Even if it's early, a lot is surely will be at stake during Sunday's Jets-Patriots game.
Are the Jets, with all of their new stars, legitimate Super Bowl contenders, or just the 9-7 team that found a back door into the playoffs last season?
Are the Patriots capable of playing anywhere near how they did in 2007 now that Tom Brady is two years removed from knee injury? Can they win a fourth Super Bowl themselves? Or is the defense not even good enough to allow this team to make the playoffs?
Many more storylines than those, though, have led to Sunday's matchup. The offseason and early season have been filled with them. There's been drama, scandal, trash talk, must-see TV and more contract disputes than one could ever hope for.
For September, this game has been a long time coming.
Here are the top 10 stories that will unfold on Sunday at the Meadowlands.
Winning The Division Before October
Before Week 1, the Patriots were listed as a plus-120 money line to win the division, while the Jets were given a plus-140 second-favorite line. Just a few days later, the Patriots are now better than even money at minus-120 and the Jets have only a 1-in-3 shot at plus-200. Put another way, the Patriots went from having less than a 20 percent advantage over the Jets in terms of division odds to being more than twice as likely to win it after just one game.
If the Patriots can go two games up on the Jets with a win on Sunday, then the Jets really would be looking up at New England. If the Patriots go 9-5 over their final 14 games — a pretty modest prediction — then the Jets would have to go 11-3 to tie them.
After Monday night, it's hard to imagine that the Jets have many 11-3 stretches in them. They, instead, may be fighting for two wild-card spots along with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Houston, and Tennessee — only two of whom can win their divisions. Throw the Dolphins in, and the Jets' playoff odds really could be in jeopardy after Week 2.
Hyped Young Tight Ends
What was the subject of the most positive hype at Patriots camp?
The answer is probably how good rookie tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez looked. In Week 1, each had a big moment — Hernandez a long reception and Gronkowski a touchdown — but they were targeted only a total of three times.
The Jets made it seem like it was 2005 again with the way that Todd Heap tore them up on Monday night. The veteran tallied 70-plus receiving yards on big plays, so perhaps the two rookies will get more of a role against the Jets' otherwise sturdy defense.
On the other side of the ball, Mark Sanchez loves throwing to Dustin Keller. He was Sanchez's favorite target against the Ravens, though he only actually made two catches — including the, "Are you kidding me?" one which he ran out of bounds on the game-deciding fourth down for no good reason.
Still, the Patriots, who ranked just 21st in defending tight ends in 2009 according to Football Outsiders, should be on the lookout for Keller. He's Sanchez's safety valve, and Sanchez needs his safety valve … a lot.
Is The Jets' Offense Really That Bad?
Either the Baltimore Ravens' defense is one of the best units ever constructed in NFL history, or the Jets really have some problems.
Sure, the team ran the ball for more than five yards per carry, and Sanchez didn't throw any interceptions, but even so, their Monday performance was one of the ugliest shows of offensive futility ever conducted.
They managed just six first downs, one of which came on a penalty, and had the ball for just over a third of the game. They totaled 176 yards, only 60 through the air, for a clip of 2.6 yards per pass play.
They couldn't move the ball whatsoever.
It was so abysmal, that it's impossible to put the blame in any one place. Keller's inability to stay in bounds on the pivotal fourth down was inexcusable. Sanchez was bad. Shonn Greene was bad. The offensive line was bad. The receivers didn't make plays, and Brian Schottenheimer's play-calling didn't help much either.
Baltimore hasn't made offenses look good very often this millennium, so the panic induced by Monday night may be overkill, but the Jets are going to have to get more out of everybody if they want to compete with the Patriots — who would beat the Jets by a lot more than a point if they can only muster nine of their own.
Wounds in The Trenches
Two of the league's most beleaguered units, the Patriots offensive line and the Jets' defensive front will be facing off on Sunday.
