Patriots-Jets Thoughts

For all who were hoping for my thoughts on the game yesterday, I had a lot of work to do so I just opened a discussion thread on the game.  Now, after re-watching the game, I feel I have a better grasp at what happened.

Like last week, lets start with the Jets.  As Bill Belichick said, they both outplayed and out-coached the Patriots yesterday.  While the Patriots completely dominated the first half, they missed a lot out on a lot of opportunities in Jets territory, and kudos to the Jets defense on that one.  Speaking of the defense, as if it wasn’t talented enough (Revis, Harris, Rhodes, Jenkins, etc.), the have one of the best defensive masterminds in the game, Rex Ryan.  They brought a lot of pressure on a lot of different blitzes.  The offensive line did a good job picking it up for the most part, but it clearly flustered Brady, as the offense had three delay of game penalties.  As for Mark Sanchez, there isn’t much to say, he clearly is the real deal.  It’s going to suck having him in the division for the next decade-plus, it really is.

Now, to dissect the Patriots.  Offensively, I saw two players that really stepped it up: Julian Edelman and Fred Taylor.  Edelman, in his debut game, helped lessen the blow of losing Wes Welker to injury, stepping up with 8 catches for 98 yards.  While he doesn’t look too crisp as a route runner quite yet, he is amazingly quick and I think he will get there eventually.  Fred Taylor also played quite nicely.  He ran with vision and purpose, quickness and even some pop.  He will definitely be a weapon down the road.

As for Moss and Galloway, the Pats’ two outside receivers, I thought both of them underperformed, but neither was horrible.  Moss was going up against one of the leagues best cornerbacks, Darrelle Revis, and had his work cut out for him.  He also had Kerry Rhodes/Jim Leonhard shadowing him over the top all game, making it very difficult for him get anything over the top.  While Joey Galloway had a couple of balls go his way that should have been caught, I thought he made some progress from last week.  He is still lightning fast, and had Brady not underthrown that sure touchdown to him in the endzone, I think a lot of people would be saying different things about his performance.

Moving on, Tom Brady looked uncharacteristically bad.  He really did.  He threw some bad throws he normally wouldn’t have thrown.  But am I worried?  Absolutely not.  It’s week two people!  There are still fourteen more regular season games to be played.  If Brady looks like he did yesterday in weeks ten or eleven, then I say the Pats have problems.  But right now, I wouldn’t worry too much, especially considering how well the defense played.

Speaking of the defense, they played terrific football the entire first half and the fourth quarter.  It was just that one stretch in the 3rd that lost them the game.  But in all honesty, if the offense putting up 16 points per game is the extent of our problems, I’m not worried.  If the defense plays like they did yesterday all year, especially after Jerod Mayo comes back, the Patriots will be sitting nicely.

Individually, I thought Gary Guyton played a hell of a game.  He controlled the middle of the defense very nicely, picking up 10 tackles.  Even when he got behind the ball carrier on a play, he often used his speed to catch up and still make the play.  Ty Warren also proved himself in yesterday’s game.  While recording eight tackles and a sack, Warren proved he is still one of the premier run-stopping defensive lineman in the NFL, while also showing some versatility in recording a sack.  Lastly, I thought the secondary once again looked solid.  Leigh Bodden and Jonathan Wilhite looked the best, while you couldn’t say anything bad about Shawn Springs or Darius Butler either.

And oh yeah, the special teams was downright awful.  Both in coverage and in the return game. And the penalties, simply unacceptable for a Super Bowl hopeful contender.  To avoid getting frustrated, I won’t say anything more.  However, if the team can play heads up, the offense can get back to its usual thing, and the defense continues to play as they did yesterday, I won’t be worried about much.  Great game by the Jets, and I think they’re here to stay.  This will be a good year.