In The Red Zone

This Week

New York Jets @ New England Patriots

The New England Patriots host their AFC East Rivals the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA on Sunday at 4:15 p.m.

The Patriots (3-1) are 1-0 at The Razor, 1-1 against the AFC East and 3-1 in the conference.  The Jets (2-2) are 0-2 on the road, 0-0 vs. the AFC East and 1-2 against the conference.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo! Sports have the Patriots minus 9.  The over under is 49 1/2.

My Prediction is Patriots 31, Jets, 21.  Give the points (Patriots) and take the over.  I am 3-1 against the spread and 3 of 4 on calling the over/under in 2011.

Tickets

The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out. It is the 185th consecutive sell out  dating back to the 1994 season opener.  The record includes preseason, regular season and playoff games.

Tickets to the game, if available, can be purchased through Ticketmaster.  You can check the availability here.

After market tickets are available through the Official Patriots Ticket Exchange where season ticket holders can sell their unused seats to fans on the season ticket waiting list.

Getting to the Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in Foxboro make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast from the Weather Channel for Foxboro MA.

Click for all the game day information including stadium directions, parking information and map and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgating.com.  There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack.  I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good.

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages.  With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks.  You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or theme.

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or a friend’s house moderation is always the key to a great time.  Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver.  Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

CBS in televising the game regionally and Jim Nantz will do play by play while Phil Simms will provide the game analysis.  You can look here for your local affiliate.

See if you’re getting the game courtesy of J.P. Kirby at the506.com.

The DirecTV designation is Channel 714.

Here are all the rules on NFL TV broadcasts including explaining the blackout rules, flex scheduling and commercial breaks.

Radio

The Patriots Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBZ-FM, 98.5 the Sports Hub in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play, former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color and new this year Scott Zolak will man the sidelines. It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Andy Gresh and Zolak with the pregame show at 1 p.m. along the network. The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours along the network.

If you are outside the broadcast are of the stations on the Patriots Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass, which allows you to listen to any game live.  You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

All NFL Games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio also carries all the NFL games under a special additional package.  They usually only carry the home team feed.

The Patriots Radio Network call is available on Sirius Channel 93, XM Channel 226 and SiriusXM Internet Channel 862.

The Jets Radio network has Bob Wischusen calling play by play and former Jet Marty Lyons doing the color via their flagship station WEPN.  Their call is available on Sirius Channel 86 and on SiriusXM Internet Channel 872.

Sports Radio is also carrying the game to a nation wide audience through their network affiliates.

Patriots All Access

Patriots All-Access features behind the scenes looks, interviews and breakdowns with head coach Bill Belichick and in depth features on the team.  It’s hosted by Steve Burton of WBZ-TV (Boston) and airs weekly in most New England television markets.

  • Boston MA on TV 38 Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
  • Providence RI on WNAC Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
  • Manchester NH on WMUR Saturday at midnight
  • Portland ME on WMTW Sunday at 5 a.m.
  • Hartford CT on WCTX Saturday at 5 p.m.
  • Springfield MA on WFXQ Saturday at 7 p.m.
  • Bangor ME on WVII Sunday at 11 a.m.

You can also watch it anytime on the teams website in the media section.

To continue reading the New York Jets @ New England Patriots week 5 preview, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

Last Week

The Patriots beat the Raiders on the road 31-19; while the Jets imploded in their loss to the Ravens, 34-17 in Baltimore.

History

  • The Jets lead the all-time series 52-51-1 including playoffs.
  • The Patriots are 27-25-1 as the home team in the series.
  • The lone tie in the series (24-24) came on October 2, 1966 when both clubs were part of the AFL.
  • Since Gillette opened in 2002 New England is 7-4 (including playoffs) vs. the Jets at home.
  • After splitting the series in 2010, the two teams met again in the 2010 NFL Playoffs and the Jets beat the Patriots in Foxboro, 28-21 to advance to the AFC Championship game.

Patriots Team Notes

Here is the Patriots roster, depth chart and injury report for the game.

