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Five Things to Watch This Week

By Patty O'Tool

The Patriots play their second regular season game at the New York Jets on Sunday September 20th at 1:00 PM. I will be watching Sunday Services at the Church of the Immaculate Hoodie from the comfort of my couch (Have you gone to HD yet? You'll never leave the house again...)


1) Rex Ryan - Is he nuts or what? But at least we know he has a pulse (unlike, say, Dick Jauron). I like getting your team fired up and all... But what if they go out there and lose? Like Butthead says, "You can talk the talk, but you have to... uh... like... walk, too." (Plus there's this in case you missed. Tremendous, but not in any way safe for work.)

2) Tom Brady - The rust should be off this week. It was against the Jets in '07 that we first saw that "Brady to Moss" was going to be something special. I expect Tom to kick some ass. Plus, you can tell he's pissed about all the "embarrass the Patriots" talk that has been coming from the Jets all week.

3) Linebackers - Somebody has got to step up with Mayo out for 6 - 8 weeks. I thought the secondary played well last week (did anyone see T.O doing much of anything?). Hopefully that will continue. But if we see the return of the "Big Nickel" for any extended period of time, we're boned.

4) Ben Watson - Is there any way he can top last week? No. Or course not. But I would like to see him at least add some value again this week.

5) Laurence Maroney - I'm going to keep saying that this is the week he's finally going to put it all together and live up to his potential. When this finally happens, I'm going to look like a genius. If the Jets are sending 6 and 7 guys after the QB on every play, that should open things up for the running game and short passes. And while nobody is as good as Kevin Faulk on the screen play, Maroney has shown that he can make plays when you give him a little space.


And how awesome were the throwback unis last week? Would anyone be upset if we switched to those full time? The Flying Elvis just isn't doing it for me after that.

My buddy Big Mikey tried to convince me to pick against the Pats this week (he thinks I've got some kind of reverse jinx power since my predictions last week waaay off).

And I thought about it for a bit. But then I said "Nah, screw it." Sure the Jets beat up on the Texans last week. But they're, you know, the Texans. That's not really saying much.


My prediction: Pats 38, Jets 24

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