Patriots Ground Jets For Eighth Straight Win

FOXBOROUGH – Now you have to be convinced beyond a doubt that the good times have returned to Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots beat the Jets, covered the spread, dominated the AFC East cellar dwellers, and you are perhaps more disappointed than elated.

The Jets, particularly on defense, did not lay down and play soft against a team they were certain to lose to. The stat sheet still says the Patriots won and won convincingly, 27-14 on Thursday night. Drake Maye has now added Amazon Prime to the growing lists of announcers and audiences saying to themselves, “Wow, these Patriots really are good!” and “Wow, Maye really is the real deal!” Of course, they may also be saying “Oh (bleep), here we go with those (bleep) Patriots again.”

Bleep away, NFL fans. The Patriots are now 9-2. Amazon flashed some percentages towards the end of the game, and the Patriots are favorites to win the AFC East. If that isn’t enough, they are also favorites to cop the one seed in the AFC playoffs. In other words, then another old familiar sentence is coming back soon: the road to the Super Bowl goes through Foxborough. The Patriots have now won eight in a row, the first time that has happened since 2019 in the final days of the Brady Patriots.

Maye did well, but the real star of the game was TreVeyon Henderson. Perhaps three or four people nationwide had Henderson on their fantasy team. If so, his three touchdown outburst got his team off to a flying start this week. He had two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown despite finishing with only 3.3 yards per carry (19 carries, 62 yards, longest carry 9 yards). Despite this, Henderson is developing a nose for the end zone, and this now includes the red area and not just long bursts.

Still, you the Patriot fan expecting a 45-3 blowout might be a little disappointed.

The Jets won the toss and in the end made the right call. The Jets scored a touchdown on their first possession of the game, which has been an annoyance of this Patriot team which doesn’t have a ton of annoyances. Meanwhile, the Patriots had a chance for a double score but missed on both chances, as Andres Borregales doinked a 45-yard field goal attempt as the first half ended, then went three and out on their first possession of the second half.

They took the opening kickoff and marched 72 yards in 14 plays. The Jets converted on all four of their first downs, and scored on a five-yard right end run by Justin Fields off a play fake with Jack Gibbens in futile pursuit. It was 7-0 Jets and they wound up killing off more than half of the first quarter.

But the Patriots answered right back. Maye led the Patriots on a 14-play drive also, covering 69 yards and ending in the second quarter. A foolish personal foul on Jarvis Brownlee turned out to be the biggest play of the drive. The Patriots converted two third downs and one fourth down, and Henderson completed the drive on the second play of the second quarter. He took a handoff up the middle and ran into a gang of Jets. But that gang started to move towards the end zone, and Henderson emerged having dragged about six tacklers into the end zone with him. It was 7-7 and the home crowd felt decidedly better.

The Jets would not score again until the fourth quarter. Despite Fields putting up some decent rushing numbers, the Patriot defense began to make plays that would enable the offense to build a 21-7 lead. It took John Metchie III to break away from Craig Woodson, who fell down on the play, and haul in a 22-yard scoring toss from Fields to make it 21-14 Patriots.

But the Patriots had control of this game once they tied it up at 7. There was no way the outmanned Jets would win this game. Give the Jets credit for playing the Patriots as tough as they possibly could. There was only one turnover in the entire game, when Fields fumbled a shotgun snap late in the game and Anfernee Jennings recovered it. But the Jets gave up only a quick three and out which netted only three yards and all the Patriots got was a field goal despite being at the Jet 11-yard line where the fumble was recovered.

Maye finished 25 of 34 passing for 281 yards, one touchdown, no picks and a rating of 107.6. He didn’t need to be great in this game, but he was confident, methodical, and generally very relaxed. Stefon Diggs had a great night, with 9 catches for 105 yards. Mack Hollins had four catches for 64 yards, which computes to a 16-yard per catch average. Maye is doing well so far without his deep threat, Kayshon Boutte, although he needs to heal up and get back to stretching NFL defenses.

Fields did indeed lead the Jets in rushing with 67 yards on 11 carries, while Breece Hall had 58 yards on 14 carries. The Jets had an average of five rushing yards per carry as a team. This took the pressure off of Fields having to throw to keep the Jets in the game; Fields finished with 15 of 26 passing for 116 yards, one touchdown, and a rating of 81.6. Metchie led the Jets with 45 yards receiving, while tight ends Mason Taylor and Jeremy Ruckert each had four catches.

The Patriots will travel to the Queen City to play the Bengals a week from Sunday, so the Patriots have the rest of the week off. They will play a Bengals team that found out today that perhaps, just perhaps, Joe Burrow will come back sooner than expected from his turf toe injury. Whether that will put an end to the horrific losses Cincinnati has suffered this year remains to be seen.

The Patriots have to be ready for anybody and everybody. Once we get into November, the games start to get real important. Wow, I remember that quote from years ago that also has regained relevance and importance. Did Mike Vrabel hear his old Patriot coach say that while he was a player? Perhaps.

We invite you to catch Bob George’s Boston Sports Podcast, broadcast on YouTube. Go to YouTube handle thepic413 to view the podcasts. Please click on the Subscribe button so you don’t miss any of the podcasts. Also, please follow Bob on X at @bobgeorge413.

About Bob George

Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139

View all posts by Bob George