11/30 — The weather is the big, wet, soggy pregame story today. It's been raining all morning and afternoon in North Jersey, and that includes the Meadowlands, which despite its fine FieldTurf footing was tarped until a few hours before today's 4:15 p.m. EST kickoff.

Players are now warming up in the steady rain and the temps in the low 40s. There is no snow in the forecast but there is a rare 100 percent forecast of rain into this evening. So the Jets and Broncos have to be ready to deal with the elements as well as themselves in this battle between AFC division leaders.

But the rain doesn't appear to have dampened the Jets' spirits. They have just come out for their pregame warmups and the team has gathered as usual around Thomas Jones in the end zone. TJ looks especially animated with his hand gestures before the players raise their hands, then break for stretching.

And why should the weather be a damper for the Jets? They are attempting to win their sixth game in a row, which would be their longest since they won eight straight in a streak that bridged the 1999 and 2000 seasons. And they will be taking aim at their fifth consecutive home victory, which would be the longest streak since the 1998 team took eight straight in the Meadowlands, including the home playoff win over Jacksonville.

Despite the strides that the Jets' injured players had been making this past week, their inactive list remains identical to its lists of the previous two games, meaning LB David Harris and S Eric Smith as well as TE Bubba Franks will remain sidelined. The Jets' other IAs: K Mike Nugent, WR David Clowney, RB Marcus Mason and CB Drew Coleman. Brett Ratliff is the Jets' third quarterback.

The Broncos continue to have a quartet of starters on their inactive list: CB Champ Bailey, LBs Nate Webster and D.J. Williams and S Marlon McCree. The other IAs for the visitors are RB Selvin Young, just-signed FB Andrew Pinnock, DT Nic Clemons and DE Tim Crowder. The Broncos are not designating a third QB.

The Jets today are wearing their green jerseys and white pants, a color scheme they've worn to the tune of a 3-1 record this season, including their last time out of the box in the 47-3 rout of the Rams here three weeks ago.

The referee is Walt Coleman, who has been presiding over Jets games since 1995. And he did work the Jets' final preseason game at Philadelphia this summer. But as for regular-season games, this is Coleman's first since the 2005 Game 14 loss at Miami.

And as we mentioned during the week, the CBS-TV team working this game is Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon. Harlan has done play-by-play on the Jets since 1998 and in fact the Jets are 8-9 in the 17 games he's called. Gannon, on the other hand, is working the Jets for the first time in his fourth season as an analyst.

Update: Just before kickoff, the weather was announced. The temperature is 36 degrees with a wind-chill of 29. And rain continues to trickle down our pressbox perch as the game is about to begin.