A league insider's look at the Patriots-Jets matchup

SI.com's Don Banks had a veteran AFC insider assess the Patriots-Jets matchup.

SCOUT'S TAKE: Eagles-Giants matchup

New York Jets at New England Patriots

Chad Pennington led the Jets to a 10-6 record and was named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year. Damian Strohmeyer/SI

• JETS -- Eric Mangini has done a nice job of hiding his team's weaknesses this season. The Jets don't have great talent, but they don't beat themselves. That's Mangini taking the Bill Belichick approach to a game. They've got a good quarterback in Chad Pennington, and two good receivers in Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery. In the preseason, I didn't even know who Cotchery was, but he has developed nicely. He's not the fastest guy, but he's a big strong guy ...

People seem surprised about Pennington, but when he was healthy before, the Jets were a playoff team under Herman Edwards. When Chad's not healthy, they've been bad. They're going to go as far as Pennington takes them. He's almost like Peyton Manning in some ways. It's all about making the right decisions and being smart with the ball. He's going to make good decisions, run the offense at the line of scrimmage, get them out of bad plays, and find the open man. They kind of bore you with good football ...

Leon Washington has made a big jump during the year. He won them that Miami game by taking that screen pass into field goal range with two minutes to play ... New York plays great team defense. They don't have that one bell-cow player who's supposed to make all the tackles. It's not Jonathan Vilma running to the ball with everybody else covered up ...

I've been impressed with Kerry Rhodes at safety. He's made some big plays for them when they really needed it. Some sacks, some interceptions. He's around the ball a lot.

• PATRIOTS -- I'm a believer in the idea the Patriots' vast playoff experience counts for something every year. It means something that nearly everyone on the team has gone through it before and knows what it takes to win at this time of year. They benefit from that calmness that comes with having done something many times before. Advantage Patriots, because their roster is a lot more battle-tested than New York's ...

New England's best player is its quarterback, Tom Brady. The fact that he's not in the Pro Bowl means they should cancel the Pro Bowl this year. It's a joke. The only difference between Brady and Peyton Manning is that Brady isn't asked to carry the whole load. Belichick likes to balance it out on offense ...

New England's receivers are average at best, but their tight ends can hurt you. And Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney give them a strong 1-2 punch. Even Kevin Faulk can make some plays on third down. So you can't really beat them by taking away just one part of their offense ...

On defense, you notice Richard Seymour the way you used to, but he has played hurt this year. I think their best player on defense is Mike Vrabel. He does a little bit of everything for them. Tedy Bruschi really hasn't shown up much lately, but Vince Wilfork is having a nice year ...

I don't even know who's in their secondary any more, they change so often. But like the Jets, New England plays good team defense. They've got guys like Wilfork, Ty Warren and Jarvis Green all making plays this season. The Jets won't be able to run the ball against them. It'll be how much Pennington can do against their secondary and how much their 3-4 defense pressures him.