Playoff preview -- Colts vs. Jets, the mirror matchup

The New York Jets are on a roll heading into the playoffs this weekend.

Two weeks ago they traveled to Foxboro and defeated the New England Patriots, the eventual AFC East Division Champions. Then last weekend, they easily defeated the Green Bay Packers, the NFC North Division Champions.

Now that they've made the playoffs, the Jets cannot rest as they will face the top wild card team in the NFL, and a team whose offensive playing style is very similar to theirs.

They play similar games because both coaches, Tony Dungy of the Colts and Herman Edwards of the Jets, have known each other since they worked together with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1990-91, and when Dungy hired Edwards to be the defensive back coach for the Buccaneers in 1996.

The Jets are led by QB Chad Pennington, who is this year's Cinderella story. Just like Kurt Warner in 1999 with the St. Louis Rams and Tom Brady in 2001 with the New England Patriots, Pennington got the starting job when the Jets original starter, Vinny Testeverde, was injured when he suffered a shoulder injury in the fourth game of the season against Jacksonville.

Pennington's play continued to improve each week, and he's held onto the starting spot with an NFL-best and club-record 104.2 passing rating. He has completed 68.9 percent of his attempts this year, the sixth best in NFL history.

As for the Indianapolis' offense, they've moved the ball 351 yards per game, with QB Payton Manning passing for 4,200 yards during the season, and RB Edgerrin James (probable for the game) averaging 3.6 yards per carry.

On the other hand, the Jets' offense has averaged 314.6 yards each game, with RB Curtis Martin running for 1,094 yards in 261 carries and a 4.2 yards per carry average.

Both teams like to start running the ball first to force the defense to crowd the line of scrimmage, and then pass the ball using play-action. The only difference is the explosiveness Manning brings to the Colts, in comparison to the accuracy Pennington has for the Jets in the short pass routes.

On the defensive side of the ball, Dungy transformed the Colts secondary into the second best defense against the pass in the league, however, their running defense is only ranked 20th. For the Jets, their aerial defense is ranked 21st, while their rush defense 17th.

With the good weather forecast for New Jersey on Saturday, all of the components are in place for a high scoring game.

The Colts look to have a slight edge due to their pass defense, but their performance has been dropping recently, as seen in their loss to the New York Giants a couple of week ago.

This playoff matchup might come down to the special teams of both teams.

The Jets' special teams are among the league's best, averaging 16.5 yards on punt returns and 26 yards on kick off returns.

Another special teams' factor that could play a part in this wild card game and which has been a major factor in the NFL post season for more than 10 years now is turnovers. In this department, the Jets have the edge with a +4, while the Colts are a -5, which could be seen in the fact that Manning threw 19 interceptions against Pennington six.

So look for lots of points and a close decision in this game.

However, since we are all getting used to Cinderella stories in the NFL, and the Jets QB Chad Pennington is this year's version of that story, look for New York to give the boot to the Colts and book tickets to the next round, where they might just face Oakland once again.