New York Jets: Handling the Buccaneers with ease in 2009

Throwing it back to the last time the New York Jets beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida.

It’s Bucs week, and the New York Jets have the opportunity to go 5-5 leading into their bye week. Nobody thought we would be here when looking at the upcoming 2017 season, yet here we are. Frankly, with Jameis Winston and Mike Evans set to miss the game, the Jets have a GOOD chance to go 5-5. They are favored against a team that was supposed to be a playoff team. How about that for a team that was supposed to be the worst team in a decade?

With that, let’s get back to a “Throwback Thursday” piece. The Jets are 10-1 lifetime against the Buccaneers so there were quite a few games to choose from. The game we focus on is the last time the Jets took on the Bucs in Tampa. It was in the early Rex Ryan days, 2009 to be exact. In December, Mark Sanchez was held out of the game with an injury so it was Kellen Clemens taking on the Buccaneers from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL.

Why else did we choose this one? Because the Jets took care of business with relative ease. Those are always the most fun to write about.

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It was an old school Rex Ryan type of game with the “Ground and Pound” functioning on all cylinders. The starting matchup was Josh Freeman against Clemens so there wasn’t much going on through the air.

The order of the day was the ground game, and Thomas Jones played a starring role. He ran the ball 23 times for 99 yards and two touchdowns, one from 33 yards out to extend the lead to 16-3 and one from seven yards out to put an exclamation point on a 26-3 victory.

Jay Feely was sharp on this day, making four out of five field goals. The defense picked off Josh Freeman three times, once by Darrelle Revis, once by David Harris and once by Kerry Rhodes. Tampa Bay was only able to manager 124 yards of net offense and averaged 2.8 yards per play.

Next: Can the Jets dance to anything?

It was a dominating afternoon for the Jets. Could that happen again on Sunday? The way the Bucs have looked, it’s possible. The Jets may be catching the Bucs at just the right time, between the underachievement and the injuries. It’s the Josh McCown vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick revenge game? Who is going to win? We’ll find out soon enough.