The New York Jets scheduled opponents for the 2012 NFL regular season went a combined 126-130 in 2011. With the 2012 opposition combining for a .492 winning percentage last season, the Jets 2012 strength of schedule is ranked 20th in the NFL. Not the worst, but certainly not the best. Here is a game-by-game prognosis of the Jets 2012 regular season.
Week 1: September 9 1:00 Home against Buffalo Bills
Pardon me if I am not losing sleep over this one. It should be a good way to open the season.
Prognosis: Good
Week 2: September 16 4:15 @ Pittsburgh Steelers
We get tested very early with this game. But it is much better to play them in Week 2 when it is still warm and sunny than to play them in December when it is freezing. People always love to make that joke about how the Southern Californian Sanchez plays in the cold. After losing to them in the 2010 AFC Championship game, it would be great to hand a loss right back to them. It would also shut the haters up. Winning tends to have that effect.
Prognosis: Ugly
Week 3: September 23 1:00 @ Miami Dolphins
This is still a toss-up at this point. It is hard for me to take the Dolphins seriously, but that New Year’s Day loss is still fresh in my mind. I would hope that having their former head coach, Tony Sparano, as our new offensive coordinator could tip it in our favor. Also, Miami has a track record of peaking too late in the season.
Prognosis: Good
Week 4: September 30 1:00 Home vs. San Francisco 49ers
This will be a tough game. They have a very physical defense. I’m not sure if our offense will handle it well. If they play like they did last season, we’re dead. Hopefully, everyone has made significant strides. This is one of those games where I hope that our defense will be able to pick up the slack that our offense will bring against them.
Prognosis: Bad
Week 5: October 8 8:30 Home vs Houston Texans, Monday Night
This is another hard one. The Jets under Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez are 2-0 against them, but you never know which team will show up—the Jets that have their acts together or the one we watched unravel last season. Compounded is the fact that we play the 49ers the week earlier and a win or a loss will have a substantial effect on this game.
Prognosis: Bad
Week 6: October 14 1:00 Home vs Indianapolis Colts
I’m not sweating this game at all. We get to face Andrew Luck, which will be exciting. But I have a feeling that Luck will have the same effect on the Colts as Cam Newton had on the Carolina Panthers last year: He will be very exciting to watch, but they just have too many holes to fill.
Prognosis: Good
Week 7: October 21 4:15 @ New England Patriots
This is a game that no Jet fan will look forward too. I know that the week leading up to a Patriot game always means a sleepless week for me. But like the Steeler game, it is better that we play them away in the fall before it gets too freezing cold. That’s about the only silver lining to this game.
Prognosis: Ugly
Week 8: October 28 1:00 Home vs. Miami Dolphins
Ever since the tripping incident, it is so weird to play the Dolphins at home. It seems like that is what is always on the tope of everyone’s mind, especially those in the media. At this point, midway through the season against a divisional team, it will be a must win.
Prognosis: Good
Week 9: BYE
It’s a good time in the season to have a BYE. Meanwhile, the Bills are @ Houston Texans; the Dolphins are @ Indianapolis; The Patriots also have a BYE
Week 10: November 11 4:05 @ Seattle Seahawks
I think that this will be a very interesting game, mainly due to Pete Carroll. He is of course a former Jets head coach (1994). But more importantly, he was Sanchez’s coach at USC. He famously (or perhaps infamously) stated that he didn’t think that Sanchez was ready to go pro before doing his senior year and Sanchez didn’t listen. I will leave the subject of whether or not he was correct open for discussion.
Prognosis: Good
Week 11: November 18 1:00 @ St. Louis Rams
I predict that I will sleep easily the night before this game. For one thing, we are facing a team that has Brian Schottenheimer as its offensive coordinator. I have been looking forward to being able to do that for years. We play the Patriots 4 days later and going into that game confident after a win would be ideal.
Prognosis: Good
Week 12: November 22 8:20 Home vs. New England Patriots, Thanksgiving
I think that his game will be a case of “We better win this one”. It is the Thanksgiving night game and so the whole country will be watching. Losing will be an embarrassment and if I am going to spend that holiday at Metlife stadium instead of with family, it had better be worth my while. Last season we went 0-2 against the New England Cheatriots. It would be nice not to repeat that.
Prognosis: Ugly
Week 13: December 2 1:00 Home vs. Arizona Cardinals
One of my biggest pet peeves in the NFL is when we play an NFC team late in the season. It is so pointless and messes with playoff predictions at a very important time. Needless to say, this is not a game to be nervous about.
Prognosis: Good
Week 14: December 9 1:00 @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Last season, we played them at home and demolished them. It gave us some confidence when we were about to go into a 3 game away series. Tim Tebow had the choice between going to the Jaguars or the Jets. That is always an interesting side-story when a player plays his hometown team that he rejected.
Prognosis: Good
Week 15: December 17 8:30 @ Tennessee Titans
This game is not a concern. This is a team that seems to always be on the cusp of something brilliant, but can’t seal the deal for some reason. They usually end with around a .500 record, but could have been better if just a few plays had gone their way. Too bad, so sad.
Prognosis: Good
Week 16: December 23 8:20 Home vs. San Diego Chargers
We have an advantage here thanks to that chilly New Jersey weather in December…and it’s a night game. These guys aren’t used to that and we should win no problem. Plus, Philip Rivers does not have a good track record at being able to handle our defense.
Prognosis: Good
Week 17: December 30 1:00 @ Buffalo Bills
If we are going to have an away game for the last game of the season, at least it’s against a team like the Bills. They are a team that no matter how both of us have been playing, the Jets seem to win. Even last season when the Jets were playing badly and the Bills were playing well, we still beat them. We are their Achilles heel and for that, it is hard for me to take them seriously.
Prognosis: Good
No game in the NFL is a gimme, or an automatic win. The Packers learned that last season when they got their asses handed to them by the Chiefs. No one saw that coming. There are some good aspects to this schedule and some bad aspects of this schedule. Our BYE taking place in Week 9 is great news, as is the fact that 5 of our 8 away games seem like walks in the park. But the Week 4 and 5 games are a tough pill to swallow.
It could be worse Jet fans. We could have those ugly Steelers throwback uniforms.
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