The Patriots O-line, despite missing Nick Kaczur to injury and Logan Mankins to a JaMarcus Russell imitation, had very little trouble against Cincinnati. In fact, the offense still had a great day — though the unit did actually only score 24 points — against what should have been an at-least decent Bengals defense.
They just didn't miss either guy that much.
The same can be said of the Jets' defensive line, which lost Kris Jenkins to a season-ending injury and was without edge rusher Calvin Pace. Even so, the defense lived up to its reputation as being impossible to run against. The much-hyped Ray Rice managed only 43 yards on 21 carries, and they got to Joe Flacco and forced turnovers.
The Jets did go out and sign Howard Green as a Jenkins fill-in on Tuesday, and they do have good linebackers to compensate for their holes, but they'll have a much different task in trying to stop Brady.
Then again, the Patriots' O-line will have a much different task than the one it faced against the Bengals.
Shonn Greene or L.T.?
In your traditional ESPN fantasy draft, Greene was the 12th running back taken off the board on average, while LaDainian Tomlinson was taken 36th — seven spots after Justin Forsett.
Then, Monday night hit and Green had five carries for 18 yards and a lost fumble, and Tomlinson had 11 carries for 62 yards.
Greene was apparently benched after fumbling, a team rule that had been in place since the preseason, and the Jets ran so few offensive plays that it was hard to gauge anybody. But it's hard to imagine that Greene will dominate touches going forward as many had expected.
Tomlinson, though he got much of his yardage on a 21-yarder, was an effective back against tough competition, and years of history prove that he isn't a huge fumble risk. Greene, on the other hand, didn't particularly move the ball when he kept it and has fumbling Achilles' Heel since his days at University of Iowa. The Jets tried to work on it with him explicitly in the offseason, but clearly that hasn't worked yet.
When you run a conservative game plan like the Jets do, you need your running back — not just your quarterback — to manage the game. Ryan may see Tomlinson more suited for such.
Life After LoMo
The Patriots have had their own running back controversy — except it really didn't take anybody by surprise.
Bill Belichick may have repeatedly maintained that Laurence Maroney would be a major contributor for the Patriots, but Belichick also gave him a grand total of zero snaps with the first team in preseason games, and even passed over him entirely on occasion.
It seemed to be a struggle for Maroney to even make the team's roster, and he was inactive for Week 1. Now, he's in Denver in Josh McDaniels' ragtag backfield and the Patriots have better 2011 late-round picks.
Maroney's replacement? A guy who was a more highly touted prospect than he was out of college — except that was 12 years ago. After being selected ninth overall by the Jags in 1998, Fred Taylor compiled over 11,000 yards in over a decade of work. Now, Taylor is old — receiving the "elder statesman" label — and missed the majority of last season with an injury.
Still, he was actually relatively effective when he did play in 2009, and his 71 yards on 14 carries against Cincinnati was pretty encouraging. Throw in a few Kevin Faulk catches, Sammy Morris "That guy is killing my fantasy team again" moments and maybe even a BenJarvis Green-Ellis sighting or two, and the team will be fine without Maroney. In truth, we all know what the elephant in the room was — he was a draft bust.
Now, he's gone.
Who is Mark Sanchez?
Heading into last Monday night, commentators seemed mildly obsessed with the "Who's better: Flacco or Sanchez?" debate. Right now, the answer is actually "C — None of the Above."
If the Jets are content to attempt the Trent Dilfer 2000 Ravens route to the title, then Sanchez looks good to go, but if they want to have a real offense, they need to let Sanchez do more than hand the ball off and dump it to Keller.
Sanchez is missing Santonio Holmes as a target, but he really does have talent to throw to and a good line to sit behind. The Patriots may force a shootout out of the Jets on Sunday, which would mean that Sanchez will actually get a chance to throw, and that may not be such a bad thing for the guy.
He's simply never going to develop as a quarterback if he doesn't have a chance to throw downfield or get in a rhythm as a passer. With young cornerbacks on the field, Sanchez may have an opportunity for a good game.
