The more experienced team? Hint: Not Pats
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Tom Brady will be starting his 19th career playoff game today. Deion Branch will be playing in his 12th. Vince Wilfork is hoping today is lucky 13 for him.
How much does experience influence a postseason game?
"A lot," Branch said. "A lot."
Well if that's the case, then advantage: Jets.
Although conventional wisdom would say that the Patriots are more used to being in the playoffs - they are the Patriots, after all - the real been-there-done-that edge just might belong to the Jets.
Sure the Pats have players who were on the Super Bowl championship teams of the last decade, but an examination of the rosters of both teams shows a very young group of Patriots, most of whom have never tasted a postseason victory with New England.
That's right. In this game, the Jets are ripe with experience and the Patriots are Gang Green.
New England not only has 22 players on its 53-man roster who have never been in a playoff game, it has only 11 who have ever won one with this organization. That's because the last time the Patriots came out victorious in a postseason game was in January 2008, when they beat the Chargers in the AFC title game and advanced to Super Bowl XLII against the Giants.
The Jets? Thanks to their run to the AFC Championship Game last year, 33 of their 53 players have won a playoff game for the team. Triple the number.
Since he entered the league, Mark Sanchez has won three playoff games. In the same span, Brady hasn't won any.
Making matters worse for the Patriots is that those who arrived here in either 2008 or 2009 have had only one playoff game, and that was last year's humiliating home loss to the Ravens.
"I was a little disappointed after that game, but at the same time, I'm not really harping on that game," linebacker and defensive captain Jerod Mayo said of his only postseason experience. "I'm living for this game."
Mayo, in fact, has been trying to prep his many teammates who have never even been on a football field this deep into January. When he entered the league, he had Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison to carry that responsibility (the Patriots didn't make the playoffs despite 11 wins that season) and they had the rings to back up their words. Now it's his job, but his fingers are conspicuously empty.
Mayo said he isn't even sure he can fully explain playoff football.
"I think you have to experience your first one," he said. "My first one wasn't too good against the Baltimore Ravens. The first play or something like that, they got an 80-yard touchdown. Hopefully, it's different this year."
Branch agreed that talking about the playoffs is much different from living them.
"I think the biggest thing is just for us, the veteran guys who have been part of games like this, our level of play must step up this week in practice," he said this past week. "The guys are going to practice hard. Trust me, that's going to happen, but it's not the same. It's not the same."
In the week leading up to the game, Bill Belichick said he wouldn't try to do anything different with his young players. He didn't want to get them pumped up with the urgency of the playoffs, nor did he want to calm down any natural edge and excitement they might have about this game.
"We've played a lot of football games this year," Belichick said. "We've been in a lot of games, so hopefully we can learn from the experience in those games and put it to use in the next one."
The next one is today. Winning will be a difficult job for whichever team wins. The Patriots hope it's a job with no experience required.
