Week 5 Preview

The first Sunday of October greets us with 3 AFC East games to enjoy. We’ve got one road game (Miami at Houston), one home game (Cleveland at New England), and one, um, “neutral site?” game (New York Jets at New York Giants).

In Houston the 0-4 Dolphins will look to get into the win column against a shorthanded Texans team. Houston comes in with injuries to starting RB Ahman Green and starting WR Andre Johnson. Since the Texans have little else on offense, thats very good news for a much maligned Miami defense. If Trent Green and the Dolphins offense can take care of the ball this week and RB Ronnie Brown can continue his hot streak, the Phins should leave Houston with their first win of the year.

Former Defensive Coordinator Romeo Crennel returns to Foxboro when the Pats host the Browns. New England will be trying to get off to a 5-0 start while the Browns will try not to lose by more than 4 touchdowns. Honestly, this game looks even worse than last week’s Pats-Bengals matchup, and we all saw how well that went. Keep an eye on Sammy Morris again this week as the Cleveland run defense is about two steps below horrible, allowing 160 yards rushing per week.

“The Battle for the Meadowlands” highlights the Sunday slate in the AFC East. The Jets “travel” to New York to take on the Giants in a game to see who knocks the Mets collapse off the back page of the newspaper for at least one day. The Giants defense has been improving quite a lot lately, and that should give Jets fans reason to worry. RB Thomas Jones has been off to a slow start this season, and unless he can get things on track the Jets will be in for a long day. Jones will need WRs Laveraneus Coles and Jerricho Cotchery to get some long completions to open up some room to run. The Giants offense is another story altogether, and with Eli Manning at the helm I would expect to see at least one Jets interception Sunday. If they can win the turnover battle and turn that field position into points the Jets should come out on top in the Jersey Joust.