Conventional wisdom says Thursday Night Football should be a rock fight.
The Patriots and Jets are divisional opponents with only three days to prepare for a cold November night in Foxborough. That’s often a formula for a slog-it-out, low-scoring evening.
However, conventional wisdom hasn’t been watching the Patriots and the Jets lately.
Mike Vrabel’s team is firing on all cylinders amidst a seven-game winning streak. Whatever your metric of choice is for the Patriots offense, they’re in the Top 10 — total offense, scoring offense, offensive EPA etc. — and Drake Maye is playing like a bonafide MVP candidate.
As the second-year signal caller has quarterbacked the Patriots to an 8-2 record, Maye has completed 71.7% of his passes for 2,555 yards while throwing 19 touchdown passes to five interceptions and he’s averaging 8.9 yards per attempt.
He ranks second in completion percentage, second in yards per attempt and third in passing yards; this hasn’t been dinking and dunking.
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Meanwhile, the Jets just jettisoned two of their best defensive players at the trade deadline, Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner, which should only make life easier on Maye and company.
And yes, the Jets are coming off their second win of the season, but take a closer look at last weekend’s 27-20 win over the rudderless Cleveland Browns. Justin Fields went 6-of-11 for 54 yards — for the entire game — and New York picked up 169 yards of total offense (3.6 yards per snap). They gashed Cleveland with returns on special teams, but that’s not a sustainable way to win football games.
The prediction here?
The Patriots buck conventional Thursday Night Football wisdom and turn this one into a one-sided blowout. New England takes an early lead, then Fields and the Jets offense aren’t able to throw their way back into the game.
Final score prediction: Patriots 31, Jets 6.
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