Patriots Ups and Downs: Defense returns to form, offense does enough in win over Jets
BOSTON -- You can now exhale in New England. The Patriots picked up a much-needed victory on Sunday, returning to .500 on the season with a 22-17 win over the Jets in New Jersey.
It wasn't pretty by any stretch. (Though Matthew Judon said that any win is "pretty" after the game.) The concerns with Mac Jones and the offense remain. But at least Mac is not Zach Wilson, who was terrible for the Jets on Sunday. The No. 2 overall pick in last year's draft threw three interceptions on Sunday, gifting a pair of picks to Devin McCourty in the second half. He was bad. Real bad.
Jones wasn't great, but he didn't make as many mistakes. He caught a huge break on one of his mistakes, which changed the momentum of the game, but Jones and the rest of the offense really locked in during the second half and did enough to get the W.
The New England defense, after six long days of being questioned after a brutal outing against the Bears, responded in a big way though. And finally, the Patriots got an all-around solid showing from their special teams unit.
Add it all up and the Patriots are 4-4 after winning a tough divisional game on the road. The Patriots needed this one to save their season at this point, and they went out and took it from a team that was 5-2 entering the game.
Let's get into the Ups and the Downs from Sunday's victory.
Ups
Huge day from Rhamondre
Rhamondre Stevenson was everything the Patriots needed and then some on Sunday. He ran for a team-high 71-yards on his 16 carries. He had a team-high 72 receiving yards, catching seven of the eight passes that Jones threw his way.
Stevenson's 35-yard run on the first play of the second half set the tone for the rest of the game. He was, simply put, awesome on Sunday.
Meyers made plays
Doesn't he always? He led the way with eight receptions for 60 yards and a touchdown.
One New England's first field goal drive, Meyers moved the chains on third down twice, hauling in passes on third-and-10 and third-and-11. He had three receptions that resulted in a fresh set of downs on Sunday.
Meyers also scored New England's only touchdown on a fourth-and-1 in the third quarter, diving for the end zone after collecting a short feed from Jones. The man does it all.
Defense bounces back
After six days of questioning the defense following that putrid Monday night game, the New England defense was back in form on Sunday.
Zach Wilson was sent scrambling and forced to throw the ball away most of the day, and a few of those throwaways were so forced that Wilson sent them to the Patriots. Matthew Judon and Deatrich Wise were all up in the QB's face throughout the game. The Patriots only sacked Wilson twice, but they made him miserable and forced him to make quick decisions.
As Judon explained, when you don't sack a quarterback but pressure him into a bad thrown, it's known as the "boogie oogie." There was a lot of boogie oogie from the defense on Sunday and it paid off in a big way.
The Jets were also just 5-for-14 on third down. A huge improvement after the Bears were 11-for-18 on third down on Monday night.
Opening second half with a TD
The Patriots can't score to open games, but they scored to open the second half on Sunday. New England opened the half with a six-play, 62-yard scoring drive that started with a 35-yard run by Stevenson and ended with a five-yard TD connection between Jones and Meyers on fourth-and-1. The touchdown gave the Patriots a 13-10 lead, and dramatically shifted the momentum in their favor for the first time of the afternoon.
Phillips saves a touchdown
Adrian Phillips saved a touchdown on New York's second offensive possession, breaking up a pass over the middle to Michael Carter.
Huge play by the veteran safety, especially with Kyle Dugger missing Sunday's game.
Marcus Jones
The rookie had a big 32-yard punt return in the third quarter that set the offense up at the New York 27. Mac and Co. didn't gain any nets yards on their three plays, so Jones gets all the credit for setting up Nick Folk's 45-yard field goal that pushed New England's lead to 19-10.
Folk Story
Nick Folk was once again New England's best offensive weapons. The former Jet was good on all five of his attempts on Sunday, connecting from 31, 42, 49, 45, and 52 yards.
Two picks for McCourty
Devin McCourty was Zach Wilson's favorite target on Sunday. The veteran came down with two of the easiest picks of his career thanks to the Jets QB.
Those two interceptions give McCourty 33 for his career -- which gives him the most among all active players. Seven of those have come against the Jets.
Downs
Rough day for offensive line
Mac Jones was sacked six times for a new career-high. He also threw his seventh pick of the season, though it wasn't entirely his fault. Mac's arm was hit as he threw and his deep attempt to Kendrick Bourne turned into what was basically a punt to the Jets.
Marcus Cannon gave up the pressure to Bryce Huff on that pick. Cannon saw the bulk of the action in place of Isaiah Wynn, who gave up a sack on his first snap of the game. No matter who is playing right tackle, the Patriots are having issues.
Wynn replaced rookie Cole Strange at left guard in the second half, after Strange struggled throughout the game. The rookie was also hit with a holding penalty on back-to-back drives in the first half.
Fourth down play call
The Pats had a fourth-and-1 at the New York 21 late in the first half. Trailing 10-3, Bill Belichick opted to go for it.
The Patriots did not convert. After faking a handoff out of the shotgun, Mac pretended to be a read-option QB and rolled to his left. He went looking for a heavily covered Jakobi Meyers but overthrew the receiver, and the possession came to an end with no points on the board for New England.
There was a lot wrong with that play call. First, the Patriots passed up some points, despite the offense having difficulties scoring points. Then there was having Mac in shotgun, and having Mac roll out. Then there was Mac's decision to throw to a completely covered guy.
It was ugly all around. But at least the Patriots made up for it with a touchdown on a fourth down play in the second half.
Mac's pick -- and the waste afterwards
Mac threw a truly ugly pick that was taken 84-yards to the house, but it was called back thanks to a roughing the passer penalty on New York. So instead of the Jets being up 17-3 before half, the Patriots had a chance to pull even at 10-10.
But they didn't, instead taking an extremely conservative approach to the rest of their gifted possession. They abandoned any plans for the end zone after a first-down hold on Strange, running on second-and-20 before taking a knee on third down. The Pats added a field goal to make it a 10-6 game, but they showed just how little faith they had in the passing game with that end-of-half approach.
Though based on the passing up to that point, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. But that doesn't make it any less disappointing that they had to resort to that approach.
Still no first quarter touchdowns
The Patriots offense has now gone 10 straight games (regular season and postseason) without scoring a touchdown in the first quarter. With Sunday's field goal against the Jets, the Patriots have scored just 12 points over their last 10 first quarters.
Jets' first TD drive
The Jets needed just six plays to go 75 yards on their touchdown drive. New York had two big plays on the drive: A shovel pass by Zach Wilson to Garrett Wilson turned into a 23-yard pickup on the first play of the drive, and a short pass from Wilson to Michael Carter that turned into a 17-yard pickup.
That second play got even bigger when Jabrill Peppers was hit with an unnecessary roughness flag for hitting Carter when the back was already out of bounds, adding another 13 yards to the play and setting the Jets up at the New England 12-yard line. Wilson hit tight end Tyler Conklin a few plays later for an eight-yard score, with Conklin winning his 1-on-1 matchup with backup safety Joshuah Bledsoe.
Two big plays and an unneeded penalty all on the same drive is not a winning recipe. But overall, the Patriots defense cooked up a really good bounce-back effort against the Jets after an embarrassing Monday night showing against the Bears.
