Rolling dice for upset before move to Vegas
BRIAN COSTELLO’S GANG GREEN GAME PLAN
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Jets know no one is giving them a chance of beating the Raiders on Sunday. They are nearly twotouchdown underdogs viewed as nothing more than a speed bump for the Super Bowl contending Raiders. They’re not listening. “I think we can match up with anybody,” Jets cornerback Buster Skrine said this week. Well, we’re about to find out. The Jets won’t face many teams more talented than the Raiders offensively. They have stud wide receivers in Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree, an emerging star at quarterback in Derek Carr and a rejuvenated Marshawn Lynch in the backfield. They are not as impressive on defense, but they do have reigning Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack.
Add in the fact that this is the Raiders’ home opener and Lynch’s hometown debut, and this feels like a recipe for a blowout.
“They’ve got all types of weapons over there,” Jets cornerback Morris Claiborne said. “They’re loaded. But I feel like if we do everything we have to do and stay on top of our details and gang tackle, I feel like we’ll be all right.”
The Jets are coming off a seasonopening loss to the Bills when they did very little on either side of the ball.
Quarterback Josh McCown said the team is not worried about an underdog label.
“If that’s what we are, that’s what we are,” McCown said. “We’re just, in our minds, going in and doing what it takes to win the football game. They’re a good team, a team on the rise, that had an excellent year last year. They have a heck of a quarterback, and so we need to go out there and play good football.
“To me, it’s less about them and more about us and what we have to do and how we have to continue our process of growing, because we’re a young team. We have new pieces everywhere and for us, every week is about just trying to go out and get better and improve on what we’re doing so that we continue to grow and build to what we want to be.”
This could be the Jets’ final visit to the Oakland Coliseum, site of many memorable Jets-Raiders games. The team is moving to Las Vegas in a few years. A Jets win Sunday would be one of the biggest upsets in team history.