Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
NFL: New England Patriots at New York Jets
The Jets winless streak against the New England Patriots continued as they lost their 13th straight game to the Pats 22-17.
If there’s one thing that has been up and down this season for the New York Jets it has been their offensive line play. This was a game in which they struggled immensely against the Patriots pass rush. Quarterback Zach Wilson had zero time to throw the football and was throwing off of his back foot on many of his throws. While he did not have much time to operate, he also made some very poor decisions.
The Jets defense made a stop with two minutes left in the first half forcing New England to turn the ball over on downs. Wilson and his offense set up shop at their own 21 yard line and trailed the Pats by seven. The Jets moved the ball to their own 43 yard line but that’s as far as they would get. On third down and two Wilson attempted to hit his running back Ty Johnson but the pass sailed over the head of Johnson. Patriots linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley was there instead to intercept the pass. It was Wilson’s first interception in four games.
Wilson went on to throw three total interceptions. Perhaps the worst looking of the three came when the Jets were trailing by nine in the third quarter. Wilson was forced to roll to the right after the pocket collapsed and heaved an off balance pass down the field. He attempted to throw it away but didn’t get the throw far enough to the sideline and Patriots veteran safety Devin McCourty was there to claim possession for New England.
It was a rough afternoon of football for the Jets offense. Not only was the offensive line abysmal but the Jets only ran the football 15 times for a total of 51 yards. Wilson finished the day going 20 for 41 with 355 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions, and was sacked twice. It was the first game in his career with 300 plus yards passing. Unfortunately for Wilson, the turnovers overshadowed his passing yards.
“Every time I get out of the pocket it just gets frustrating to throw the ball away. That’s what I’ve done the last four weeks to put us in a good position to not turn the ball over and for us to win. I just need to be able to keep doing that when something is not there,” Wilson told the media in the postgame press conference.
The bright spot of the game was the Gang Green defense. They brought the pressure all game on opposing quarterback Mac Jones and sacked him six times. Cornerback Michael Carter intercepted Jones in the second quarter but the Jets offense ended up punting away that possession. However, the turning point of the game was when Michael Carter’s other interception in the backend of the second quarter was called back because of a roughing the passer penalty on John Franklin-Myers. It was a very ticky-tacky call and proved to be a costly one in the end. Had Franklin-Myers not committed that penalty, Carter would’ve cashed in for six points and the game could’ve been 17-3 going into the half rather than 10-6.
The defense held the Patriots to just one total touchdown and forced ex-Jets kicker Nick Folk to beat them in the end with five made field goals.
“I thought the defense did a really nice job just settling it down. I thought we played it strong except for that one run that they had to start the second half, I thought we played pretty well in the second half,” head coach Rob Saleh told the media in the postgame press conference.
The Jets schedule doesn’t get any easier moving forward as they take on the first place Buffalo Bills next Sunday at home at 1:00 p.m.
Things to Note:
- Tight end Tyler Conklin finished the game with 6 catches for 79 yards and two touchdowns.
- Patriots head coach Bill Belichick became the second winningest head coach in NFL history, picking up his 325th career win.
