Unconventional Preview: Jets should play Patriots like they have nothing to lose, even if they do
COMMENTARY
Welcome to Season 4, Episode 15 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious-but-lighthearted, occasionally nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup that runs right here every weekend.
The Patriots (12-2) have a chance to lock up the top seed in the AFC with a win over the Jets (9-5), who are battling for a wild card spot and are currently on the outside looking in at the Chiefs and Steelers (both 9-5 but in possession of tie-breaker advantages). The Patriots are coming off a suspense-free 33-16 win over the Titans, while the Jets have won four in a row, including a 19-16 squeaker over the Cowboys last Saturday.
The Patriots are still fighting a battle of attrition. Devin McCourty, Dont’a Hightower, Patrick Chung, Danny Amendola, and Brandon LaFell are among eight players listed as questionable, while Julian Edelman, out since he broke his foot in Week 10, is doubtful.
It’s not going to be easy for the Patriots, who beat the Jets by a touchdown at home in Week 7 with a relatively healthy roster. The Patriots are third in the league in points differential (plus-11.9 per game), but the Jets aren’t as far behind in that category as you might expect (ninth, plus-5.1). This should be a good one, and kind of surprisingly it’s being played at 1 p.m., not that anyone is complaining.
Kick it off, Gostkowski, and let’s get this one started …
THREE PLAYERS I’ll BE WATCHING OTHER THAN TOM BRADY
James White: The second-year running back has become an important and increasingly dangerous element in the Patriots’ passing game. In the first three games since he took over the change-of-pace/third-down-back role following Dion Lewis’s Week 9 knee injury, White had just four catches total. In the three games since, he has 21 receptions, including 10 against the Eagles in Week 13 and seven last Sunday against the Titans. What’s curious to me is that while White is clearly exceptional at reading blocks and making his cuts in the open field — his 30-yard catch-and-run against the Titans could have come from Lewis’s early season highlight reel — he still struggles as a ball carrier, averaging just 2.8 yards on 17 carries. He’s not great at getting himself to space when the ball is handed to him, but when the Patriots game-plan has him running pass routes to open space, he’s become a revelation.
Eric Decker: Brandon Marshall gets the bulk of the attention, and that’s understandable. He’s an exceptional player — he has a team-record-tying 93 catches for 1,261 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, his first with the Jets — with a complicated history. But the Jets’ No. 2 receiver, Decker, should not be overlooked. He has also surpassed 1,000 yards — he has 1,030, to go with 72 catches and 10 TD receptions. Decker gave Malcolm Butler and the Patriots trouble in Week 7 with six catches for 94 yards. Butler isn’t just a Super Bowl hero now; he’s a Pro Bowl selection. Against Decker, he’ll need to play like one.
Gronk: First, the requisite plea to the football gods: Just let him get through this one healthy. Thanks in advance. Now, how about this fun GronkFact? In 78 career regular-season games, Gronk has 67 touchdowns, putting him just one behind the criminally underrated Stanley Morgan for the franchise record. How many games did Morgan need to set the mark? How about 180, or 102 more than Gronk has currently played. I’ll admit, I had no idea he was that close to the record, but it tells you all you need to know about the staggering dominance of his career.
GRIEVANCE OF THE WEEK
So the New York Daily News, apparently still unsure of what to do when the Jets are playing meaningful football games late in the season, has resorted to its default mode of doing New York Daily News things by stirring [stuff] up. Jets writer Manish Mehta, who made his name as one of Refreshing Rex Ryan’s chief foot soldiers in the New York media, has been getting a lot of mileage out of his scandalous discovery, via a Zapruder-level look at a bleeping postgame handshake, that Tom Brady and Darrelle Revis might have a “rift.’’ Well, geez, in the name of Johnny “Lam’’ Jones, I hope they have a rift. Brady should loathe Revis. Revis was a wonderful player for a year here, but he’s implied that he was more helpful to Brady and Bill Belichick than they were to him in winning a ring last year. Worse, when Brady was enduring Deflategate and the league’s evil attempt to assassinate his character — when he was finding out who his friends are and who was a sniveling phony like Mark Brunell — Revis said this:
“Everybody’s blowing it up because it is Tom Brady. I understand that. But if [the league] feels he did the crime or he did something and they want to penalize them, then that’s that. [The Patriots] have a history of doing stuff. You can’t hide that… Tom was there when they did that stuff in the past. New England’s been doing stuff in the past and getting in trouble. When stuff repeatedly happens, then that’s it. I don’t know what else to tell you. Stuff repeatedly happened through the years. You got SpyGate, you got this and that and everything else.’’
I mean, I know Revis had to endear himself to his new team. I also know there’s some murkiness in the Patriots’ history of gamesmanship. But you’d think he’d have the grace to have his recent former teammate’s back a little more than he did. It was graceless, and he’s lucky Brady acknowledged his presence at all. Not many people would do that to someone who should be persona non grata to them. Man, Brady must be sick of taking the high road .
PREDICTION, OR WHEN DID STEVEN JACKSON CUT OFF THE DREADS?
In signing Jackson, the 18th-leading rusher in NFL history, the Patriots are hoping he can give them something resembling Antowain Smith’s contributions in 2004, when he’d get three yards and an inch on third-and-3. But who knew that Jackson would show up with Antonwain Smith’s haircut? I almost didn’t recognize him at his first Patriots practice Monday. Was this a new development, or did I just not pay much attention to Atlanta Falcons games the past few years? No matter. It’s good to have him around, though it’s uncertain whether he’ll be part of the plan at all come Sunday.
There’s no doubt that this is an important game for the Patriots. They can clinch the top seed with a win. Even if they lose, they can lock it up against the Dolphins next Sunday, but it’s best to take care of business now and rest whomever they need to rest in Miami while getting the likes of Jackson some work. But it’s a more important game for the Jets, who would need a lot of help to make the playoffs should they lose this week. They need this one, and despite the franchise’s history of losing just about everything they needed since Joe Namath pointed his index finger skyward, I think they get it done today. They’re talented, relatively well-coached, and the Patriots are still dealing with some key injuries. Of course, being the Jets, they’ll win this, then lose next week. Meanwhile, the Patriots’ securing of the No. 1 seed must wait a week. Cue the Brady-Revis handshake watch by those with nothing better to do.
Jets 26, Patriots 23.
Chad Finn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.
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