Foxborough, MA – Although it wasn't always pretty and injuries keep piling up, the Patriots won their third straight game in a 26-19 victory over the Jets at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.
Over the course of 17 games, not every one is going to be a Picasso, especially in division play. My score prediction coming into the game was a 27-14 Patriots win, and the final score was close enough to say this game went about as expected. The Jets were hyping this game all week as a possible statement for a team looking for a spark. They wanted in on the AFC East race with the Bills and Patriots, with a solid defense and a veteran quarterback who wasn't giving games away.
Earlier this week, star WR Garrett Wilson called it a "big \[expletive\] game" for the Patriots' longtime division rival. The Jets hit on many of their keys to victory in the first half by controlling time of possession (19:10 to 10:50), running the ball with decent efficiency, and a mix of miscues by the Patriots offense and good Jets defense made this a competitive game, right down to New England surviving an onside kick attempt that was momentarily up for grabs.
"We're lucky to win is probably where I'd start, but we're happy that we won. We'll enjoy it for about an hour, and then we're going to focus on the next task," head coach Mike Vrabel said following Sunday's game. "We just didn't play very well. We tried to beat ourselves, but we made enough plays in critical situations to help us get through here today."
Along with the Patriots sloppiness, which included two lost fumbles on offense, the injury bug continues to plague New England. The Pats finished the game down three offensive linemen, with RT Morgan Moses (ankle), LG Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring), and RG Ben Brown (knee) leaving early. Brown was already filling in for injured starter Mike Onwenu (IR), while WR Romeo Doubs injured his shoulder on a diving 42-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter.
The Patriots will now need to figure out who will be available on a short week, with a Thursday night trip to Chicago on deck. Ultimately, I'm not going to be a doomer about the Patriots almost "beating themselves," as Vrabel put it. They had opportunities to make plays, which is better than an anemic offense, and sometimes you just have to get out of division games with a win.
"We'll just have to figure out who we have available and find 48 to put out there. It's just hard to say, but it's a short week. If you don't finish the game, that's a quick turnaround," Vrabel said.
Here are eight takeaways as the Patriots improve to 4-2 with a win over the Jets in Week 6.
**1\. Play of the Game: Drake Maye Connects with WR Romeo Doubs on 42-Yard TD Pass**
Although Doubs injured his shoulder on the play, Vrabel called his diving touchdown grab in the first quarter "one of the huge plays" in Sunday's game.
"That play Rome made, looking back at it, is one of the huge plays of this football game, and unfortunately he wasn't able to return. But to be able to hang on to that football, I give him a lot of credit," Vrabel said.
The Maye-to-Doubs touchdown perfectly captured a few key takeaways from Sunday's game. First, the Jets blitz-happy defense pivoted away from its aggressive style, blitzing Maye only nine times (26.5%). New York's defense entered the game with the NFL's second-highest blitz rate at 52.4%. The lack of blitzing was a departure from the Jets typical brand of defense, so credit to Jets head coach Aaron Glenn for backing off.
However, Maye remained patient in the pocket on several occasions, as the Jets relied mostly on a four-man rush (67.6% of drop-backs). New York also mixed in a few "drop-8" change-ups, which they hadn't shown much on film, and Maye didn't get antsy in a clean pocket while surveying the field to find Doubs on the big touchdown catch early in the game.