The truth is that he was a sore spot on a 9-7 team with an exceptional defense last year. If he had been on a typical team that drafted in the high-first round, he would've had a really abysmal record and not been the media darling that he has somehow become.
Simply put, Sanchez needs to develop, and the time for him to start doing so is now.
Rex Ryan vs. Bill Belichick
It's not so much that Ryan and Belichick are actually feuding, as it is that they are just so different from one another that it is impossible to think of them as anything but at odds.
Ryan, in a rare deferential moment, even spoke about how much he respects Belichick this week.
They just go about their business very differently. Ryan loves talking about anything but football, making a media circus, hogging attention and bordering on being unprofessional.
Hoodie aside, Belichick never goes near "unprofessional." His public comments are always close to the vest and football-related, and he prefers the persona of evil genius to circus ringmaster.
His statement that he would never be on Hard Knocks should have come as no surprise — he wouldn't.
Ryan, on the other hand, would do Hard Knocks not just every year, but probably during the regular season and offseason, too, if they let him. He probably even wants a VH1 Show between Chad Ochocinco's and Terrell Owens' too.
Ryan's premise seems to be that taking attention off his team's play but putting pressure on them through bold claims gets the most out of his team. The question is: How much is too much?
Slouches and Islands
It seems almost amazing that a war of words that doesn't centrally involve Ryan would be the biggest feud heading into the Jets-Patriots game, but that's the reality.
The best part of the Darrelle Revis-Randy Moss beef is that both guys actually back up their words on the field. At the very least, they are top-five players at their positions — probably top-three, maybe top-one.
Of course, both players have created more than a stir over their respective contract situations. Revis dominated a month of football fans' lives this summer like he was Brett Favre, and Moss, not to be outdone, threw down one of the better postgame tirades in recent memory on Sunday.
Both have calmed down about the money stuff, changing the subject to one another.
Revis called Moss a "slouch" this offseason, something Randy hasn't forgotten, and Moss fired back his own comments this week. He prides himself on staying off Revis Island, but did so with only a mixed level of effectiveness in 2009.
The Jets got burned on the Anquan Boldin-Antonio Cromartie mismatch in Week 1, so it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't put Revis on Moss constantly.
Ryan has indicated that exactly that will be the case, and both will have their opportunities to win the war on the field.
Look for Brady to give Moss many opportunities to put Revis in his place. Consider it his assault on HBO's Hard Knocks, which he apparently doesn't like either.
The Circus' Last Stop?
There really wasn't ever a chance that we could make it through the entire list without the words "Ines Sainz," but she's far from the only show at the Pats-Jets circus.
The Jets won themselves an NFL investigation just a day before the Ines scandal for their so-called "Jets West Camp" this summer that may have violated offseason organized activity rules, and before that, they were mired in all sorts of controversy on Hard Knocks.
Tony Dungy and Ryan feuded over Ryan's love of the F-Bomb, Revis' holdout was measured with running clocks like it was a hostage standoff and everybody had something to say about Sanchez — and it wasn't usually good stuff.
The Patriots, as they made very clear, weren't watching the show. In expressing such though, they simply allowed for a feud-narrative to be constructed.
HBO documentary series aside, the Pats had perhaps a more tumultuous camp than even the Jets. Sure, they aren't being investigated for anything, but they have had to deal with contract disputes involving their two best players, and both got pretty ugly before getting better. A Brady car crash was even thrown in as the cherry on top. Then, there's the Mankins holdout, which might be getting nastier in its details as more and more is revealed.
The offseason seems to have been too long for both of these teams. They haven't been able to do enough talking on the field. The Patriots won their Week 1 game, yet few seem to be mentioning that at all. As for the Jets, they did get attention for their first-week performance, but it wasn't the good kind.
Both hope that Sunday's game will finally do the talking that they want.
