Sometimes it’s hard to come up with reasons to watch a 4-7 team play a 5-6 team, especially when Oregon and Oregon State will be squaring off at the same time for a berth in the Rose Bowl.
(The fact that the Jets-Bills game will be played in Toronto is irrelevant, unless the national anthems will be replaced by Bob and Doug McKenzie singing The Twelve Days of Christmas.)
Here’s one tangible reason for watching the game on NFL Network (available via Sprint handsets with Sprint’s NFL Mobile Live): Bills receiver Terrell Owens will be covered by Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis.
Revis is one of the best young corners in the game; Owens is one of the best aging receivers. Lately, Owens has been getting back to the form that he displayed in past years -- including the public insulting of (sniff) his quarterback.
“I know it was pretty physical the last time we played them,” Owens said Tuesday, per Allen Wilson of the Buffalo News. “But they are not going to be faced with the same team that they saw the first time. I hope they don’t think they are going to see the same me that they saw the first time.”
The “first time,” Owens caught three passes for 13 yards in an unlikely Buffalo win, with Ryan Fitzpatrick replacing Trent Edwards, who suffered an early concussion.
This time, Revis might have inadvertently stirred up a proverbial hornets nest again, in comparing the self-described original 81 to the “other” 81.
“I use different techniques at times for different guys,” Revis said Tuesday, in comments distributed by the team. “Randy Moss is faster than Terrell Owens, so you have to play them different.”
Randy Moss probably is faster than Terrell Owens, but the last guy who would agree with that is Terrell Owens. And whether Revis realizes it or not, he has just given Owens extra motivation to help “North America’s team” complete the sweep of the Jets in the game that will be played in Ontario’s answer to New York City.
Still, Oregon is playing Oregon State.