A BIG Jersey Weekend

Monmouth Park	Prudential Center - Devil's Arena

(Photos courtesy of AP)

by Jimmy Russotto                                                                        

10/26/07

New Jersey becomes the apex of the sports world this weekend as horse racing’s premier event, the Breeders Stakes will be run at beautiful Monmouth Racetrack, the brand new Prudential Center in Newark, NJ hosts the NJ Devils in their 2007 debut against the Ottawa Senators and Giants Stadium hosts the NY Jets against the Buffalo Bills in the NFL.

 

The Breeders Cup has expanded its program to include 11 events over both Friday and Saturday, with The Classic on Saturday forecasted to be perhaps THE premier event in horseracing for many years.  At least 4 horses in the 9-horse field are top thoroughbreds.  They include:

 

• Street Sense – winner of the Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes
• Curlin – winner of the Preakness and Jockey Club Gold Cup
• Any Given Saturday – winner of the Haskell Invitational and Dwyer Stakes
• Lawyer Ron – winner of the Woodward Stakes and Whitney Handicap

 

The rain won’t dampen the spirits of the crowd with classy competitors such as these.  Street Sense, especially, is said to be in top form.  Every single witness to his Friday workout attested to his magnificent form.  The field also boasts other fine horses such as Hard Spun, one of only two horses to contend in all three Triple Crown races, and Tiago, winner of the Santa Anita Derby.

 

Adding to the intrigue for The Classic are the rain and the racing surface.  Monmouth installed a new dirt track for this event and, by all accounts, it handles the moisture very well, minimizing the affect on times.  Another interesting factor is that all the top contenders in this field are coming off various types of artificial surfaces, all of which run a little differently, but the consensus among horsemen is that many horses perform better on real dirt after practicing on the artificial stuff.  These additional variables should add to the intrigue of what was already shaping up to be the best Breeders Cup Classic ever.

 

Meanwhile, Newark’s Prudential Center and Devil’s Arena will host the NJ Devils opener.  The entire city and state is holding its breath, hoping for an uneventful debut for the new arena.  Concerns abound about the neighborhood, parking and public transportation.  This writer certainly is hoping for the best, as Seton Hall will also be playing its entire home slate of basketball games there.  In any event, the Devils have been a perennial presence in the hockey playoff picture while Seton Hall has done some great recruiting, and prospects are good for a better finish in the tough Big-East Conference.  A good showing for the new arena should boost attendance for both the Devils and the Seton Hall basketball program.

 

Meanwhile, head north up the Garden State Parkway and grab the Turnpike north to Exit 16 and you get to Giants Stadium, home to the Jets and Giants.  The Giants will be in London (England, not Connecticut) to face the Miami Dolphins but the hapless Jets will be facing the almost as hapless Buffalo Bills.

 

The Jets, who were a playoffs team last year and had high hopes for an even better performance this year, have been vastly disappointing.  The reasons for it, although their performance would seem to be bad in many areas, actually stem from one problem, and that is simply poor offensive-line play. Problems there make running the ball impossible and passing becomes limited to short-yardage gains, as the quarterback gets no time to throw the ball.  Because they can’t throw the ball effectively, the defense loads up on the run, making it even more difficult to run the ball, especially in the very unlikely event that they can take the lead in a game.

 

Poor performance by the offensive line also means the team can’t hang onto the ball for any extended period of time.  This time-of-possession disparity makes the defense take the field for a longer period.  They get tired.  This is reflected in the second half of games especially, much as has happened in past games, such as last week’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.  The Jets, who surprised the Bengals somewhat in the first half by actually unleashing one long pass for a touchdown, gave up the lead quite readily in the second half, a half in which the Bengals simply ran right over, above and through them.

 

The reason for the poor offensive line play is simple.  The Jets ridiculous new GM, Mr. Tanenbaum, played hardball with one of their best offensive linemen, Pete Kendall, a selfless player who helped all the other young Jets linemen play better, one of those guys.  They let him go to the Redskins, who thankfully scooped him up and now they are the proud owners of a much-improved rushing and passing attack.

 

Poor offensive line play has put Chad Pennington’s job on the line.  It has lead to all this losing, to hapless and harried Coach Eric Mangini’s continual excuse-laden Tuesday press conferences.  Mangini, who has exacerbated an already bad situation with his almost Coughlin-like attention to anal rules and strict testing of every player move from practices to time in the bathroom, has looked pitiful this year and nobody deserves this fate more than does he.

 

So, the Jets will lose once again.  The Bills, who, despite injuries all over the place, will prevail because they have a spirited team, have a great running back in Marshawn Lynch, have a coach who does not grade and then berate his players for any and every false move, and a fresh young quarterback who can throw more than lob.

 

But that’s quite enough about the Jets.  They will be, however, the one black spot (or green spot) on what would have otherwise been a magnificent time for New Jersey and the world of sports.

 

For Rutgers will also be playing in Piscataway, the same Rutgers team that knocked off number 2-rated South Florida last weekend, a team coached by Greg Schiano, who knows how to get a spirited team on the field.