I fully expect the Jets to come out trying to run the ball, unlike the last time these two teams faced each other. There’s no scheming to be had here, it just who wins the battle in the trenches.  I think that Vince Wilfork will have a monster game, dominating the line and helping to shut down the run.  On offense, the Patriots will do their usual, spreading the ball around to the open man, and getting some good running yards from Green-Ellis and Woodhead. My prediction: Patriots 35 - Jets 17.

That couldn’t really have gone much better.  The team gets a dominating win, Brady throws some more TD passes, Gronkowski gets another TD catch, Benny gets to 1000 yards rushing for the season, and the backup players (Tate, Hoyer, Edelman, Price, all the extra O-linemen) look pretty good.  That 42 yard TD pass from Hoyer to Tate (Hoyer’s first TD pass of his career) was pretty impressive. And it was nice to see some good plays from Tate and Edelman who will be called upon as 3rd WR in the playoffs.

And the Pats lock up the AFC East and home field advantage in the playoffs with this 34-3 win in which they forced the Bills into 7 (seven!) turnovers! The Patriots have turned the ball over 9 times all season.  Brady now has a record 319 passes without an INT, and the Patriots have gone 7 games without a turnover.  Pretty impressive stats!  The Patriots have 9 turnovers on the season, Eli Manning by himself has turned the ball over 25 times (20 INTs and 5 fumbles lost).

What an impressive victory over a Jets team tied for the best record in the league.  The offense basically scored at will, including 93 and 94 yard touchdown drives in the 3rd quarter.  And the defense, after all its struggles, played well against the pass and on third down and held the Jets offense to just 3 points!  The key thing is that everything is coming together at the right time. Unlike 2007, when the Patriots started out red hot and then struggled to win in Nov and Dec, they are just starting to play their best football now.

Looking at this game, I think Rex Ryan making this a personal challenge with Belichick was a mistake. You give a motivated Belichick 11 days to plan for your team, along with talk about being out-coached by Ryan in week 2, it’s going to be trouble.  And of course the fact that it was the Jets, they were tied for the best record, the Jets were talking all week, the playoff implications, the extra time to prepare, and that it was a home night game on national tv, and you knew the Patriots would come out and play hard and execute well.

Brady: Tom Brady has played lights out the last 4 weeks. He’s completed 73.4% of his passed for 1204 yards, 13 TDs, and 0 picks, defeated the Steelers, Colts, Lions, and Jets by an average score of 34.75 - 20.25.

Looking ahead: The Patriots can take the #1 seed and home field advantage if they win out their last 4 games. And they are clearly the class of the AFC as they have beaten all potential playoff contender (Jets, Steelers, Ravens, Colts, Chargers) other than the Chiefs. And they’re just playing their best football now.

The future: The future looks very bright. 1st round pick Devin McCourty looks very much like a shutdown all-pro corner.  The rookies and second year players on defense (McCourty, Chung, Spikes, Cunningham, Pryor, Brace, Deaderick, Fletcher) all are developing nicely.  On the offensive side, Green-Ellis and Woodhead might be the answers we’ve been looking for at running back.  Our two rookie tight ends, Gronkowski and Hernandez, have both made a big impact all season.  And the Patriots have 2 picks each in the first, second, and third rounds of the NFL draft next year

Brady v. Manning: This email to Mike Reiss’s mailbag from Allyn W I think sums up well why Brady is better than Manning.  When they both had weak receiving corps, Brady was better:

If you rewind back to 2006, the Patriots have no experienced wide receivers, and Brady and Belichick have to coach up Reche Caldwell, Jabar Gaffney and an assortment of others. Lots of injuries and defections. Brady is able to get the Patriots to the AFC championship game and nearly wins it. Every week the Pats don’t use any excuses, but play with who they have. This year, The Colts are the ones with injuries and changing personnel. Yet they are 6-6, are always moaning about the injuries, play most of their games indoors, and will struggle to make the playoffs in a weak division. Manning does not look great, and it is understandable. Yet Brady overcame similar adversity, contract squabbles and injuries four years ago by leading his team to the brink of a Super Bowl. Explain again why Manning is considered better than Brady in the long run? I think this year should show that under adversity, Brady has been the better quarterback based on ever-changing teammates and weather conditions throughout their respective careers. Has this season changed your view on this debate? No question Manning is fantastic, but I think this year shines a microscope in areas that just haven’t been seen beforehand — and provides another perspective. Thanks as always. — Allyn W (San Rafael, Calif.)

