Team Grades: Patriots Hang Tough Against A Dangerous Jets Team
By Gregory Hunt
In what turned out to be a tightly-contested battle that was typical of these two long-time rivals, the New England Patriots overcame their first fourth-quarter deficit of the season to defeat the New York Jets 30-23 Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots improved their record to 6-0, two games ahead of the 4-2 Jets for first place in the AFC East.
Offense: C
Although the Patriots scored at least 30 points for the fifth consecutive game, the team was handicapped by 11 dropped passes, including six by wide receiver Brandon LaFell, who was playing in his first game of the season since recovering from off-season surgery on his foot. Even wide receiver Julian Edelman, who caught five other passes during the game, dropped a third-down pass in the third quarter that would have led to a touchdown.
Despite the dropped passes, quarterback Tom Brady still threw for 355 yards and two touchdowns. Brady's standout targets were wide receiver Danny Amendola, who made a pair of impressive leaping catches including one for a touchdown, and tight end Rob Gronkowski, who caught a touchdown pass on a play where he appeared to bait a defender into blitzing Brady instead of dropping into pass coverage.
Brady also scored a rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak, which was set up by his own 11-yard scramble on a third-and-10 play. His total of 15 rushing yards actually led the team, as running backs James White (playing for an injured Dion Lewis) and LeGarrette Blount combined for a net total of one yard rushing on five attempts. New England's reconstituted offensive line held up well dispute the loss of several starters due to injury. The unit gave up three sacks in the first half (the last one on a failed Hail Mary attempt on the final play of the half), but none in the second.
Defense: B
The New England defense did a remarkable job of slowing down one of the top rushing teams in the NFL, and this performance may have been set up on the game's first play from scrimmage when Jets running back Chris Ivory was tackled for a four-yard loss. Ivory appeared to hurt his hamstring on the play. Even though he continued to play and eventually caught a touchdown pass, he never looked as quick and as explosive as he normally is.
Early in the game, New England's smallish cornerbacks had considerable difficulty defending New York's bigger receivers, particularly 6-foot-3 Erik Decker and 6-foot-4 Brandon Marshall, but the Patriots still made enough plays to hold that pair to 10 catches and no touchdowns. Safety Patrick Chung played an outstanding game, once saving a touchdown when he knocked the ball out of the hands of Jets tight end Jeff Cumberland.
New England made only two sacks, but one of them was a strip sack by defensive end Chandler Jones, who also recovered the fumble. Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is deceptively mobile, so he was able to avoid several New England pass rushes to scramble for 29 yards, but the Patriots were still able to get enough of a push at the lime of scrimmage to block several of Fitzpatrick's passes.
Special Teams: B+
Punter Ryan Allen put three punts all inside the Jets 20-yard line, which helped keep New England in the game while the offense struggled early on. The punt return game was solid, thanks to returns of 17 and 10 yards by Edelman and 11 yards by Amendola. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski was perfect on three fields goals and three extra points; he is so automatic that it will be a shock the next time he misses a kick.
There were two mishaps on special teams, however. Chung, who was assigned to return a kick for the first time this season, muffed that kick in the end zone and the ball nearly bounced beyond the goal line before he recovered it for a touchback. Also, linebacker Jamie Collins muffed an onside kick, which allowed the Jets to recover the ball with 14 seconds remaining in the game.
Coaching: B-
Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels did not call a rushing play for the entire first quarter. Fifteen of the New England's first 16 plays were passes. This lack of balance didn't appear to hurt New England too badly, but it's not ideal to have your starting quarterback throw 54 passes in a game. Offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo deserves praise for fielding such an effective unit when injuries have forced him to do so much juggling with the lineup.
The Patriots must now deal with a short week, as they will meet the 3-3 Miami Dolphins Thursday night at Gillette Stadium. The Dolphins have won two games in a row since interim head coach Dan Campbell took over for Joe Philbin, who was fired after a 1-3 start. On Sunday, the Dolphins blew out the Houston Texans 44-26 at Sun Life Stadium.
Gregory Hunt is a Boston native and a life-long fan of the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics. He's also particularly fond of lacrosse, IndyCar racing and women's college basketball. He currently works for Examiner.com where he serves as the Senior Manager of Content and Media Access. He also writes for Examiner.com as the New England Patriots Examiner. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
