It will be a brisk day in the Meadowlands this afternoon when a semi-hot team in the Seattle Seahawks visit MetLife Stadium to play the Jets, who would like to heat things up over the last six weeks of the season.
The Seahawks have the better record, 6-5 and on a two-game winning streak against teams the Jets have lost to, the 49ers and, last week, the Cardinals. The Jets are 3-8 and have lost seven of their last eight, and are 1-5 in that stretch when a game was decided by one score.
In the Green & White’s favor: They are coming off their bye week against a Seattle outfit that last played and won on the East Coast, at Atlanta in Week 7, but for the past month have not journeyed out of the Pacific Time Zone. Will their biological clocks be good to go with a game that starts for them at 10 a.m. PST, and in slightly more blustery conditions than in Seattle, featuring gametime temperatures around 40 degrees with 15-mph winds?
The ‘Hawks have a number of former Jets on their roster, led by QB Geno Smith, their second-round pick in the 2013 draft. Smith has resurrected his career as Seattle’s starter the past three seasons after post-Jets stops with the Giants and the Chargers. He leads all NFL quarterbacks in most completions/game (25.5) and yards/game (275.9).
Yet Smith’s 12 TD passes are in the bottom half among the league’s quarterbacks and his 12 interceptions are the most thrown by any QB this season.
Interestingly, Jets QB Aaron Rodgers, who turns 41 on Monday, and Smith have many similar metrics. Rodgers’ offense has produced fewer TDs than Smith’s (23 to 25) but also fewer turnovers (11 to 14). Both offenses have punted 47 times. That might suggest an even battle, and if the Jets’ interception dam breaks against the Seahawks, so much the better for the home team.
For what it’s worth, Rodgers’ teams, in his 20-year NFL career, are 1-0 over Smith’s teams, a 31-24 Jets road loss to the Packers in 2014.
