Coming off a dominant performance last Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, the New York Jets travel down to Florida for a matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is a huge game for the Jets. With a win, they will go into the bye with a record of 5-5, which will allow them to play some meaningful games down the stretch of the season.
Week 10 New York Jets Keys to Victory
Stick with the Run Game
In the Thursday night game against the Buffalo Bills, the Jets were able to maintain a strong run game throughout. Matt Forte has been ruled out for Sunday’s game with a knee injury, but the Jets have shown that they can sustain the run game without Forte.
In the week three matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Bilal Powell and Elijah McGuire combined for 256 yards rushing. Both of these players will be active for the game on Sunday and will be looked upon to maintain the ground game that they had against the Bills.
If the run game is not working, John Morton cannot go away from it. When Josh McCown is looked upon to throw the ball more than 20 to 25 times, that is when the offense may start to get sloppy. Obviously McCown’s ability to escape the pocket and run helps the offense, but he is not going to be able to scramble every time he gets in trouble.
Don’t Overlook Fitzpatrick
The Jets have a lot of experience with Ryan Fitzpatrick. With the injury to Jameis Winston, Fitzpatrick will be the starting quarterback on Sunday for the Buccaneers. Fitzpatrick spent the previous two seasons as the Jets starting quarterback. He had one phenomenal season and one horrific season so the Jets have seen both sides of his game.
A cocky attitude is an easy way to approach this game if you are the Jets defense because of the performance as well as the positive social media trend starring their dance moves from last Thursday. They are coming in with a lot of confidence, which can be a good thing, but if they come in too confident, Fitzpatrick has the ability to hurt them.
Fitzpatrick is going to be without his number one target in Mike Evans because of a one game suspension he received for his antics last week. That definitely is an advantage for the Jets, but Fitzpatrick can still hurt them with what he has.
Keep Having Fun
The Jets are having fun. That was evident before, during and after the game against Buffalo. The NFL season can be a long and grueling grind, but if the Jets continue to have fun the season will be better for them.
Obviously success allows these kinds of feelings, but even when the Jets are down they need to keep playing with the energy and fire that they are playing with when they are winning.
Bottom Line
This game for the Jets is just as big as last week’s game. If they want to play meaningful games in the month of December they need to go into their bye with a record of 5-5. The Bucs are not playing up to expectations and are missing some key pieces this week. This is a winnable game for the Jets if they play up to their potential.
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