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The time for talking is over.
After a week of back-and-forth trash talk, the Jets and Dolphins take the field at MetLife Stadium Sunday to settle things. If you didn’t think this was going to be tough, physical game entering the week, by Thursday you knew better. The two teams took shots at each other over hot sauce, playing time and big hits.
When you get past all the talk, you realize that this is a huge divisional game for both teams. The 3-4 Jets are trying to get to .500 as they enter their bye week. The 3-3 Dolphins are trying to prove they are for real coming out of their bye week.
”That’s our mission this week, [to get to] 4-4,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “Obviously, we have a tough opponent who’s on a roll. These guys are coming in. They’re healthy. They’re fresh. They’re coming off two wins, and they’re feeling good about themselves. They have a lot of talent. We know how difficult it’s going to be. [Under my watch. we have] never swept this team, but I also think that builds into maybe momentum for us even. We know who we’re playing. This is a good football team. The fact that we’ve never beat them twice, that kind of gives us energy.”
Both teams enter this game better than they were a month ago when they met in Miami. The Jets feel like they’ve fixed their major problems over the past three games, even though they won only one of those. The Dolphins feel like they could easily be 5-1 with overtime losses to the Jets and Cardinals.
This game could get chippy after all of the talk. Ryan said this week that his “hot sauce” remark last month about Reggie Bush, which started the war of words, was misconstrued.
”I just think that clearly Reggie Bush is a tremendous player,” Ryan said. “He’s had some big days against us. [He is] extremely talented and obviously is going to get a lot of our attention. There’s no question about it. We want to hit hard, [but] we don’t want to injure. We want to hit him, but is he getting a lot of our attention? Absolutely, because in my opinion he’s their number one weapon.”
Enough talking.
A look inside the game:
MARQUEE MATCHUP
Dolphins RB Reggie Bush vs. the Jets’ front seven: Who else could it be? Beyond all the trash talk with Jets players promising to drill Bush and Bush calling Rex Ryan a liar, this is a pivotal matchup. The Jets are 30th in the NFL against the run (allowing 147.7 yards per game) despite playing better lately. Bush ran for 61 yards against the Jets before hurting his knee in their first meeting. Bush has not looked the same since the injury, averaging 2.8 yards per carry over Miami’s past three games.
”We gave up 185 to them in the first game,” defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson said. “That’s something big in this game. I’m pretty sure they go into this game feeling like they can run the ball on us since they ran for 185. The defense has been playing differently since the first couple of games. We’re definitely not going to let them run the ball on us.”
DUSTIN TIME
The Jets looked like a different offense last week with tight end Dustin Keller back at full strength. Keller missed four games with a hamstring injury before returning two weeks ago against the Colts. Last week, his presence was felt. He has seven catches for 93 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Mark Sanchez had his best game of the season. Sanchez just looks more confident when Keller is on the field.
”Dustin, he’s one of my best friends off the field, one of the best guys to play with [and] a great teammate,” Sanchez said. “He studies his butt off and he makes big catches for us always. He’s been my guy for four years and we just have to keep feeding him.”
REX AND THE ROOKIE
The Jets get another shot at Dolphins rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill today. He completed just 44 percent of his passes and had a pick-six in the game last month. The Jets have been great against rookie quarterbacks under Ryan. The four rookie quarterbacks they have faced have combined to complete less than 50 percent of their passes, throw six interceptions and just one touchdown. The Jets have won all four games.
NO ROOM TO RUN
The Jets have gotten back to Ground and Pound over their past three games, averaging 142.3 yards per game in that span. But the Dolphins are a tough team to run against — ranking fourth in the NFL, allowing an average of 78.2 yards per game. This is a true test to see if Shonn Greene and the offensive line truly have fixed things.
WATCH THE FAKE
The Dolphins were the first victims of a Tim Tebow fake punt this season. Since that game, the Jets have done it twice more. The Jets feel Tebow’s presence on the punt team has given them a ton of “hidden yardage,” because teams are leaving their defense on the field in punting situations, sacrificing return yardage.
”Really, he affects almost every punt,” Ryan said. “When he [was] back there as a personal protector, New England just played defense. They’re just going [base defense]. Our guy back there, Robert Malone, is able to take his time. Watching some punts, people aren’t attacking us. They know we’re faking and I know we’re scared (joking), but we will fake it in our own territory and all those other areas of the field, but we’ll see.”
Costello’s Call
These two teams battled into overtime last month, with the Jets finding a way to win, 23-20 in overtime. Today’s game should be just as close with both teams fired up after all the trash talk this week. The Jets need this one entering the bye week and will figure out a way to get the win.
JETS 21, DOLPHINS 17