Here are 10 things worth keeping an eye on in Sunday’s Patriots-Jets game:

WHEN THE PATRIOTS HAVE THE BALL

Mismatches in the passing game. In their December game, New England was able to deftly exploit mismatches all over the field when it came to throwing the football. Whether it was Danny Woodhead on Mike DeVito or Rob Gronkowski on Eric Smith or Deion Branch on just about anyone, the Patriots were able to create some bad situations for the New York pass defense. Look for them to try and do more of the same on Sunday. One way the Jets might try and counter is to play more zone coverage as opposed to man.

“They’ve clearly got a ton of weapons — they torched us last time they played us,” said Jets coach Rex Ryan. “It’s not like they just have Wes Welker or they just have [Deion] Branch or they just have one tight end. They’ve got a whole slew of weapons and Brady uses every one of them. He’s going to throw it to the open guy. That’s what you have to be concerned with.”

Targeting Antonio Cromartie. Even if he hadn’t said what he said this week, it made sense for the Patriots to try and go after Cromartie. After all, it hardly makes sense to throw the ball in the direction of an All-Pro corner like Darrelle Revis. Cromartie struggled in December when faced with the prospect of trying to stop Branch. If/when the Jets are in man coverage — especially if the game gets out of hand early for New York — look for the Patriots to take every opportunity to embarrass Cromartie.

Pressure on Tom Brady. As we detailed here, the Rex Ryan-led Jets appear to be blitzing Brady less and less since the start of the 2009 season. When New York has brought five or more rushers the last two times the Patriots have faced the Jets, Brady has carved them up, especially in December — in that game, when New York sent five or more rushers after Brady, he averaged 18.1 yards per completion and a 154.4 passer rating. Instead of coming after Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning, they dropped more defenders into coverage and it limited the Colts quarterback to 225 passing yards. The same thing could happen on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m sure they want to get pressure on me. I’m sure they’re not going, ‘Let’s just let him sit back there for seven seconds and throw the ball.’ Every team wants to get pressure,” Brady said. “Every quarterback, you try to get up in their face and make them make decisions before you want to make them. Like I said, they’re going to have the things that they think they need to do to stop us — whether it’s get up in our face or stop certain plays — whoever they stop, we’ll try to find someone else to throw it to.”

Quick starts. New England wants to seize control of this game early and not let the ground-and-pound Jets try and create a slowdown tempo. To do that, they need to get out to a quick start with touchdowns on their first two or three possessions. The Patriots have been one of the best in the league as of late when it comes to scoring in the first half — according to Nuggetpalooza, New England has averaged 23.8 first half points over their last five games, the sixth highest such average over five games in the NFL since 1997. (The first two teams on the list? The 2007 Patriots in Weeks 8-12, who had an average of 26.4 first-half points, as well as the 2009 Patriots, who scored an average of 26 points per game in the first half of Weeks 6-11.)

WHEN THE JETS HAVE THE BALL

Stopping the run. Rex Ryan talked about getting outcoached in the December matchup between the two teams, and one area where he seriously misfired was that he forgot what the Jets do best. Instead of trying to pound the ball, he decided the Jets would try and catch the Patriots off guard and open things up in the passing game. It was a big mistake then, and it would be an even bigger mistake if New York tried to do it this time around. The Jets are what they are: A physical, run-first team. If they stick to that, the improving New England run defense will face one of its biggest challenges of the year.

Putting the game in Mark Sanchez’s hands. In his two games in Foxboro, Sanchez has been simply awful, going a combined 25-for-54 (46 percent) with one touchdown, seven interceptions and 300 yards. History tells us that if the Patriots are able to stop the run and make the Jets a one-dimensional team, they can more than hold their own against Sanchez.

For his part, Patriots coach Bill Belichick says he’s been impressed by what he’s seen from Sanchez this season.

“He’s done a great job this year,” Belichick said. “There have been a lot of close games and (he has) brought them from behind, like in the Detroit game and the overtime games. (In) Cleveland, he made a bunch of big plays there. He’s done an excellent job in some tough situations and brought the team back and won for them. I think anytime a quarterback does that, that’s what you want on your résumé.”

Forcing turnovers. The Patriots were without peer over the course of the regular season when it came to forcing turnovers. For what it’s worth, the Jets are very good at taking care of the football — not Patriots (plus-28) good, but very good, nonetheless. They are plus-9, with their biggest deficiency coming from the quarterback position, where Sanchez had 14 interceptions.

Containing Dustin Keller. The tight end remains a favorite of Sanchez, and it’s a good a time as any to get after him. Keller has had some really good games against the Patriots over the years — his 25 catches for 308 yards are career bests for the 6-foot-2, 250-pound tight end out of Purdue. (In Week 2, Keller had seven catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-14 win for the Jets.)

“He’s one of their guys — he’s a vertical threat at tight end,” said New England safety Jarrad Page. “He can get down the field. He’s got good hands. And he knows how to get open. Anytime you play against a tight end like that, where guys work in the middle of the field, he can make big plays.”

SPECIAL TEAMS

An interesting split. New England kicker Shayne Graham enters his first postseason with New England on the heels of an impressive regular-season effort, but it’s his first playoff appearance since two missed field goals played a sizable role in the Bengals’ postseason loss to the Jets last year. On the other side of the ball, the occasionally shaky Nick Folk is coming off his finest playoff moment, a 32-yard game-winner at the buzzer to beat the Colts in the wild card game. (And I’m not going to give this stat away, but Nuggetpalooza has a fascinating series of numbers on New England’s fourth-quarter field goal attempts.)

While the Patriots have a statistical edge in punting and punt returns, kick returns and kick coverage are the other special teams areas worth watching on Sunday. After his tremendous performance against the Colts, the Jets more than likely will have Cromartie on kick returns, while New England will go with Brandon Tate, who had an excellent start to the season but has fallen off drastically over the last few weeks.

INTANGIBLES

Taking out the trash. Just how much of an impact will all the pregame talk have on both teams? In the wake of Bart Scott’s threatening statements regarding Wes Welker, the league is now almost obligated to call the game tighter than usual. It will also be interesting to see how the officials handle the game if things get out of hand early. That’s when you might see some payback, whether it’s in the form of pushing and shoving after the whistle or something more serious.

We know that the Patriots historically have had very good memories when it comes to things like this — witness what they did to Anthony Smith, who was positively tortured by Brady and Randy Moss in the wake of his guarantee against the Patriots in 2007. If New England is able to get rolling early, it could be a long afternoon for Cromartie. Conversely, if the Jets are able to seize command and win the game, expect a torrent of postgame hubris from the New York locker room that will provide nightmare fuel all offseason for New England.