Plenty of people hand out game balls after the game. That\u2019s easy. Watch the game, see who does well, give them the game ball. We\u2019re doing something a little different. We\u2019re handing out a pre-game ball. Before we watch the game, let\u2019s settle on a player or players we think might be a decisive advantage for the Jets in the upcoming game. Occasionally we might hand out a pre-blame ball. If we think the Jets are going to get slaughtered, we\u2019ll try to identify a prime culprit.<\/p>\n
One caveat: the quarterback is off limits. Nothing personal against quarterbacks, but they are obviously the most important players on the field. We could give out a pre-game or pre-blame ball to the quarterback virtually every week, but that would be boring, so we\u2019re not going to do it. We\u2019ll try to identify somebody besides the quarterback for the glory or the ignominy.<\/p>\n
This approach comes with the obvious drawback that predictions are difficult, especially about the future. We\u2019re destined to get many of these wrong. No matter. We\u2019ll have some laughs along the way. Let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n
The Jets pre-game ball for the Jets game against the New England Patriots goes to (drum roll please) – Dane Belton!<\/p>\n
The Jets have some holes on offense going into this game. They are missing Adonai Mitchell, and Omar Cooper and Kenyon Sadiq are both listed as questionable. Breece Hall and Dylan Parham are also missing this game. Against a Patriots team currently ranked 5th in the NFL in yards allowed, the banged up Jets offense will probably not be winning any shootouts on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Jets defense may have to carry the day. The Patriots may be missing A.J. Brown again on Sunday after he missed the last two games with an injury. In Browns\u2019 absence the Patriots have been relying on the running game and their tight ends in the passing game a lot. Enter Dane Belton. He has been a revelation for the Jets. He rarely misses tackles, wraps up well, is a force against the run, and has the speed to take on tight ends against the pass. If Belton and his running partner Minkah Fitzpatrick can neutralize the Patriots\u2019 tight ends and running backs, the rest of the Patriots weapons on offense aren\u2019t top of the NFL talent.<\/p>\n
Against a Patriots team that has put up a combined 74 points on offense over the last two games, the Jets\u2019 safeties will play a crucial role in slowing down Drake Maye and company. Maybe Belton forces a fumble. Maybe he sacks Maye in a crucial spot. Maybe he snags an interception. Somehow, some way, I\u2019m looking for Belton to be a difference maker on defense on Sunday. If he is, maybe the Jets have a chance at an upset win. Dane Belton, come on down! Your breakout game awaits. You get your opportunity on Sunday. Let\u2019s see you run with it.<\/p>\n
What about you? Who would you give the pre-game ball to? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plenty of people hand out game balls after the game. That\u2019s easy. Watch the game, see who does…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,52188,10],"class_list":["post-376673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-jets-analysis","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}