The New York Jets are looking for revenge Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, who beat them 31-27 in week five.  Mark Sanchez has been struggling the past few games and was throwing a lot of interceptions, so the Jets did the smart thing and limited his opportunities.  Sanchez went 9 for 15 last week for only 143 yards, but the running game racked up over 300 yards and Sanchez did not throw any picks.  If the Jets can do more of the same this week, they should win this game.

The Dolphins have a similar mentality on offense as the Jets.  They have a rookie quarterback in Chad Henne who tends to make mistakes, so they will limit him and feed it to the running backs.  They also have the Wildcat running attack, which was pretty effective against the Jets last game.  Henne did have his best game of the season against the Jets, but the Wildcat and the running backs had a lot to do with his success, as he had wide open receivers to throw to.  I’m not expecting as good of a game this time, as the Jets have already faced him so they should shut him down and possibly get some turnovers from him.  This will be another close one, but the Jets will get revenge and win at home.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  New York Jets 28, Miami Dolphins 24

The Jets have signed 25-year old CB/KR Justin Miller.  Miller played in 1 game this season for the Raiders in which he returned 6 kickoffs for 106 yards (17.7 avg).  With Leon Washington out for the season the Jets signed Miller to replace him on kickoff returns and to provide a little depth at CB.  Miller has played in 43 games in his five year NFL career and he has returned 147 kickoffs for 3,851 yards (26.2 avg) with 5 TDs.  He has also returned 6 punts for 9 yards (1.5 avg) but that is definately not his strength.  Miller does not have a lot of experience on defense as he has 99 tackles, 1 forced fumble and he has defensed 8 passes.  This was a smart move for the Jets as Leon Washington is a very hard player to replace but Miller should do a good job on kickoff returns.

24-year old CB Darrelle Revis is a real lockdown corner this season for the Jets and he is only getting better.  Revis played in 6 games for the Jets this season and he has made 26 tackles, defensed 8 passes and he has 1 interception.  He is one of the biggest reasons for the success of the Jets’ defense this season but teams will start throwing the other way soon.

The Jets have lost 27-year old running back Leon Washington for the season because he needed surgery to repair a fractured leg.  This is a huge loss for the Jets as Washington is one of the best all around players on the football team.  Washington played in 7 games for the Jets this season and he carried the ball 72 times for 331 yards (4.6 ypc).  He also caught 15 passes for 131 yards (8.7 avg) this season for the Jets.  That’s not all however as Washington also helped out a lot on special teams for the Jets.  He returned 16 kickoffs for 385 yards (24.1 avg) and 2 punts for 16 yards (8.0 avg) this season for the Jets.  24-year old rookie Shonn Greene will replace Washington at RB.  He has played in 5 games for the Jets this season and he has carried the ball 26 times for 174 yards (6.7 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  Greene should be able to more than replace Washington running the ball but he is nowhere near the receiver out of the backfield that Washington was.  The Jets will also miss Washington on kickoff returns as he was a threat to go the distance every time he touched the ball.

The Jets won this game with defense and the running game.  That is good because it allowed them to protect Mark Sanchez who has been having problems as of late.  Sanchez completed 9 of 15 passes for 143 yards with 1 TD pass and 0 INTs.  He also carried the ball 2 times for 4 yards (2.0 ypc) with a TD.  Rookie Shonn Greene showed why the Jets traded up to get him last April as he carried the ball 19 times for 144 yards (7.6 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  Thomas Jones was also electric in this game with 26 carries for 121 yards (4.7 ypc) with 1 TD grab.  David Clowney was also outstanding for the Jets in this game with 4 receptions for 79 yards (19.8 avg) with a TD catch.  The Jets finished up with 447 total yards on offense (316 rushing, 131 passing) as they held onto the football for 35:57 in this game. 

OLB Calvin Pace was outstanding for the Jets in this game as he finished with 7 tackles, 3 sacks, 2 tackles for a loss, 1 pass defensed and he had 1 QB hit.  Safety Jim Leonhard also had a big game with 6 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, 2 passes defensed and he had 1 interception.  The Raiders finished up with 263 total yards (119 rushing, 144 passing) in this game.  The Jets are now 4-3 on the season.

