Giants Behind Jet Lines: Five Questions With an Enemy Blogger

Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.

This week I sat down with Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog, an independent column that covers the New York Jets.

Dan Benton: "The Bills, Brian? The Buffalo Bills? What in the world happened to the Jets on Sunday?"

Brian Bassett: "Oy! Don't get me started. I did say that you shouldn't overlook any games, but fans had to feel good about their teams' chance going into last week to square their record. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the whole game, but the offense had to bear most of the burden ... being unable to score more than 20 points against a team that had a number of key contributors off the field is very frustrating as a fan."

DB: "After Osi Uemnyiora and the Giants defense completely obliterated Donovan McNabb and Philadelphia, the Jets have to be worried. Do you think Chad Pennington will get any sleep this week or will the frequent nightmares keep him up?"

Bassett: "A few things. First, the Jets basically letting Osi line up in the slot and taking a straight line to Pennington won't happen and if it does, the Jets will be looking to take advantage of it. Second, Winston Justice and D'Brickashaw Ferguson aren't the same caliber player. Third, I think that the Giants successes had more to do with the new D-Coordinator that came from the Eagles. Tripling their sack total in one game compared to the three previous tells me there was something about that particular team of which they took advantage. What's more troubling was their zone-blitz packages and that they would force linemen to commit to a blitzer, only to pull their linemen back to cover short zones while certain areas of the O-Line were getting overwhelmed by blitzers."

DB: "Although Eli Manning struggled a tad last week and the Giants receivers suffer from the "dropsies," that unit has to concern you. What does the Jets 27th ranked pass defense have to do in order to slow down Manning, Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey?"

Bassett: "Plax is the biggest threat. His size doesn't match up well against the Jets' CBs, so look for the Giants to exploit that in the red zone to deadly effect. Between Jonathan Vilma, Kerry Rhodes and Eric Smith (likely to start in place of the injured Erik Coleman at Safety), I think they can limit Shockey."

DB: "I know I asked you about it last week, but I've got to bring it up again. Why is Thomas Jones struggling?"

Bassett: "There was no excuse for him not going off on the Bills' last week; none at all. I know there are levels of causality that make my head spin, but what I am seeing as a trend emerging is that he is pretty useless in a loss for the Jets. Part of it is that he struggles getting yards early in the game, and if you can't do that, where would you use him late when you are playing from behind and throwing? It's only when the team is well ahead that he seems to be effective."

DB: "Prediction time! How many times is Pennington sacked, and what do the Jets do after going 1-4?"

Bassett: "My over under would be four sacks. If the Jets go 1-4 (which I don't think they will), it's time to start planning for next year. For as much as people call for Pennington's [head], I don't think he's the biggest problem ... the defense is much more troubling to me."

A special thanks to Brian Bassett for taking the time for the second week in a row. Again, you can read his independent Jets coverage on The Jets Blog.