Patriots’ win over Jets wasn’t perfect, but it’s the latest hint that they might be
Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola spikes the ball after catching a touchdown pass against the Jets.
COMMENTARY
Well, they finally got their test. They also got an indication that the rest of AFC East might have risen from the dead.
Well, at the very least, it has a heartbeat.
A brain, though? Well…
It took a fourth-quarter comeback for quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots to defeat the New York Jets, 30-23, at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. The final score was cemented in the game’s final two minutes, after New York head coach Todd Bowles failed to call one of his team’s three timeouts with the clock ticking and the Patriots clinging to a 23-20 lead.
Oh, the mental cramps didn’t end there, of course. On the Patriots’ second play following the two-minute warning, the Jets failed to cover tight end Rob Gronkowski, whom Brady found for an easy touchdown. Then, after cutting the lead to seven, with the clock running down, having just recovered an onside kick, and having only 15 seconds to try and tie the game, Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick — with no timeouts — went down the middle of the field instead of working the sidelines.
After a completion moved the ball the Patriots’ 37-yard line, the Jets rushed back to the line of scrimmage and seemed to spike the ball before time ran out. But wide receiver Brandon Marshall wasn’t set, and New York was flagged for a false start. The 10-second runoff of the clock secured the ballgame for New England, now 6-0 on the season.
“So many games in this league just come down to the last few plays, or the last possession, or the last two possessions, whatever it is,’’ Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “Being able to make those plays at the right rime determines the outcomes of a lot of games. We work on that every week. We never know what the situations are going to be, but hopefully we’re prepared and execute when we need to.’’
You can officially keep thoughts of an undefeated season in the back of your mind now. The Patriots won’t face the Jets again until the second-to-last weekend of the NFL season, and the bulk of their remaining schedule until then is a barrage of AFC South stragglers and NFC East has-beens. The undefeated Denver Broncos await the Patriots in late November, but who knows whether or not Peyton Manning’s right arm will have fallen off and been preserved in amber by then.
Despite their daft clock management, the Jets gave the defending Super Bowl champions a run. Of course, things might not have been quite so close if Patriots wide receivers (welcome back, Brandon LaFell…) had not dropped 11 — Eleven — Brady passes on the afternoon. If not for those miscues, the Patriots could have extended a handful of drives that went for naught in the first half.
“We made the plays when we needed to make them. I think that was the most important thing,’’ Brady said. “I wish we would have all executed better. There were a lot of throws I wish I had made better throws on. All the receivers, they want to make every play too. Just have to do a better job with execution, and I have a lot of trust in those guys, a lot of confidence in everything that they’re doing. So, we just have to try and do it better against Miami [Thursday night].’’
The Patriots went to the locker room at halftime clinging onto a 13-10 lead. They found themselves entering the fourth quarter facing a 17-16 deficit. While the Jets were giving Brady enough fits to rival his receiving teammates, the suddenly resurgent Miami Dolphins and Ryan Tannehill were demolishing the Houston Texans, en route to a 44-26 win.
But dependable Danny Amendola was there for Brady when needed most, scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a day during which his acrobatics almost could make one forget the slippery fingers employed by LaFell and Julian Edelman. In perhaps his best game as a Patriot, Amendola caught eight balls for 86 yards and a touchdown from Brady, who still threw for 355 yards and a pair of scores.
“Danny made some great plays like he always does for us,’’ Belichick said. “He did a good job inside there, like he always does.’’
The Patriots couldn’t get anything going on the ground (Dion Lewis was out with an abdomen injury), and it was Brady who ended up being his team’s leading rusher with 15 yards and a touchdown.
So, on a day when Brady was the team’s leading rusher, his receivers dropped 11 balls, and the Jets converted eight of 14 third-down plays, the Patriots still won by seven against the most difficult opponent they’ve seen yet. They put up thirty points on the best defense in the NFL.
“There’s got to be different ways to win every week and I think our team has always tried to figure out the ways to attack the teams. Every week you’ve got to adjust,’’ Brady said. “A lot of guys stepped into some roles today.’’
New England now has a two-game cushion on the Jets in the AFC East, three games on the Dolphins, who come to Foxborough on Thursday night, giving both teams a short week of practice. For all intents and purposes, it’s still the Patriots’ division, still their path to the postseason and a first-round bye. But the Jets at least made the argument on Sunday that they should be considered 1A in the division, a wild-card entry that could prove a pest come January.
“It definitely wasn’t our best performance. There are a lot of things we left out on the field,’’ Belichick said. “Just didn’t do well enough. But in the end, we made the plays we needed to make when we need to make them. That was critical in all three phases of the game.’’
It might be too soon to know for certain what the Dolphins are really made of, except that those players really hated former head coach Joe Philbin.
It also may be way too early to hop on the 19-0 bandwagon, but check out what lies in front of these Patriots, and don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Six and zero. With a very, shiny bullet.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur
Images from the Patriots’ Week 7 win over the Jets
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