The Patriots bounced back this weekend to beat the Jets on the road, 25-6, for their 11th straight win over the division rival from New York. The last time the Jets beat New England was in December 2015 in an overtime finish.
Even though the defense had a phenomenal game on paper (allowing only 6 points and creating 4 INTs), the Jets look in danger of once again being a bottom tier team in the league and the Patriots meanwhile showed some problems of their own on both sides of the ball but primarily on the line.
But first did I mention four picks yet because that’s nearly always going to decide a game in the NFL if it’s one sided. Which credit to the Patriots for not turning the ball over at all this week.
You can’t deny the defense made plays on all four of those interceptions but it’s tough not to question what the Jets are doing with their rookie QB.
If you just look at the Jets first two offensive drives (it’s only four plays), you’ll see first play is an 8-yard run. Next play is an interception. First play of their second drive is a 13-yard run. Next play is again an interception.
It continued throughout the game, early drive running success followed by interceptions or stall outs from forcing Zach Wilson into hard plays. Just about the opposite of how Bill and Josh have been handling Mac.
But for the Patriots concern why were they even having some of that trouble with the Jets running game when their D-line is supposed to be one of the strongest parts of the team?
I’ll ignore that for now because the struggle with the run from the D-line is nothing compared to the trouble on the offensive line, especially on the right side. Yasir Durant had a tough day filling in for Trent Brown, who is still out from his injury in the Dolphins game, at right tackle.
Isiah Wynn at left tackle didn’t have the best day either. This led to Mac Jones being pressured even more this week and getting sacked 3 times. If his protection doesn’t improve it’ll be hard to imagine him finishing this season healthy.
The Patriots offense was still able to take advantage of the big plays on defense by scoring 17 points off the 4 turnovers. Including touchdowns by Damien Harris and James White who both look great right now.
White is looking a lot more active in this offense than he was last year and I think that’s a really good sign. He had the best receiving day on the team with 6 Rec and 45 YDS on 6 targets.
Nick Folk had a good day in some unusual wind for MetLife hitting all four of his FG attempts despite still missing one of his two extra point attempts.
Overall, it was a good team win with enough plays made on all sides of the ball to win this game pretty easily even with some of the mistakes and exposed weaknesses that may have been shown. This team knows they need to improve and they’re fully aware that the challenge they have this week against the Saints will be a lot harder than what they faced this past weekend.
Go Pats
