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New York Jets: Keys to Beating Oakland Raiders

By Nathan McKenna

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The New York Jets are coming off a tough loss to the New England Patriots. They played hard, came close, but couldn’t close it out. In the past six seasons, under Rex Ryan, too often has the week after a loss to the Pats resulted in another loss (usually twice as embarrassing). This will be a chance for Todd Bowles and this Jets team to show the fans things really are changing.

This game is no walk in the park; the Raiders have been surprisingly good this year posting a 3-3 record. Amari Cooper is as advertised and is having a very good rookie season. Jack Del Rio has done a nice job with their defense and the Jets could run into some trouble if Chris Ivory isn’t healthy. This is a good test for this team.

After a tough loss to the hated division rival/best team in the AFC, how do they respond in an away game against a pretty good team. This could tell us if the New York Jets are a real contender or pretender this year.

There are a couple important keys to this game, but far and away the most important is how to handle Amari Cooper. It is the most important part of the game, because Cooper is the most important part of Oakland’s offense. Cooper is their game breaker and most consistent threat offensively, if he isn’t held in check the rest of the offense can feed off of him.

However, Bowles can’t focus too much on Cooper because Oakland does have other weapons, like Michael Crabtree and Latavius Murray. If only the Jets had someone who could practically take Cooper out of the game… If only they had a really, really good corner who was known for shutting down receivers. It really is too bad they traded Darrelle Revis a couple years ago.

What’s that? We signed him back? OH THAT’S RIGHT. The most important key to this game, I would say percentage wise about 65%, is matching up Revis with Cooper and letting the future HOFer do work on the rookie. The rest of this game should take care of itself.

If Revis can shutdown Cooper then there is only one other real threat on offense, and that’s Murray. The Jets D-line has been playing well this year and if they can do some damage and slow down the run game then Oakland’s offense should be stagnant. The second key to the game is controlling the run.

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The final key to the game is Ryan Fitzpatrick. As long as he comes out and has a game similar to what he has done all year, the Jets should be able to win this game.

Normally the keys to the game involve both sides of the ball. This week, as long as the Jets defense shows up and Fitzpatrick doesn’t lose the game, the New York Jets should come away 5-2.

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