A lot of the talk for this game has focused on the Patriots pass vs the Jets defense.  Their pass rush, who Revis will cover, how will Branch fare, etc.  But I think the key is for the Patriots to run the ball. You don’t want to battle that pass defense every play, you certainly don’t want them keying off on Brady.  And while the Jets have a good run defense, so did the Steelers. I think the Patriots’ offensive line has the ability to push forward and make holes for the running game.  I really think the Pats should come out and pound the ball, and I expect BJGE to have a big game.

Well, some terrible play both lines in the first half, the defense getting scored on at will in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, special teams (especially kickoff return and coverage) unable to do antyhing, and still the Patriots turn it on in the 2nd half and 4th quarter from the win.  From down 14-3, to down 24-17, then end up with a 45-24 win.  The offensive play-calling is still concerning - their drives to start the game and the 2nd half were severely lacking runs and went 4 and out.  The special teams looked bad.  The defense looked bad as well, but came up with key interceptions (thank you Devin McCourty) and stops late in the game when they needed them. And after getting hit around in the first half, Tom Brady came back in the 2nd half to throw FOUR touchdown passes.  On to the Jets!

A pretty impressive win by the Patriots.  It’s amazing to see, that with the offense having lots of 3 & outs, and the defense making any QB look like a HOFer, when it comes to crunch time, both sides do what needs to be done. When they need goal line stops, stops in the red zone, or clock-killing drives to solidify a victory, the team always comes through.  It’s pretty impressive.  And it was good to see Ron Brace and Brandon Tate making some more positive on their games. These young guys are just going to keep getting better.

For a third round pick!!  This trade doesn’t make a lot of sense.  The Patriots would have a gotten a compensatory pick next year for losing him (although no higher than a late 5th rounder).  A 3rd rounder doesn’t really seem worth it.  Perhaps he was complaining and not being a team player behind closed doors.  Or the Patriots think they’re actually better without him.  They are certainly better when Brady spreads the ball around to the open guy rather than trying to force it to Moss like in the 2nd half of the Jets game. But I’m sure more receivers get open with Moss in there.

One thing you can say is that the Patriots are not afraid to trade star players or popular players.  They put a value on a guy, and if they’ll receive enough in compensation, they’ll trade him away.

I feel a strange confidence about this game.  It’s really a must win game, as it would put the Patriots behind the Jets and Dolphins in total record, division record, and head-to-head.  In addition, its a road game which the Pats know they have to start showing up for.  I think Belichick and the team are really going to be focused and hungry this week and we’ll see some of the defensive players clean up some of their technical mistakes.  Or at least I hope so.  I’m predicting Patriots 30, Dolphins 27.

Well the Patriots offense looked impressive. But against the worst offense in the league, our defense was unable to do anything.  The Bills only punted one time.  But the Patriots did get two clutch interceptions late in the game to hold the league.

There were two players who really impressed me in this game: Ben-Jarvus Green-Ellis really ran well (16 carries for 98 yards and 1 TD) and the offense looked a lot better with him in there compared to Taylor or Morris.  Patrick Chung was impressive as he has been all year, racing up to make solid tackles, and with that key INT in the endzone.  The whole offense really worked well, with both tight ends making big plays, and Brandon Tate even making a great catch before halftime.

The defense, however, has some holes. The defensive line is anchored by big Vince Wilfork and has looked pretty good. But they still have holes at both outside linebacker spots, both in terms of pass rush and setting the edge in run defense.  Their three safety rotation has looked good, and Devin McCourty looks good at CB, but they really really miss Leigh Bodden on the other side.  Darius Butler looked bad last week, and they replaced him with Kyle Arrington this week and still didn’t look too good.  So they really need to see some improvement out of those two, and at outside linebacker, Tully Banta-Cain, Jermaine Cunningham, Rob Ninkovich and even Shawn Crable need to step up.