Well…this game was closer than it really should have been. The New England Patriots survived a disastrous 0-3 start to the season as they beat the Jets 15-10 to improve their record to 1-2 and further their winning record against New York to 15 straight wins.
That could have been the beginning of the end for the Pats and Bill Belichick.
With all of the pressures of the past greatness and current-day nerves around their 0-2 start, the New England Patriots quieted the noise around their slow start as they completed the first half of their biannual beatdown of the New York Jets with a 15-10 victory. And, even though the Pats offense looked woeful for a large portion of the game, they deserved this win.
So, if you’re a fan of high-tempo, fast-paced, and ruthless offensive football…I hope you tuned into the Dolphins vs. Broncos game as this AFC East divisional battle was the complete polar opposite of that.
As you could probably have guessed by the score, this was a slow, rugged, gritty defensive football game that saw both teams score under 20 points, just a single TD for each side, each team punted the ball 8 times, there was only one Red Zone drive in the entire game, both sides threw for under 210 passing yards, and both sides had 3rd down percentages under 43%.
It was a defensive bloodbath from the first minute of the game to the last, and that was obviously only going to end in one team’s advantage: the New England Patriots.
Sure, the Jets’ defense, led by Jordan Whitehead (10 tackles 1 PD), C.J. Mosley (10 tackles), Quincy Williams (9 tackles, 1 PD), Sauce Gardner (3 tackles), Adrian Amos (7 tackles, 1 PD), and head coach Robert Salah, played really well against the Pats as they racked up 68 tackles, 2 TFL, 4 PD, and 5 QB hits, but they were never, ever going to be able to compete against the Patriots defense and the greatest defensive coach in NFL history: Bill Belichick.
There’s a reason why the Patriots came into this game with a historic 14-game winning streak against the Jets (who the Pats play twice EVERY YEAR), and it’s mainly down to Bill Belichick and his coordinators being able to scheme their defense against any offense and QB the Jets throw at them year in and year out. And, being honest, matching up against Zach Wilson is not even remotely close to what can be considered a challenge for Bill.
The Patriots defense (61 tackles, 3 sacks, 7 TFL, 5 PD, 7 QB hits) made Wilson look like a Pop-Warner QB as he only had a 50% completion percentage (18/36), 157 passing yards, 0 TDs, surprisingly 0 turnovers, and he could only lead the Jets to 12 First Downs for the entire game. Now, this wasn’t Wilson’s worst ever performance in the Jets vs. Patriots rivalry game, but he still showed how he isn’t nearly on the level of even a poor backup QB.
Apart from the one TD drive that saw Nick Bawden (1 CAR, 1 yard, 1 TD) score the Jets lone touchdown, Wilson couldn’t get the ball past the Pats 30-yard line even if his life depended on it.
He just doesn’t have the vision or perhaps the game-IQ to stretch defenses or see receivers getting in behind as there was too many times to count Garrett Wilson (5 REC, 48 yards), Allen Lazard (3 REC, 39 yards), Tyler Conklin (3 REC, 26 yards), Randall Cobb (1 REC, 12 yards), etc. got in behind, but he never even looked at them.
Anyway, as for Mac Jones and the Pats offense, they were struck with miscues and misunderstandings pretty much from the get-go.
Jones had a very pedestrian game (and I’m being kind) with 15/29 completions, 201 passing yards, 1 TD, 4 rushing carries, and 13 rushing yards, and the bulk of his total yardage came from his 50+ yard TD to Pharoh Brown (2 REC, 71 yards, 1 TD). There are definitely signs that Mac Jones can be a capable QB in the NFL, which cannot be said for Zach Wilson; yet, he always seems to either take a sack in the worst possible moment or he misplaces a key throw that would keep a Patriots drive alive.
Yes, some of that is down to poor offensive line play or miscues from his receivers, but he’s been doing this for the last three seasons. And it’s not improving all that much.
At least Ezekiel Elliott (16 CAR, 80 yards) finally had his first breakout game for the Pats as he was tearing through the Jets defensive frontline and made them pay late on especially.
Anyway, the game itself was really kind of boring as the Pats held the lead right from the start and never fell behind to the Jets once, though things did get a little dicey before Matt Judon’s (4 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 TFL, 3 QB Hits, 1 Safety) endzone sack on Wilson with under 2 minutes left in the game pushed the Pats up 15-10 and all but sealed the game (that Hail Mary to Cobb really wasn’t as close as the announcers made it out to be if you watch it back on replay).
So, after two pretty polar opposite starts from these sides, they both now sit at 1-2 with the Pats holding the tiebreaker with this win today. Still, if I had to take something away from this game, it would be that neither of these teams deserves to make the playoffs with how offensively poor they looked today.
Thankfully for them, the playoffs don’t start for another three months, and they have time to improve.
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