What To Watch For When Patriots Host Jets In Week 7
FOXBORO (CBS) -- Okay, enough is enough. It's time for the Patriots to win a game at Gillette Stadium.
A place that was once a house of horrors has become a walk in the park for opponents. The Patriots have lost all four home games to start the 2021 season, which is some uncharted waters for Bill Belichick. This hasn't happened in New England since Drew Bledsoe's rookie year in 1993.
Now it's Mac Jones' rookie year, and he's still waiting to soak in the sweet sounds of a home victory. At least this weekend, he and the Patriots are hosting the 1-4 New York Jets.
The Jets are not a very good football team, though the Patriots aren't much better at the moment. New York is also coming off its bye week, while the Patriots are still licking their wounds after a rough overtime loss to the Cowboys last Sunday.
Let Mac Drive The Bus
We've seen enough of Mac Jones with training wheels. The coaching staff has given him a little push the first six weeks of the season, now let's let the kid ride down the street without any assistance.
Jones makes his share of mistakes, but he's shown his ability to bounce back from them. We saw that with his 75-yard touchdown pass that immediately followed his pick-six against the Cowboys. These mistakes are going to happen, and really, they're the best way the rookie will learn.
The Patriots need to let him loose this weekend. He's shown he has a big football brain in that helmet of his, and they're playing the Jets. New York is the only team left without an interception on the season.
Open things up and let Mac take some shots downfield. Just not to Agholor. He won't catch it.
A TD For Jakobi
It'd be nice to see Meyers get into the end zone. He's getting so close. So darn close.
He still hasn't scored his first career touchdown. He's thrown for two, but he's yet to score one himself. Meyers did find the end zone last weekend only to have his first career touchdown taken back because of a holding penalty.
He's now up to 121 career receptions without a touchdown, a record that he keeps adding to week by week. Let's put an end to that one.
And if not, it'd be fun to see him throw another touchdown. Meyers is 4-of-4 for 88 yards with two touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating in his career as a passer. He had two completions against the Bucs back in Week 4, and with one more, he'd set a new Patriots record. New England has never had a wide receiver complete more than two passes in a single season, with Julian Edelman completing two passes in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and Harold Jackson completed two passes in 1980. Meyers also accomplished the feat in 2020, with both of his completions going for touchdowns.
Either way, let's hope Meyers is involved in some kind of touchdown this weekend.
How Many INTs For Wilson?
Last weekend, Zach Wilson did not throw an interception for the first time all season. Granted, the Jets were on their bye week, so that makes sense.
But the rookie has thrown at least one pass to New York's opposition in every game he's played in, including his four-interception day against New England in Week 2. So let's see the Patriots -- who have just one interception since their last meeting with Wilson -- picks off a few more this weekend. Anything less than two will be unacceptable.
Matt Judon
This game has a chance to be a bit ... ugly. But one thing that is always a joy to watch is Matt Judon getting after a quarterback.
He leads the Patriots with 6.5 sacks this season, just three off the career-high he set in 2019 with the Ravens. Judon has a chance to reach that this weekend against the Jets.
Judon only sacked Wilson once back in Week 2, but it was the start of a four-game streak where he had at least one sack. He recorded two or more sacks twice during that streak.
New England got to Wilson four times last month, and he's been sacked eight times in his three games since that meeting. Judon will be quite hungry to get after the rookie after he went without a sack last weekend.
Tune in to Sunday's Patriots-Jets clash on WBZ-TV -- the flagship station of the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage begins at 11:30am with Patriots GameDay, kickoff is at 1pm, and after the game switch over to TV38 for reaction and analysis on Patriots 5th Quarter!