Our Houston Texans will travel up to New York this Sunday for a tough battle with the solid New York Jets. The Jets currently hold a record of 5-5. This will be a big game for our Texans to see how we will bounce back after a tough loss last week. The Jets are a very good football team this year, and playing in their house with those fans makes it that much harder. The following is a preview I have constructed of the New York Jets... Offensively, at the Quaterback position for the New York Jets is Chad Pennington. Pennington is not known for his strong arm, rather, his smart decisions and accuracy. This season, Pennington has 10 Touchdowns, but also 11 Interceptions. He is struggling the past 3 games also, throwing only 1 TD and 5 INT's. Chad Pennington is making his fair share of mistakes this year, but is certainly a smart quarterback and can win football games. At the running back position for the New York Jets, they tend to have a 3 man rotation with Kevan Barlow, Cedric Houston and Leon Washington. Barlow has size and speed, if he had a little more effort he could be very good. Barlow has 329 yards on 105 touches. Barlow leads the rushing game in terms of Touchdowns, with 6, so he seems to be the goal-line back. Cedric Houston plays the smallest role of the htrew recieving the fewest carries, only 25 for 109. The leader of the pac is the suprising Cedric Houston. Houston is a rookie and has great size, and leads the team in rushing with 454yards on 108 carries and a couple Touchdowns. For the New York Jets Wide Recievers, the main man seems to be Laveranues Coles. Coles has speed as his strong point, and uses it to pick up yards after catch so it's important for defenders to bring him down as soon as possible after he makes the catch. Coles has 715 recieiving yards and 3 TD's this season, which is pretty impressive. Another top WR for the Jets is Jerricho Cotchery. Cotchery's strong points are ball possesion and blocking ability of run plays espically. Cotchery has recorded 556 recieving yards so far this season along with 4 TDs. Also in the New York Jets passing game, look for Justin McCareins to get some balls thrown his way. McCareins has recorded 10 receptions ofr 162 yards and a TD so far this season. TE Chirs Baker is also a solid passing target for QB Chad Pennington they say. In terms of the New York Jets offensive line, they are very young and are only getting better. Names of this offensive line include D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Pete Kendall, then you have rookie C Nick Mangold, Brandon Moore and Anthoney Clement. Defensively, starting with New York Jets defensive line, the plays of foucs are end Shaun Ellis known for his size, tackle Dewayne Robertson known for his strength and Kimo von Oelhoffen who was brought in with experience. They are all having their problems however, adjusting to the new denfensive scheme brough in by Mangini (the 3-4), and as a result the Jets rank 29th in the leauge in terms of stopping the opposing team's run game. At the linebacker position, some linebackers are not having a super year but some at the Jets' linebacker position are also young and have alot of potentail. Johnathon Vilma is the leader of the linebacking corps for the Jets, and he is known for his speed and monster hits. Vilma has recorded 48 tackles so far this season and has an interception, but again seems undersized to play the 3-4 defense, which seems to be holding him back. Vilma's partner at linebacker is Eric Barton. Eric Barton's strong point seems to be blocking and tackling. Barton has recorded 53 tackles so far this season. He also recorded 2 sacks. Outside Linebackers include Bryan Thomas and Victor Hobson. Starting with Bryan Thomas, he seems to be having a pretty good year and his strong point seems to be speed and he is a rush linebacker. Thomas has recorded 41 tackles this season along with a trio of sacks. Thomas also has an interception. On to Victor Hobson, who is another solid outside linebacker (I mentioned above some LB's were not having great seasons, the exception would be these two). Hobson can both stop the run and defend the pass and has recorded 30 sackles, 2 sacks, recovered 2 fumbles and picked off a pass. In terms of the Jets' defensive backfield, they are doing well this season. At the safety position exists the young Kerry Rhodes and Erik Coleman. Rhodes plays extremely hard and has good instincts. So far this season, Rhodes has recorded 53 tackles, 4 sackles, has recovered a fumble and picked off 2 passes. Coleman is prooving himself to be a solid saftey, and has 42 tackles and also has an interception. At the cornerback position, the star looks to be Andre Dyson. Dyson leads the team in interceptions with 3. The other 3 cornerbacks for the Jet's who kind of rotate some but get equal playing time are David Barrett, Justin Miller and Drew Coleman. Each is having some success this season. On Special Teams for the Jets, their punter is Ben Graham. Graham. He is a solid punter, having dropped 18 punts this season inside the opponents 20. Kicker Mike Nugent is having another up and down sort of year, he is 4 out of 6 in FG attempts between 30 and 39 yards, the most common range for kickers to kick from. Overall, the Jets are a solid team, and while they do have thier flaws, head coach Eric Mangini brings alot to this team and can really get them ready to play. They have been inconsistent this season, and an example would be losing to the Cleveland Browns but defeating the New England patriots. This is also one of those team's well in the hunt in the AFC playoff picture, so they are going to give every oppoent one hell of an effort. Again, this will be a challenge for our Texans to bounce back and go into New York and try to defeat these Jets. My ''Keys to the game" will be posted tomorrow as usual, so please stay tuned for that. GO TEXANS
The Texans will be well on their way to improving if they can go into the Meadowlands and come out with a win.
On Fox sports.net "Groundskeeper Willie" predicted that Houston would beat New York. I was excited but then I read he predicted Oakland winning at San Diego.. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6198848
You should edit this part of your post. Cedric Houston is a 2nd year RB, and just coming back from injury (which is why he has so few receptions/handoffs. He is the one with power and speed. Barlow really has done nothing this year with only 1 good game against NE in the mud. The leader of our backfield, the rookie you explain, is Leon Washington, not Cedric Houston. Washington has breakaway speed and the great ability to make defenders miss, which is why he leads us in yardage (even w/o getting any carries the first 2 games) and averages 4.2ypc. He's a stud and will only improve, my favorite pick of the 06 draft. Look for the Jets to split the carries almost evenly with Houston and Washington (washington will probably have 2-3 more than houston), don't expect Barlow to get many, if any, carries this week. With houston back from injury, barlow's position as a power back is now wasted, as houston is a faster and more powerful version of barlow.
I just hope it does not come down to the last play of the game again. I am still reeling from the Bills game. If our D plays like it has been with the exception of that last play and giving the fact that Chad has struggled the last 3 games from a tired arm which might mean he will not be a threat to try and burn us to often down field we stand a chance. We have shown we can stop the run so if that continues and they have to depend on Chad not taking anything way from him but I like our chances. Nothing will hurt the rest of the year like last Sunday. I do give their fans the edge win or lose they are loud so we need to be prepared for that.
