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The Jets have a good chance of beating the Baltimore Ravens. It’s not a longshot. Here is why . . .
First off all, you have to consider the two Ravens wins they shined in the passing game, but the St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t great at cornerback. The Jets are much better at the positions.
It doesn’t look like Ravens starting receiver Lee Evans (ankle) is going to play this week.
Last week, rookie WR Torrey Smith, filling in as a starter for Evans, caught three touchdown passes on a journeyman cornerback Justin King.
Let’s not put Smith in Canton just yet.
“He had on good game,” Antonio Cromartie said. “That’s it.”
Smith will have a hard time coming close to that peformance against the Jets. Both Jets starting corners are much better than King.
Cro had a bad game last week, but he’s a unique talent.
Secondly, the Ravens offensive line has been revamped, and has two injured veterans – Ben Grubbs (toe) and Matt Birk (knee), and the left tackle, Bryant McKinnie, is in bad shape. He started training camp at 400 pounds, and is still working himself into shape.
One reason the Jets probably signed speedy pass rusher Aaron Maybin was to take advantage of the slow, sloppy McKinnie.
Ray Rice is an outstanding player, but I would be shocked if the Ravens dominate the Jets on the ground the way the Raiders did. Aside from the potential Raven OL issues I just mentioned, the Jets run defense will be playing like their hair is on fire after last week’s debacle.
The Ravens are also thin at cornerback with the release of Dominique Foxworth and the injury to first round pick Jimmy Smith.
They also lost a rotation safety Haruki Nakamura to a knee injury last week.
But I hesitate to make a big deal of the Ravens secondary issues because I keep writing about these scenarios, and Mark Sanchez rarely takes advantage of them.
So this game is a toss-up as far as I’m concerned . . .
I don’t know how long Mike Tannenbaum will keep this guy around because he’s constantly bouncing people, but this tight end the Jets just signed to their practice squad is an interesting prospect.
Martell Webb is 6-4, 268 pounds and runs well.
He was wasted in Rich Rod’s offense in Ann Arbor that didn’t really use tight ends. So don’t judge him by his poor stats.
But he’s a terrific athlete, and could turn into a surprise . . .
I also like OLB Eddie Jones just added to the practice squad. He was only with the Jets for half of training camp, but the former Texas Longhorn really did a nice job in practice and a couple of games. He did a terrific job on special teams.
His career at Texas was a tad underwhelming, but he was a stud coming out of Kilgore (TX) High School, one of the top defensive line prospects in the country.
Texas is always so loaded on the defensive line so sometimes guys get buried, but this guy has ability . . .