Showdown Sunday

What a day of football.

Though Ray Lewis and Ed Reed have checked in to whine about some dubious officiating, the fact is, the Patriots pulled out a huge win against an extremely tough Ravens team that has looked, as per the ESPN power rankings like the best in the league.

We saw a little bit of everything from the Patriots: the familiar third-down scampering of Wes Welker (6 catches, 48 yards); a balanced, in unspectacular, running game that controlled the clock; 9 receivers catching passes, and of course, the most familiar and cherished sight: Tom Brady finding Randy Moss in the end zone. Special teams were effective, recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff and nearly pulling off a gutsy and ingenious fake FG that was called back by a penalty. And the defense, led by 3rd-year stud Brandon Merriweather (9 tackles, 2 passes defended) permitted just 14 points to a team that came in averaging 34.

Meanwhile, the Jets dropped a big game in New Orleans, putting up a strong performance against the league's top offense but unable to overcome 4 costly mistakes by their apparently-not-literally-made-out-of-gold quarterback, Mark Sanchez. Yes, it's only one game, and yes, Sanchez will probably be fine. But let there be no doubt that this game was 100% his fault. Two of turnovers led directly to Saints touchdowns. Another one would have if the Saints hadn't kneeled out the clock from the 5-yard line at the end of the game. And all four of them were momentum killers at key moments in the game. But, actually, it's not only about the turnovers, although that surely would have been enough. Sanchez managed to complete just 14 of 27 passes for 138 yards against a defense that surrendered 27 points to the lowly Lions.

Don't look now, but having a rookie quarterback may become a significant problem for the Jets. It's early in the season, but Sanchez is sitting on a 71.4 QB rating and 5 interceptions. More importantly, the Jets aren't doing much scoring. Here are the NFL teams who have played four games and scored fewer points than the Jets: Oakland, Kansas City, Washington, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, St. Louis. Combined record of those teams: 3-21. All three of those wins happened because one of those 6 teams played another.

The Jets are an upstart team, and the risk you run with upstarts is that they look like world-beaters until a strategy against them starts to evolve. And while they're clearly not going away, a game plan is beginning to reveal itself: strike early, play possession football, force Sanchez to beat you. And don't think the rest of the NFL didn't take notice that the QB lost his head under pressure yesterday.

Look, nobody wins the Super Bowl in September. (Not even Kerry Rhodes.) There is a lot left to be decided for both of these AFC East frontrunners. But the Patriots, who still look like they're sorting it out, made a big statement this Sunday. A few hours later, the Jets had their first big failure of the season. You were right: the Patriots were looking up at the Jets--for one week. And now it looks like the Pats are strong, and getting stronger. Can the Jets keep pace? And if they drop next week's treacherous game in Miami, what becomes of the smack-talking then?

MILES: Simultaneous posts. See above.