Patriots' dominance over Jets is downright comical and other leftover thoughts

BOSTON -- Two yards. Just two yards. That's six feet. That's all it is.

If you plant one foot down on the ground and stretch your other foot as far as you can, you can get to two yards. You could literally just fall forward, and boom, you've moved two yards.

That's all you're looking at. Two yards.

And that's all the Jets' offense could muster in the entire second half of the football game on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Two. Freaking. Yards.

In a sense, the scoreboard kind of worked to distract from that defensive dominance of the Patriots over Zach Wilson and Co., who looked utterly lost for the bulk of Sunday's game. Knotted at 3-3 for the majority of the afternoon, the game gave off the false impression of being a close or evenly matched one. And while it is true that a defensive or special teams touchdown could have just as easily turned the game in favor of the visitors from New York, the reality is the Patriots were smothering the Jets in an almost unfathomable way.

To the tune of allowing just two yards in the entire second half.

The Jets had seven possessions in the second half. They also had seven punts. The first five were three-and-outs. The sixth did result in the Jets picking up a first down, before promptly losing 10 yards on two plays and punting away. The seventh was extended by a defensive holding penalty on a third-and-10 incompletion ... but resulted in punt three plays later anyway.

The Jets ran 26 offensive plays in the second half. Sixteen of them went for either no gain or a loss of yardage. That's 61.5 percent of the Jets' plays in an entire half of football gaining either zero yards or losing yards. Their biggest gain of the half was an 8-yard run by Michael Carter. The other "big" gain was a 7-yard run by Tyler Johnson ... on a third-and-17 at their own 11-yard line.

Say what you will about the Jets, and say what you will about Zach Wilson, but that was a historical level of suffocation imposed by the Patriots' defense.

The Jets did have 101 yards in the first half, giving them a grand total of 103 for the game. That is the fewest allowed by the Patriots during the Bill Belichick era, and the third-fewest in Patriots history. The two games with fewer yards allowed occurred in a completely different sport, pretty much, as the rules and the league weren't quite geared toward offense in 1988 and 1977 the way they are today. The second-lowest yards allowed in the Belichick era also came against the Jets, when the Patriots held Luke Falk and Le'Veon Bell in check, to the tune of 105 yards. The difference in that game is that for one, the Patriots 30 points, and secondly, the Jets scored on defense twice in the second half to make the final score of 30-14 look more respectable.

The Patriots on Sunday allowed the Jets to pick up just six first downs. The Patriots say that's the fewest they've allowed since 2006, when Brett Favre was injured late in the first half in a game in Green Bay, thrusting second-year quarterback Aaron Rodgers into action. (Favre is now 53 yards old, Rodgers is 38.)

The two yards -- TWO YARDS! -- allowed in a half was by far the fewest the Patriots have ever allowed, beating their previous record of 25 yards allowed against Jeff Fisher's Rams in 2016. If you'll allow me to count my fingers for a moment, that means they bested their previous record by ... hang on ... carry the one ... um ... 12.5 times? The Patriots' defense was 12.5 times better than it had ever been in a half of a football game. (Jeff Fisher got fired a few weeks after that, for the record.)

And most importantly of all, the win was the 14th consecutive victory for the Patriots over the Jets. That's now one shy of the Patriots' record of dominance over one team, as they beat the Bills in 15 straight meetings from 2003 to 2010. 

The Patriots' current run over the Jets is even more dominant than the streak would suggest. While they've won 14 in a row, they've also won 22 of the last 24 meetings, with both of those losses coming in overtime. Take it back even deeper, and ever since Mo Lewis knocked out Drew Bledsoe, the Patriots are 37-8 against the Jets.

That's not really a rivalry, when you put it that way. It's really just comical.

Not helping matters in New York was the quarterback at the postgame podium saying, "I think you got to put into account it's windy as hell out there too, guys." It was windy. But ascribing blame on the wind for that performance is something nobody is going to buy.

Wilson was also asked if he and the offense felt like he let the defense down at all.

"No," he answered. "No."

Well ...

Perhaps he did. You know?

Anyways. It was a weird game. But the Patriots are 6-4, and instead of letting the Jets climb into first place, they sent New York to the AFC East basement, while also inflicting a bit of chaos and doubt within the locker room. It wasn't pretty, per se. But it was a productive Sunday for New England.

Now, the leftover thoughts from that 10-3 Patriots win.

--I was curious if Wilson's comment about the wind was fair, so I asked Bill Belichick if the wind impacted the passing game. He said it did.

"Yeah, I think offensively, you just had to be careful with some of the play selections and where we're trying to throw the ball based on which way we were going, and so forth, what we had called and all that," Belichick said Monday morning. "So yeah, I think it had some effect on the passing game. It had more effect on the kicking game, but I think it had some effect on the passing game a little bit. Yes."

Nevertheless, Mac Jones completed 23 of his 27 passes (85.2 percent) for 246 yards. None of his passes were close to being picked off, either.

On the other side, Zach Wilson completed just nine of his 22 passes (40.9 percent) for 77 yards. He threw one pass into the bread basket of Devin McCourty, too, plus one that was just a hair away from being taken for a pick-six by Jonathan Jones.

So, sure, the wind was a factor. But it wasn't the factor.

--That being said, the Patriots' offense is not good. No siree.

