Its hard to blame the D when the Jets averaged starting on the 45 yard line. The jets never got more than 2 first downs in any possesion. The Special teams was bad, Ghost will correct some of that when hes back next year.
A lot of young guys got some experience with this game so we can take that out of it, add a few pieces next year and hope for better execution come playoffs.
The defense played alright. They performed fairly poorly in the redzone though which is a concern for me. Every time the Jets got into the redzone they came away with touchdowns instead of FGs. All except the drive post-Brady interception. That was a big early hold by the D. But that performance was never repeated.
The reality is that if the Pats didn't absolutely stink it up on ST and kill themselves with the fake punt attempt down only 7-3 with the half coming up, they could have easily turned around this game and won it in the second half. Because it became a 2 score game, the clock worked against the Pats in the second half. Eventually they got points on the board, but by the time they did they were forced to onsides kick twice and FAILED to recover both times.
It's really a combination of factors. As far as the defense goes. I think they need a passrusher. That is becoming painfully obvious. The corners can only cover so long and when you let an even mediocre QB like Sanchez get comfortable in the pocket he will hurt you as he did last Sunday.
The offense blocked poorly. Brady called poor pass protections. It was pretty much a mess. And the weird thing is, I think that Brady became a bit gunshy after throwing that first INT on what looked like a for sure TD drive. Losing those points off the board was huge in this game. Crumpler dropping the TD was also big because we had to settle for 3 and ended up playing from behind as soon as the Jets scored their first TD.
The field position battle on ST went badly. The Jets consistently had a short field to work with, usually starting on their own 40 or even on the Pats side of the field. There's only so much a defense can do when it is constantly under that type of pressure throughout the game.
Lastly, the hallmark of the Patriots as a team this year has been their ability to force turnovers. They did none of that in this game. They failed to attack Sanchez and force him to throw up a few airballs and pick him. The TOs were the key to this game. Brady gave up the football once on an INT. Then the Pats turned over the ball again on the fake punt attempt. That's TWO TO's in favor of the Jets.
Meanwhile Sanchez did not turn over the ball once. Those two possessions symbolize a swing of 14 points. 7 points the Pats did not put on the scoreboard in the first case, and 7 points that were given to the Jets as a result of the excellent field position in the second case.
Because this became a two score ballgame, the Patriots were unable to come back barring some kind of key turnover, which never materialized. The Pats needed one more possesion with time on the clock but because of their own mistakes, they never recovered from the lost opportunities.