Jets-Bears Preview: These Defenses Are Truly Offensive

Exhibit A: 480 rushing attempts, 2400 yards, 5.3 avg., 16 TDs
Exhibit B: 450 completions, 3976 yards, 40 TDs, 0 INTs

No, these aren’t the greatest two fantasy league seasons in history, and these sublime stats weren’t accrued in the AFL, XFL or Atari football, where all you had to do to elude tacklers was aim the joystick to the top of the screen so that your player could emerge untouched at the bottom (For those of you too young to have any clue what I’m talking about, check out “Atari football” on Google Images. Us ancients can tell you how bad video games were in our day as much as we want, but in order to get a sense of the true deprivation we suffered, you need to see it for yourself.).

These numbers are, respectively, what the Jets and Bears defenses have surrendered so far in the 2014 season, pro-rated to a full 16-game slate. Like a bad car accident, they’re so gruesome that you just can’t look away, even though you know you should.

In Monday night’s Jets-Bears match-up, fans get a rare treat: what may well be the worst run defense in modern NFL history and a pass defense that needs 100 perfect improvement just to make it to abominable (did Jordy Nelson just catch another pass?), all in the same contest.

Naturally, the Bears passed the ball very effectively over the season’s first two games (in which they, like the Jets, went 1-1), while the Jets have so far run the ball with abandon, with their 358 rushing yards tops in the NFL heading into Week Three.

So we’re looking at strength vs. weakness against strength vs. weakness. Hmm, somehow I think strength will prevail in both cases. Where does that leave us -- and the Jets, who could sure use a W at MetLife Stadium Monday night after their hearts were ripped out last week by an errant (euphemism alert!) time out call?

It will likely come down to which one -- the Bears run D or the Jets pass D -- is slightly less offensive than the other.

Pete Zwiebach writes about the Jets for NBC 4 New York. He lives in New York City with his wife and two kids, who without fail manage to block his view of the TV whenever a game-changing play occurs.

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