -- averaging just 71 yards per game. They got just 38 yards rushing against Baltimore.
"We have to be able to run the football better than we're running it," Ryan said. "I think we built this team to be able to run the football. Obviously, not having Nick Mangold in there, but when you look at it, we have a tremendous center, we have one of the best left tackles (D'Brickashaw Ferguson) in football right there, a great right guard (Brandon Moore), the best right guard in the league in my opinion, a massive right tackle with athleticism (Wayne Hunter) (and) a huge left guard (Matt Slauson). We ought to be able to run the football more than 38 yards."
The Jets open the week as eight-point underdogs.