So THAT Didn't Really Work Out

I'm not a huge Bill Simmons fan (lie), but one of his ideas seems pretty damn attractive right now. He has brought up the possibility on multiple occasions of bye week teams being allowed to choose their opponents for the second round of the playoffs. In this case, the Colts would have chosen the Jets, who are overall the weaker of the two teams. This leaves our beloved Bolts with the Ravens who HAVE A SECONDARY THAT WE WOULD PUT UP A BILLION POINTS ON!!!

But we mustn't dwell on the past. This is the playoffs, and there is a game at hand. A game with an opponent that matches up almost too well with the Chargers. On the defensive side of the ball, the one thing the Jets do really well is stop the pass, whether it's with Rex Ryan's exotic blitz packages or Darrelle Revis, who makes receivers disappear. You may have noticed this season that the Charger offense is completely predicated on the pass. What you can do to the Jets with the right personnel is run on them. Unfortunately the Chargers have no running back. So while the pass game may still have a decent day because Rivers is excellent at avoiding the blitz and there are other receivers for him, like Floyd and that Gates guy, this is unquestionably a bad match-up.

It only gets worse with the defense. The Jets offense is based completely on the run. They have a rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez who they hide as best they can by simply running it down opposing throats and only asking him to throw short passes. The Chargers defense, on the other hand, shuts down the pass fairly well and allows running backs to pass through them like a freaking turnstile. More bad news for the Bolts. There is, of course, some upside to this match-up. Because if the Jets were so amazing they wouldn't have a bye, now would they? If Ron Rivera were smart - and he might be - he would stack the box, send the blitz at Sanchez on passing downs, and count on not giving up the home run play, which Sanchez hasn't shown he can deliver. But that's just if he was smart. Which he might be. Or might not. Probably not.

Be loud on Sunday, Qualcomm. You're all we have.