2011 Patriots Schedule/Results

The Patriots overall franchise record is 404-364-9.  They have won three Super Bowls (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX) in six appearances.  They last appeared in the playoffs in 2010 when they lost at home to the New York Jets in the AFC Divisional Playoff, 28-21.  They last appeared in a Super Bowl in 2007 losing to the New York Giants 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII.  They won the AFC Conference championship that season with playoff wins over Jacksonville and San Diego.

The Patriots are the defending two-time AFC East Champions; they have won the division 8 times since 2000.

The Patriots are dedicating the 2011 season to the memory of Myra Hiatt Kraft, the late wife of owner Robert Kraft. Every Patriots player and coach will honor Myra’s memory by wearing a patch with her initials on it in recognition of her lifelong contributions to the local and global community and her influence on the charitable mission of the entire Patriots organization. The patch will be worn on the left chest of every player throughout the season.

The Patriots will be wearing their 1985-era Pat Patriot throwback uniforms for this game.

New England is 7-3 in throwback uniforms.

The Patriots have not lost a regular season game at Gillette Stadium since the 2008 season having won 18 consecutive regular season home games.

Since 2002 when Gillette Stadium opened the Patriots are 68-14 at home.

Since 2003 New England is 30-5 in October with a 16-1 mark on The Razor.

Since Robert Kraft purchased the team in 1994 the Patriots are 22-14 vs. the Jets.

New England is 49-15 vs. the AFC East since 2001.

An AFC East rival has not swept the Patriots in a season series since 2000 when Miami and New York swept them.

The Patriots have swept the Jets 13 times in the series the last time was in 2007.

The Patriots have scored 30 or more points in 12 consecutive regular season games.  The NFL record is 14 games.

The Patriots defense has allowed opponents to convert 48% of the time on 3rd down. While the offense has a 3rd down conversion rate of 52.4%.

The New England defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 6 times in 3 games.

The Patriots are tied for 2nd in the NFL in points per game with 33.8.  While they allow 24.5 points per game good for a tie for 20th in the NFL.

New England is now plus 4 in turnover differential, 6th best in the NFL.  The offense has given up 5 INT and 0 fumbles, while the defense has 7 INT and 2 fumble recoveries.

Patriots Staff Notes

This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Jets.

Bill Belichick is 16-10 vs. the Jets in his career.  He is 15-9 against them as the head coach in New England and that includes two playoff games (1-1).

Overall in his NFL career Belichick is 165-95 in 16 NFL seasons.  He is 129-52 with New England and 36-44 with Cleveland.  He is 15-6 in the playoffs, 14-5 as head coach of the Patriots in the post season.  When you combine his regular season and post season records he is 180-101.

Belichick’s 180 wins are good for 10th all-time.  Bill Parcells is 9th with 183 wins.

He was named NFL Coach of the Year for the 3rd time in 2010.

Patriots Possible Starters

Offense:

  • LT: Light
  • LG: Mankins
  • C: Connolly
  • RG: Waters
  • RT: Solder
  • QB: Brady
  • RB: Green-Ellis
  • TE: Gronkowski
  • WR: Welker
  • WR: Branch
  • WR: Ochocinco

Defense:

  • DE: Ellis
  • DT: Wilfork
  • DT: Love
  • DE: Carter
  • OLB: Guyton
  • ILB: Spikes
  • OLB: Ninkovich
  • LCB: McCourty
  • RCB: Arrington
  • S: Chung
  • S: Barrett

Patriots Players Notes

This Tom Brady’s 12th NFL season he is 14-4 vs. the Jets including 1-1 in the playoffs.

Overall Brady is 114-33 as a starting QB and is 14-5 in the playoffs for an overall record of 128-38.  Brady is a 6 time Pro Bowl QB; two time NFL MVP and has won 3 Super Bowls while twice being named the games MVP.  He is also listed as the 21st Greatest Player in the History of the NFL according to the NFL Network.

In 2010 Brady won his second NFL MVP and he was the first unanimous winner in league history.

He has thrown 2 or more touchdown passes in 13 consecutive games tying the NFL record of Peyton Manning.

