Sunday in New Jersey...the weather's fine, and the Rams are 9.5 point underdogs. Nobody wants to see a long afternoon here, nobody wants to see what we saw last week against the Cardinals.
Three things to watch for:
- Led by Leonard Little and the emerging Chris Long, the Rams defensive line must get consistent pressure on Favre to try and force the INT-prone future Hall of Famer to make some bad throws, putting the ball in OJ Atogwe's hands (or any Rams DB). Of course, the Jets will most likely try to get their running game going first, learning from Arizona's game plan last week, so taking the wind out of that will be key.
- It's the blocking, stupid. If the o-line plays well (other blockers too, at TE, FB, WR, etc.) the Rams will have the chance to score points. As pointed out here, the Jets stuff lots of runs thanks to NT Kris Jenkins, but the Rams did have success against a very similar player in Buffalo's Marcus Stroud. The Jets, however, are much more of a complete package on defense, so the Rams have to play tight, mistake-free football, no missed gaps, no bad blocks, and definitely no stupid penalties.
- Channel the team that we saw against the Redskins, Cowboys, and Patriots. That's the team fans need to see, even if they don't win.
Some linkage:
- Check out the view from the other side at Gang Green Nation.
- More about Kris Jenkins.
- Quick and dirty previews from a gaggle of Rams folks at the NYT Fifth Down blog.
GO RAMS!!