This game pits the New York Jets (3-3) against the Oakland Raiders (2-4) who are trying to build a winning streak after beating the Eagles 13-9 at the Black Hole.  The Jets will no doubt come out running the football against a Raiders’ D that is allowing 145.3 yards rushing per game and 4.3 yards per carry.  Thomas Jones and Leon Washington will likely have field days against the Raiders.  But they did last week against the Bills and Mark Sanchez threw the game away throwing 5 pickoffs.  The Raiders do give up 220.2 yards passing per game so maybe Sanchez can turn things around this week. 

The Raiders will also come out running the ball with Justin Fargas likely being the workhorse.  The Jets are allowing 115.7 yards rushing per game and 4.0 yards per carry so Huggy Bear Jr. (Fargas) could have a good game on Sunday.  The Raiders had better be able to run the ball or JaMarcus Russell could be in deep trouble.  The Jets only have 5 sacks this season so Russell will likely have time to throw the ball.  It’s too bad that only TE Zach Miller can catch the football.

PREDICTION:  JETS 13, RAIDERS 10

With the Jets rushing for 163.0 yards per game this season and 4.9 yards per carry you would think Mark Sanchez would have a easy time throwing the ball.  That has not been true especially in the last three weeks in which he has completed 36 of 80 passes (45%) for 429 yards with 1 TD pass and 8 interceptions.  The Jets are not thinking about replacing him yet but they can’t let him play too much longer unless he turns things around.  He has now completed 85 of 163 passes (52.1%) for 1,035 yards with 5 TD passes and 10 INTs (56.7 QB Rating).  Sanchez has also carried the ball 18 times for 50 yards (2.8 ypc) with 1 TD run.  Look for the Jets to continue to lean on the running game until Sanchez starts to have better success throwing the football.

The Jets have suspended 25-year old safety James Ihedigbo and 24-year old linebacker Marques Murrell for the next game against the Oakland Raiders due to a fight they got into in last week’s game with the Buffalo Bills.  The Jets have also fined both Ihedigbo and Murrell $5,000 bucks apiece for the incident involving TE Derek Fine of the Bills.  Both players have played in all six games for the Jets this season as Ihedigbo has 2 tackles and Murrell has 8 as both players work on special teams.

The Jets have lost starting NT Kris Jenkins for the season due to a severe knee injury.  He finishes the season for the Jets with 13 tackles including 4 tackles for a loss.  DE Sione Pouha will slide inside to replace Jenkins at nose guard.  He has 19 tackles including 1 tackle for a loss.  This is a downgrade for the Jets as Jenkins was a better run defender than Pouha is.  Marques Douglas will replace Pouha at DE.  He has 26 tackles this season, 1/2 a sack and he has 2 tackles for a loss.  This injury really will hurt the run defense of the Jets going forward.

UPDATE:  The Jets have re-signed 30-year old Howard Green to help cushion the blow of losing Kris Jenkins.  Green has played in 3 games for the Jets this season and he has 6 tackles. 

The Jets lost a game they should have won yesterday and I’m pointing the finger directly at rookie QB Mark Sanchez for this loss.  He was awful in this game as he completed only 10 of 29 passes for 119 yards with 0 TD passes and 5 INTs!  The most amazing thing about Sanchez’ awful play is that the Jets rushed for 318 yards on 40 carries (8.0 ypc) which should have made it easy to pass but that apparently wasn’t the case yesterday.  Thomas Jones was awesome for the Jets yesterday as he carried the ball 22 times for 210 yards (9.5 ypc) with a TD (a 71 yarder).  He also pitched in with 2 catches for 17 yards (8.5 avg).  Leon Washington was also electric in this game carrying the ball 15 times for 99 yards (6.6 ypc) and he also caught 3 passes for 46 yards (15.3 avg).  Braylon Edwards was held to 3 catches for 40 yards (14.3 avg) in this game.  The Jets finished up with 414 total yards in this game (318 rushing, 96 passing).  For all of those yards the Jets could only muster 13 points!

Linebacker David Harris led a solid effort by the Jets’ D with 17 tackles, 1/2 a sack and 1 QB hit.  DE Marques Douglas was also outstanding in this game with 9 tackles, 1/2 a sack, 1 tackle for a loss and 1 QB hit.  DT Sione Pouha (9 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss) and DE Shaun Ellis (9 tackles) pitched in for the Jets on D.  The Bills finished up with 296 total yards on offense (142 rushing, 154 passing) in this game.  The Jets are now 3-3 on the season with this shocking loss.