Bring on the Jets

Why does Mark Sanchez look so befuddled? Maybe it's
because he's got a date with the Patriots on Sunday. 

For the past week, while many of his players were using the first-round bye as an opportunity to rest, rehab and re-energize, Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick was hard at work preparing a specific gameplan for each of his possible second round opponents. As the #1 seed in the AFC, the Patriots knew a week ago that they would host the worst remaining seed in the second round of the playoffs. What they did not know was who they would be playing. 

Entering Wild Card weekend, popular opinion had the loud-mouthed Jets losing to the Colts on Saturday. After all, how could the sputtering Jets possibly take down Peyton in his own house? 

Continuing the thought process, with New York out of the playoff picture, that would leave the Patriots playing the winner of Sunday's matchup between the 5th seeded Ravens and 4th seeded Chiefs. As a result, New England fans found themselves asking each other a simple question: who would you rather face, Baltimore or Kansas City? 

Those of us who rooted for Kansas City to win did so with the belief that hosting the hard-hitting Ravens in round two was simply not a good way to kick off the playoffs. Of course, Brady and the Pats came back in epic fashion to upend the Ravens 23-20 back in Week 2, but even the most fair weathered fan can't help but think back to that fateful day nearly a year ago when Baltimore waltzed into Foxboro and wiped the floor with the Patriots in the first round of last season's playoffs. 

On the other side of the coin, many Patriots fans hoped for Baltimore to win simply because we just didn't have a good feeling about the Chiefs. Ever since former New England dynasty architect Scott Pioli took over as Kansas City's GM after the 2008 season, the Chiefs have undergone a dramatic resurgence thanks in large part to modeling themselves after the Patriots, literally and figuratively. Pioli picked from the New England pot of gold and traded for Matt Cassel to be his franchise quarterback and Mike Vrabel to be the mantra's spokesman. He even brought in former Patriot Super Bowl winning coordinators Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennell to handle the offense and defense, respectively. The Chiefs scared us in large part because they reminded us of ourselves. 

Then, just as we were sure we'd finally decided who to root for, the argument became mute when the 6th seeded Jets came back to upset the Colts, 17-16. Forget the Ravens. Forget the Chiefs. As the highest remaining seed, the Jets will travel to Foxboro to face the Patriots in what is sure to be the next great chapter of the heated rivalry Sunday afternoon. 

Prepare yourself, Patriot fans. We're in for a full week of Rex talking up the Jets, bashing Brady and attempting to convince us that despite getting demolished by the Pats 45-3 just over a month ago, the Hard Knock Jets are "just the men for the job" this time around.

Fine by me.

I'll take the team that lets their play, not their mouths, do the talking.