New England Patriots 33
at
New York Jets 0
You know it’s a bad football game when the only excitement generated from the broadcast comes not from the game at all, but from the high profile trailer of the new Star Wars movie, which comes out in a couple of months.
Yes, I saw the trailer, and more on that in a little bit.
However, the football game itself was nothing to get excited about. The game was played at MetLife Stadium, which was very quiet, making the entire game feel sleepy and uninteresting, which matched what the score made it feel like.
Indeed, the undefeated Patriots were widely expected to win, and most believed that they would win it convincingly, to boot.
But they put on an absolute clinic, and Gang Green looked like they could do nothing right for much of the game. Neither the offense nor defense even looked remotely competent, frankly. The defense seemed to miss tackles and to regularly be outmuscled and outhustled. On offense, Sam Darnold looked terrible, and the offense just seemed completely lifeless.
In other words, more or less what everyone kind of expected, and feared. A blowout game in which the Patriots played as well, and the Jets played as poorly, as most people anticipated.
The results speak for themselves. Tom Brady, the 42-year old, highly decorated Pats quarterback, was on point for most of the game. He completed 31 of 45 passes for 249 yards, with one touchdown, as well as one interception. Sony Michel was solid with 42 yards and three touchdown runs on 19 carries. And the Patriots offensive line was stellar, for the most part. Overall, New England produced 323 yards and 22 first downs, while controlling the ball for over 38 minutes, or almost two-thirds of the game. New England’s defense was incredible, just continually frustrating a clearly overmatched New York offense. Sam Darnold looked visibly shaken and frustrated all night, and the numbers showed. He completed just 11 of 32 passes for 86 yards, with four interception. Le’Veon Bell picked up 70 yards on 15 carries, but was not able to make a greater impact against New England’s seemingly impregnable defense last night. The Jets had six turnovers and produced only 154 yards, and just looked dysfunctional throughout.
As good as the Jets looked last weekend against the Cowboys is as bad as they looked last night, before a nationally televised audience. It felt like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Gang Green, as the Jets reverted back to the way they looked during that 0-4 start, rather than that one win against Dallas. By the halftime, already, there was really no mystery left about the outcome.
How good are the Patriots, and their defense? They are one game shy of reaching the midway point of the season, and they have scored 223 points, while allowing only 48. That is a point differential of +175 which, again, ranks among the very best of all-time.
How good is that defense allowing less than 50 points so far this season? It is an amazing accomplishment, and historically good to this point. Granted, it is only through seven games to date, and let's face it: anyone who is old enough to remember the 2007 Patriots can remember similar accolades being given to that franchise, and look bitterly that season ultimately ended for New England. Still, one cannot marvel at how thoroughly they have dominated everyone on their schedule to date.
The Pats defense has looked simply incredible thus far this season. This was the second shutout win on the road for New England, as they also earned a 43-0 shutout win earlier in week 2 at Miami. They became the first team since the 1942 Chicago Bears to earn two road shutout wins in the same season while scoring over 30 points. They also received the distinction of the greatest point differential in their favor of any team since the Buffalo All-Americans, way back in 1920. That is almost a full century since there was this level of dominance by one team over all of their opponents through seven games.
One bit of bad news for New England, on a night when everything went their way, was that their running back Sony Michel, went out with an injury late in the fourth quarter after a very big and heavy Jets defender fell on his leg while making a tackle. One almost has to wonder what he and Brady were still doing on the field so late in the game, when it was already clearly decided.
But indeed, the Patriots keep on rolling. They clearly appear to be one of the elite teams in the AFC, and indeed the NFL, once again. Going back to last season, this was New England’s 12th straight win, as they won their last two regular season games last season, then won the three postseason games, and have begin this season by looking incredible so far while racing out to a 7-0 start. It also was the eighth straight win for New England over the Jets, who fell to 1-5 on the season with this loss.
My prediction: Accurate
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