And why wouldn’t they? The Jets have won 4 playoff road games the past two seasons, they have competitive AFC Championship games, they boast one of the leagues best defenses and they of course have a throng of high profile players.

One of those high profile names was the free agent acquisition of Plaxico Burress. Here is where I throw out the lame joke, “I hope the Jets didn’t shoot themselves in the foot” with this signing. Opinions vary widely on what will be Plaxico’s production during the 2011 Jets season but he did make a high-light reel catch during the pre-season but he is 3 years removed from making his last touchdown catch, albeit it was a Superbowl winning touchdown catch.

Most of the other big names are back again with LT, Mark Sanchez and Santonio Holmes powering the offense and Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie and Bart Scott locking down what could possibly be the NFL’s best defense. The defense finished ranked third in the league last year which followed the number one ranking during Rex Ryan’s rookie year as head coach. The offense can at times look great, and at times look very pedestrian. This has been the case with the offense throughout the preseason and pretty much throughout the Mark Sanchez era. Sanchez is young though, most third year quarterbacks are just getting their first opportunity to start in year three, Mark Sanchez has already tied the NFL record for most playoff victories by a quarterback.

So the 2011 New York Jets season will be exciting. The New England Patriots are going to be very good again, the Buffalo Bills should be vastly improved, and the Miami Dolphins… well let’s just say Tony Sparano has done a magnificent job keeping the Dolphins mediocre – which has been an absolute delight to see for New York Jets fans.

As for my 2011 New York Jets season prediction I am going to concur with Head Coach Rex Ryan and say that the Jets are going to the Superbowl.

The reality, we can’t move the chains, we can’t pass down field, and basically we can’t score points.

Jets Lose 10 – 9 against the Baltimore Ravens. 3 field goals were all that the Jets seemingly more potent offense could muster.

125 yards in penalties kept the Ravens drives alive over and over, with one especially horrid running into the kicker penalty that eventually resulted in the only touchdown of the game.

Sanchez was booed early, and often. At least he didn’t throw any picks or fumble away the game like he usually does.

In the end the Jets had a chance, needing a field goal to win they were driving with less than a minute to go. However, Dustin Kellar decided stopping the clock with a 9.5 yard gain was more important than turning upfield to get the first down. This bonehead play of course happened on 4th down which effectively ended the game by turning the ball over on downs. Simply the worst play of the season so far for the NY Jets, and probably the worst play of the season for all the NFL except Calvin Johnson leaving the ball on the ground in order to begin celebrate was even more boneheaded. Of course the Lions suck and won’t be playing in the playoffs anyway, but if the Jets keep sucking like this they won’t be worried about the playoffs either.

With all of the offseason talk, the Jets are 0-1, and with Tom Brady and Patriots in town this week we could be 0-2 and on our way to a disappointing season. For reals, scoring 3 field goals is not gonna cut it against the Patriots even with our defense playing great.

I don’t know what to say, I want to rant and rant about how pathetic we looked yesterday, how abysmal our offensive play calling was and why the %#@& was wide receiver Braylon Edwards on the special teams punt receiving unit yesterday so that he could inexplicably run as fast as he could into the punter to begin with.

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

Now their opponents the Baltimore Ravens are no slouch, with many of the idiotic talking heads projecting the Ravens as Superbowl bound, but hopefully on this day Revis Island and the Jets D can put those thoughts on ice.

Jets are stacked, as much as we have ever been. Obviously, we have something special and entertaining in Head Coach Rex Ryan. So much that he can convince players to get on board the Jets en route to his proclaimed Superbowl bound flight. LT, Jason Taylor, Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie are just a few of the big name new faces we will see tonight, well not Holmes who smoked his way to a 4 game suspension.

Offensive Line looks as good as ever, execpt for the BIG hole at left tackle, but who needs to block the Sanchise’s blindside anyway. Defensively we have big names that will hopefully lead us to another top defensive year.

And we got Sanchise. Who people knock at every opportunity for inadvertantly throwing to the wrong colored jerseys way too often. But he was a rookie, and now as a seasoned veteran – ok thats a stretch – hopefully he will surprise those expecting a sophomore slump like he surprised those who said rookies can’t win playoff games.

I went to the liberty of asking my friend his take on the game, and not to my surprise he of course chose to pick the ‘nevermores’ over the Jets during the opening day game. Here I share his thoughts:

I’ve been running hot in football so here are my picks for the 2 games tonight. All lines are as of when I write this.

Baltimore (+1.5) AT NY Jets

This is going to be ugly, as Flacco is dealing with new receiving corp, and Derrick Mason and Heap are still going to gouge the Jets in the playaction game. Which means Ray Rice will killing it. But, the Jets D is good so killing it will be 70 to 80 yds for him, and 20 points as team. Holding calls and 2 picks by Sanchez are going to doom the D on a possession, as field position is going to be key. The B’More offense will be unspectacular as well, but a little more cohesive. I have Shonn Greene in the fumble pool for this one.

20-16 Ravens (with a 40% chance of Ravens blowout)

Good thing he gets 80% of his picks wrong

Mark Sanchez

Colin Cowherd on ESPN radio called the performance the greatest first game performance by a rookie in the last ten years. Let us all remember that Peyton Manning won 3 games his rookie season.

Besides the greatness of franchise quarterback Mark Sanchez, head coach Rex Ryan also shined during his first game as a NFL head coach. The Jets defense was stifling causing the much hyped Texans to go 3 and out over and over again. A strong defense and a solid rushing game can be huge benefits to rookie quarterbacks and with the defense playing superb and Thomas Jones rushing for over 100 yards our rookie quarterback got plenty of support.

This was a great road win for the New York Jets which sent a message to the rest of the football league that the 2009 New York Jets are for real and their new quarterback really has “it”.