Thursday Night Football between the New England Patriots and New York Jets turned into a blowout pretty quickly. New York proved that they were clearly the better football team, picking up where they left off on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans and absolutely using every ounce of energy they had against their big bully of the division. New York won their first home game of the season 24-3 and had full control of the game from beginning to end. The Jets were dominant on both sides of the ball, they held the ball for a whopping forty minutes, and the score could have been a lot worse if the penalties had not kept piling up on their side. For the Patriots, this was just an absolutely miserable game to be a part of because nothing went right for them at all. The only thing that was close to being good was getting to watch Drake Maye on the final drive, but even that was not enough to get a touchdown. Let’s look at the five biggest takeaways from Thursday’s blowout and see just what went wrong for New England and what was perfect for New York.
NFL Week 3: Patriots Review vs Jets
1. The O-Line Was a Disaster
The worst part about this game for the Patriots was that their offensive line was absolutely horrendous. Heading into Thursday night, this team had to start their third left tackle in as many weeks because Chuks Okorafor left the team and Vederian Lowe was ruled out due to injury. Caedan Wallace got his first career start and was okay but not great, giving up half a sack and three pressures. He did a lot better than another rookie on the offensive line, Layden Robinson, who was a disaster. Last night, he gave up two and a half sacks along with five pressures, the most given up on the whole line. David Andrews and Michael Onwenu, the two best guys in the whole group, gave up four pressures each and at least one sack. It was so bad that even Zach Thomas and Demontrey Jacobs, two guys who were elevated from the practice squad, had to take over late and gave up a sack each. The Jets’ defense finished the night with seven sacks, fifteen hits, and twenty-two pressures. Will McDonald had two sacks, Quinnen Williams and Javon Kinlaw each got one, and even Takk McKinley got around the edge at the end of the game! Just for the record, the Jets lost one of their best pass rushers Jermaine Johnson for the rest of the year with a torn Achilles. Whoever was going to be behind that line was going to have no time to get a play off, so any conversations about a controversy have to be shut down right now. This Patriots offensive line is making the Giants one look five times better right now, so while it is easy to point out the injuries, it is also a unit that hardly has any depth. Hopefully, Will Campbell can land into New England’s laps in the next NFL Draft, because they could use him right about now.
2. Defense Got Shredded by Aaron Rodgers
In a span of two months, the Patriots’ defense lost their three best players, the latest being linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley with a torn pec. Without him anchoring the middle of the field, all of the weaknesses and flaws got exposed on center stage Thursday night. There was little to no pass rush, the secondary got torched, and they were on the field for just over forty minutes of play! The only good cornerback New England has on their roster is Christian Gonzalez, who gave up an early touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson in the third quarter, but still did what he could to try to give this defense a spark. The best receiver for the Jets on Thursday was Tyler Conklin with ninety-three yards on just five catches. Allen Lazard broke a tackle from Alex Austin on the second drive of the night to give New York their first touchdown at MetLife Stadium, and Mike Williams had a solid thirty-four yards on just three receptions. Aaron Rodgers finished the night completing twenty-seven of thirty-five passes for over 280 yards with a couple of touchdowns and zero interceptions. It didn’t matter that Josh Uche and Deatrich Wise had the only New England sacks of the night because the Jets scored on half of their drives. Breece Hall and Braelon Allen combined for 109 yards on the ground, so the once-vaunted run defense that New England had got manhandled as well. The whole point of this season was to make sure that the Patriots did not deal with the same issues that they had last year, but everything just seems to be coming around full circle.
3. Christian Gonzalez Still Played Decent
If there was one positive takeaway from this game against the Jets, it was the fact that Christian Gonzalez is making a strong case to be an All-Pro first-team cornerback. Even though he gave up a touchdown to Garrett Wilson, he was that close to getting his hands on the ball for an interception, but Rodgers made a perfect throw in the right corner of the end-zone that Wilson snagged with his strength. When Gonzalez was lined up against Wilson, the third-year receiver was targeted six times and caught four passes, but for just twenty-five yards. It might not have been Gonzalez’s best game of the year, but he keeps proving that whenever he is lined up against the opposing team’s best wide receiver, he does his very best to shut them out of the game plan. Somebody else on this defense besides Keion White has to really step up though, or else there are going to be plenty more performances where they get no resistance.
4. Pats Have Zero WR Production
Demario Douglas might have caught seven passes for sixty-nine yards, but most of them took place when the game was decided. The next best wide receiver for the Patriots was Ja’Lynn Polk, who only had two receptions for thirteen yards. Kayshon Boutte only had one catch and Tyquan Thornton had zero, while Javon Baker was once again not a part of the action. Even Hunter Henry only had nine yards on just two receptions. The player that had the second most catches on this offense was Antonio Gibson with three. Everybody knew that the Jets were going to try to shut down Rhamondre Stevenson, and they succeeded with just twenty-three yards on six touches, capping it off with a lost fumble. Some of this blame has to go on Jacoby Brissett since he is the one throwing the football, but the Jets have an elite secondary and are capable of shutting down this group. The Patriots knew what they had to do to try to stay in the game and they completely failed until it was garbage time. Brissett completed twelve passes and threw for less than 100 yards, and when the offensive line is completely failing to keep him in the pocket, then it is no wonder that New England only scored three points.
5. Drake Maye Looked Decent
Because the Patriots were losing 24-3 late in the fourth quarter, head coach Jerod Mayo decided to give Maye a series to see if they could end the night on some type of a high note, and he looked alright. He never looked out of his place, he knew where to go with the football, and he even had a nice scramble on a fourth and eight to keep up the rhythm. He finished the night completing four out of eight passes for twenty-two yards, but the points were not scored because he got taken down two times. Again, it is not right to be talking about a quarterback controversy because this Patriots offense has too many issues to deal with right now. Their wide receivers do not get open, the offensive line is an absolute travesty, and they don’t win games unless Stevenson is carrying this offense or if the defense decides to return to its vintage form in the early 2000s. If things get worse next week, then maybe it will be time for Maye to get his first start just so their season does not completely go down the tubes, but the Patriots are just not a good team right now.
Next week, the Patriots will travel across the country and play against the San Francisco 49ers at 4:05 PM ET. Even though they might be without Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel, they are still the defending NFC champions and have a stacked roster on both sides of the ball, which is not a good thing for New England at all. Hopefully, this game is closer than expected, but this should be another long day for the Patriots.
Main Image: David Butler II-Imagn Images
