The Jets had them on the hook.
Advertisement
But, somehow, Tom Brady found an escape route, rallying New England for a 30-23 win.
Though they did not talk publicly about it, because that is not the Bowles way, the Jets quietly believed they were ready for prime time, that they have closed the gap between themselves and the Patriots to the point they are ready to finally wrest the AFC East title away from them. What is remarkable about this is that it was not a game where the Patriots overcame a significant deficit.
Faced with their most challenging foe of the season in the tenacious Jets, who controlled the time of possession battle, outgained the Patriots 372 yards to 353, and garnered 25 first downs to New England’s 20, responded as a perennial contender should.
And while the Brandon LaFell drops were painful to witness, the silver lining is that those plays were there.
Until then, the Pats looked vulnerable and uncharacteristically inefficient. “They have a good defence. They rush well, have really good guys in coverage… well coached”.
With an incredibly banged up roster on offense with only two healthy running backs and a patchwork offensive line, the Patriots eschewed the running game completely and put the ball completely in Brady’s hands. You adjust all the way up to the point of the end of the game.
“I was in pass protection a lot”, Gronk said.
“They’ve been scoring a lot of points”, he said. New England still accomplished that, throwing only two incompletions in nine pass attempts with one run play mixed in.
The Jets’ opening drive was worthy of the blooper segment on America’s Funniest Videos. In the end, Tampa lost a game where they outgunned Washington by 124 yards, and part of that hidden loss is in settling for two field goals inside the 5 yard line.
Vikings 28, Lions 19: In Detroit, Teddy Bridgewater threw for a season-high 316 yards and two touchdowns for Minnesota. But now they must wait for the December 27 rematch in New York, when the Jets (4-2) will try to beat New England for just the second time in 11 regular-season tries.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) runs the ball against the New York Jets during the second half at Gillette Stadium.
Fitzpatrick actually had a better quarterback rating than Brady.
New York still led 20-16 after Fitzpatrick hit Chris Ivory for a 9-yard score late in the third and Nick Folk kicked the second of his three field goals. But we struck together and the fourth quarter, we just dug deep, stepped up. It’s that Brady is getting it done with less. Not bad for a 38-year-old you might think, but Brady wants to play in this league for 10 more years. They beat us fair and square.
“You have to make those plays on games like this, so it’s all on me, ” Marshall said.
The Jets kicked a field goal and, after recovering an onside kick, attempted to stage another comeback only for Marshall to commit a false-start penalty.
The Jacksonville Jaguars appeared to be poised to blow a 24-point lead, but Buffalo Bills quarterback E.J. Manuel persevered just enough to keep that from happening.
Badder: Quarterback Ryan Mallett keeps pulling a Where’s Waldo routine. This time though, Matt Cassel was playing quarterback for the other team. The reluctant backup to Brian Hoyer did show up but only after having to take a commercial flight. I think I’m making all the throws I need to make. The moments that separate good teams from great teams, seemed to all go in favor of the Patriots. The Falcons (6-1) bounced back from their first loss by grinding out a road victory and overcoming two interceptions.
With 18 seconds left on the clock, things had changed.
DEFENSE: The Jets came into the game with the No. 1 defense in the NFL. The longest streak is 166, held by the Browns from 1957-69… [Ndamukong] Suh, he had two sacks yesterday.
The Dolphins improved to 3-3, including 2-0 under interim coach Dan Campbell, who replaced the fired Joe Philbin. “They play hard. They play fast”. In 2012 the first game went into overtime before the Patriots kicked a field goal to win, but the second matchup that year was a 49-19 New England victory. Obviously, Fitzpatrick’s final fatal mistake came on the last play of the game, when he chose to throw over the middle with just 14 seconds left on the clock and no timeouts. It was the first meeting of the Raiders (3-3) and Chargers (2-5) since their owners announced plans to build a $1.7-billion stadium in an industrial Los Angeles suburb if they can’t get new stadiums in their home markets.
“That’s why it’s called a team”. “So they’re just tough”. New England bet it could withstand the blitzes of Todd Bowles’ defense and find favorable matchups through the air, and they went all-in on that bet.
This was football blitzkrieg.
Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who had 98 yards rushing, rebutted a report by Fox Sports that he was listed as questionable because he swallowed chewing tobacco.
Advertisement
“The sleeping giants”, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said, “have awoken”. He completed 14-of-17 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns – one of which gave the Patriots the lead late in the game.