Brady has won 29 consecutive regular season games at home, a NFL record.  His last regular season home loss was November 12, 2006 to the New York Jets.

Brady is 63-10 at home in the regular season in his career.

Brady has thrown 13 TD’s and 5 INT’s while being sacked 4 times in four games.

He is on pace for 53 TD passes, he owns the NFL record set in 2007 when he threw 50.

Brady has 274 TD passes in his career he is now 9th all-time.  Former teammate Vinnie Testaverde is 8th with 275.

He surely doesn’t care what Jets CB Antonio Cromartie says about him.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 86 consecutive games including playoffs, 69 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

Welker is on pace for 160 catches (NFL record: Marvin Harrison 143 set in 2002) and 2464 receiving yards (NFL record: Jerry Rice 1848 set in 1995).

CB Kyle Arrington has a team leading 3 INT’s in 2011.  DT Vince Wilfork is second with 2 INT’s in the last 3 games.  S Sergio Brown and S Patrick Chung have the other INT’s.

Wilfork’s 2 INT’s are the most ever for a Patriots defensive lineman (shared with four others).  He and Anthony Pleasant are the only one’s to have both INT’s in the same season.

TE Rob Gronkowski only had one catch for 15 yards but he paved the way against Oakland.

RB Stevan Ridley scored his first career TD last week at Oakland.

CB Devin McCourty leads the team with 29 tackles.

DE Mark Anderson leads the club with 2 sacks; he also has 3 quarterback hits tied for second with Wilfork and Myron Pryor who is now on the IR but behind LB Dane Fletcher who leads the team with 4.

DE Shaun Ellis knows how the Jets think.

S James Ihedigbo wasn’t saying a word to the media on how the Jets beat the Patriots in the playoffs.

Former Patriots WR Randy Vataha’s name was invoked by Jets coach Rex Ryan on Wednesday and Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald looked the former Pat up.

The Patriots listed 4 players on the injury list Thursday as not participating in practice They were T Sebastian Vollmer (back); RB Danny Woodhead (ankle); WR Julian Edelman (ankle) and LB Jerod Mayo (MCL) are new to the list.  You can see the full list in the link at the top of Patriots Team Notes section.

On Thursday during a full pads practice TE Aaron Hernandez, DT Albert Haynesworth and DE Mike Wright all were present at practice.  Wright has missed all four games, while the others have been out two weeks.

New England re-signed recently released S Ross Ventrone to the practice squad.  Ventrone has bounced back and fourth between the practice squad and the 53-man roster for parts of the last two seasons.

Also signed to the practice squad was CB Sterling Moore and CB Josh Victorian was let go.

Practice Squad RB Eric Kettani had his extended Naval leave denied and he has been ordered back to service starting Friday morning.

The Patriots have four New England natives on the roster they are: TE Aaron Hernandez (Bristol CT); OL Donald Thomas (New Haven CT); S James Ihedigbo (Northampton MA) and DE Ron Brace (Worcester MA – PUP).  They have 8 players who played for a New England school or a Big East Conference member.  They are: WR Deion Branch (Louisville); S James Ihedigbo (UMass); C Dan Koppen (Boston College); CB Devin McCourty (Rutgers); NT Vince Wilfork (Miami), OL Donald Thomas (UConn); DE Mike Wright (Cincinnati) and DE Ron Brace (Boston College – PUP).

The Patriots have 7 retired numbers: 20 – Gino Cappelletti, 40 – Mike Haynes, 73 – John Hannah, 78 – Bruce Armstrong, 79 – Jim Lee Hunt and 89 – Bob Dee.

Jets Team Notes

Here is the Jets roster, depth chart and injury report for the game.

2011 Jets Schedule/Results

The Jets all-time record is 354-416-8 and they are 12-13 in the playoffs with their last playoff appearance coming in 2010.  Last season the Jets lost on the road to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game, after having beaten Indianapolis and New England on the road to get there.  The Jets last appeared in a Super Bowl following the 1968 season and defeated the Baltimore Colts 16-7 to win Super Bowl III. At that time was considered the biggest upset in sports history.  They were the first AFL team to win the Super Bowl.

