Victory First!
By Matt DeLucia
For the New England Patriots and their playoff hopes, a few things need to happen. They need a victory first over the Buffalo Bills. Then either one of two things still needs to happen. The Jets beat the Miami Dolphins or the Ravens lose to the Jaguars. The Patriots need to take care of business by beating the Bills and then hope for a little magic to happen. And I can honestly say I don’t see the Jaguars going and beating the Ravens on Sunday. So it all boils down too can the Jets beat the Dolphins. I would love to say “YES” but let’s be realistic.
With the play of the Jets over the past few weeks, it looks very scary. I mean Brett Favre has more problems than just throwing to his own receivers lately. His offensive line isn’t allowing him time to look over the field. And he’s being pressured way to often now. Every time he drops back to pass I cringe and wonder which teams going to catch it. Look at the stats he has 21 touchdowns with 19 interceptions this season. How he made it to the Pro Bowl is beyond me, Matt Cassel deserves the spot that’s being filled by Favre in my opinion.
Now we know the Patriots need to win first, which means we can’t take the Bills lightly. Buffalo has established a very good ground game lately. Thanks to Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson finally getting it together. They have combined for over 250 yards rushing and 2 scores in the last three weeks. So for the Patriots, their defense will need to step up and stop the pair. Let the defense stop the Bills offense and allow our offense led by Cassel and company to do what they have been doing best. And that’s putting points galore up on the scoreboard.
Personally it doesn’t matter what we score, how we score or when we score. Just score more than Buffalo does. It’s that easy win our game and then play the wait and see game. Since the NFL moved the start times to later in the day for the Ravens-Jaguars and Jets-Dolphins games. If New England wins, it’ll be time to hit the showers and root for either a Jaguars or Jets victory. A victory for the Patriots and the Jets would give New England the AFC East. As opposed to a Patriots victory combined with a Ravens loss which gives them a wild-card spot, regardless who wins between the Jets and Dolphins. No matter what New England needs to win first!