Coming out of their bye week, their first offensive series against an opponent they know well looked like this:

First down: Sack, loss of 9
Second down: 4-yard run
Third down: 7-yard completion on third-and-13
Fourth down: Punt

The next series:

First down: Inside handoff, gain of 1
Second down: 7-yard completion
Third down: Drop (near fumble)
Fourth down: Punt

Of their 11 drives, five went three-and out. For lack of a better term, three more drives went five-and-out. One drive traveled 79 yards and resulted in the lone field goal. Two others were borderline productive, only to move backward at the end and lead to missed field goals. And that was it.

The offensive line play was very poor, with Isaiah Wynn starting over Trent Brown at left tackle, before suffering a foot injury, and with David Andrews departing with what could be a season-ending thigh injury in the first quarter. Mac Jones was sacked six times, tying a career high ... which he set a few weeks ago ... against the Jets.

That was a big factor in the offense being able to muster just three points, as the Matt Patricia experiment continued to go poorly.

That's probably why the celebrations in New England were subdued after a win like that.

--Things like this ... happened too often.

People love to hoot and holler about the quarterback, and by all means, go for it. Whatever melts your butter, buddy. I just still struggle to really over-analyze the quarterback play, given the system he's working within. I really think it's unfair to do otherwise. (But again, free country, free speech, knock your socks off. Who doesn't love yelling about quarterbacks? I get it.)

--The craziest part of Marcus Jones' punt return to win the game is that he did almost the same thing on a kickoff just over a year ago:

We knew that Marcus Jones was an explosive and talented returner when the Patriots drafted him, so it was only a matter of time before that showed in the NFL. The fact that he became the first player to return a punt for a touchdown in the entire NFL this season, and doing it in that moment certainly qualifies as an arrival.

But get this: Jones not only played defense and special teams in college, but he also played offense. He had 10 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown for Houston last year. It's only a matter of time before a player who possesses that kind of ability with the ball in his hands gets a few plays drawn up for him.

--While the wind was one factor, I think the cold was another. Denzel Mims (Texas native, played collegiately at Baylor) dropped a pass in the first quarter that would have ended up being one of the Jets' biggest gains of the day.

But interestingly, the Patriots seemed to have been more affected by the cold.

Jonnu Smith committed an unforced fumble when he tried to switch hands with the ball after taking a jet sweep. This one was a bit perplexing, as he had the ball in his outside arm but tried to switch it to his inside arm. 

(Credit to Jonnu for stopping on a dime and recovering that, somehow, or else the Patriots would have had zero scoring drives in this game.)

Tyquan Thornton (Florida native, played collegiately at Baylor) had the aforementioned drop that would have been a devastating fumble deep in Patriots territory if Sauce Gardner's strip had been made about 0.3 seconds later than it did. Devin McCourty (a real cold-weather player) had the aforementioned drop that had his brother just sick. 

It wasn't the best showing in cold weather, as the seasons really start to turn here.

--This play from Rhamondre Stevenson was electric. 

Here's an alternate angle:

And, not to get all Chad Kroeger on you, look at this photograph:

A younger version of myself might have written a 1,200-word essay on that one play. It's that good. That's such a football player right there. It's absurd.

Stevenson has 927 yards from scrimmage this season. Jakobi Meyers ranks second with 518. That right there ought to show how valuable the second-year back has been to the Patriots this season.

--That play above got all the tweets and whatnot, but how about this one two snaps later?

Hup! Hup!

The fact that Stevenson got that ball to the 7-yard line, only for a Yodny Cajuste holding penalty and Trent Brown sack (literally, Brown sacked Jones) to move the ball back to the 26-yard line, leading to a missed 44-yard field goal, is all kinds of unacceptable.

Anyways. Good player. Moving on.

--Matthew Judon leads the NFL with 13 sacks. There's only one other player -- Micah Parsons -- who's in double digits.

That's obviously good, but I'd still argue that Deatrich Wise having 6.5 sacks is the bigger surprise. His career high entering this year was five, and now he's at 6.5 before Thanksgiving.

But beyond the pass rush, the Patriots' work to stop the run was what won them this game. The Jets clearly didn't trust Zach Wilson to do anything with the ball in his hand, and they likely planned to lean heavily on their backs to move the ball. That just didn't happen. The trio of Michael Carter, James Robinson and Ty Johnson combined for 33 yards on 19 carries. Carter's longest run was 8 yards. Johnson's was 7. Robinson's was 5. They went absolutely nowhere. That's where Ja'Whaun Bentley and his eight solo tackles come into play, along with the less-sexy work of Lawrence Guy and Davon Godchaux in the middle of the line.

--The Patriots' defense has obviously had a couple of blips this year -- against the Ravens, Packers and Bears, notably -- but they currently rank second in points allowed and fourth in yards allowed.

That's not going to win them a championship. Not in this day and age. But it will win them plenty of games, and will be the reason they make the playoffs, if they end up back in the postseason.

And, goody for them, Kirk Cousins in prime time is next up on the docket. (Cousins is 10-18 as a starter in prime time, a stat you'll hear a time or two on this short week.)

--I am aware that the topic of analytics can be a divisive subject. But here's an advanced stat we can all get behind:

What's funny is, sometimes graphics like that go up on screen, but then things even out, and a team ends up making things look OK. But not the Jets. That graphic ran with just under 11 minutes to go in the game. Wilson ended the game with nine completions. The Jets punted 10 times.

Incredible.

But, in retrospect, kind of predictable.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.