The Jets also won the 1968 AFL Championship when they beat the Oakland Raiders, 27-23 at Shea Stadium.

New York has lost 13 of the last 18 meetings with New England including playoffs.

The Jets have swept the Patriots 14 times in the series the last time was in 2000.

The Jets are 4-7 all-time at Gillette Stadium.  Overall as the road team in the series they are 25-27-1.

New York is 31-31 vs. the AFC East since 2001.

The Jets are 1-4 in their last five regular season road games.

The New York defense has allowed opponents to convert 26% of the time on 3rd down, while the offense has a 3rd down conversion rate of 34.5%.

The New York defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 9 times in 4 games.

Through four games New York is averaging 9.5 fewer rushing attempts per game as compared to the same period last year.

The Jets are 11th in the NFL in points per game with 25.0.  While they allow 23.8 points per game good for 15th in the NFL.

New York is EVEN in turnover differential, 17th best in the NFL.  The offense has given up 5 INT and 5 fumbles, while the defense has 6 INT and 4 fumble recoveries.

Jets Staff Notes

Read what New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan had to say to the New England media about the match up.

Ryan is 22-14 in his third season as a head coach.  He is 4-2 in the playoffs for an overall record of 26-17.

He is 3-2 vs. New England in his career including playoffs.

Ryan isn’t worried about his defense but he’s mad at his offense.

Jets Players Notes

Mark Sanchez is 20-14 as a starting QB and is 4-2 in the playoffs for an overall record of 24-16.  Sanchez was the Jets 1st round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft out of Southern California.

Sanchez is 3-2 vs. the Patriots including 1-0 in the playoffs.

Sanchez will be wearing a visor, he broke his nose Week 3 in Oakland when Raiders Kamerion Wimbley hit him in the 3rd quarter.  He is expected to have the visor on his helmet for a few weeks.

Sanchez has only a 37.9% completion rate when under pressure from opponents through 4 games.

Sanchez has thrown 6 TD passes and 5 INT’s while being sacked 11 times in 4 games.

Legendary former Jets QB Joe Namath was critical of WR Plaxico Burress just before the seasons started.  Was it justified?

More Namath on the Jets from the AFC East Blog on ESPN.com

New York WR Plaxico Burress thanks New England for the single coverage in Super Bowl XLII.

Burress, C Nick Mangold and CB Darrelle Revis all talked Patriots on Wednesday.

Mangold who has missed games against Oakland and Baltimore has been limited in practice this week but Ryan expects him to play Sunday.  It may be a risky proposition.

The Jets have already listed WR Logan Payne as out.  They had 1 player as of Thursday listed on the injury report as not practicing.  He was LB Garrett McIntyre (concussion).  They had 2 others listed as having had limited participation.  You can see the complete list by clicking on the injury report link on the top of the Jets Team Notes section.

New York re-signed former Buffalo LB Aaron Maybin looking for help on the pass rush.  Maybin, a former 2009 1st round pick, was signed by the Jets in August and cut on Sept 4th after he originally made the 53-man roster.

The Jets placed LB Bryant Thomas on the season ending IR with a torn achilles after their Week 4 game in Baltimore.

New York’s captains for 2011 are Sanchez, WR Santonio Holmes, CB Darrelle Revis, S Eric Smith and DL Sione Pouha.  This is the first time in 3 seasons that Ryan has named permanent captains having done them before on a game by game basis.

The Jets have 7 players who played for a New England school or a Big East Conference member.  They are: OL Vladimir Ducasse (UMass); CB Darrelle Revis (Pittsburgh); RB Bilal Powell (Louisville); TE Matthew Mulligan (Maine); DE Mike DeVito (Maine); Jamaal Westerman (Rutgers) and Muhammad Wilkerson (Temple).

New York has 3 retired numbers they are: 12 – Joe Namath, 13 – Don Maynard and 73 – Joe Klecko.

Next Week

The Patriots host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA.  Kick off is at 4:15 p.m. on CBS.

Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem