FOXBOROUGH \u2013 Feminist Gloria Steinem became famous largely\nfor her famous anti-men statement, \u201cA woman without a man is like a fish\nwithout a bicycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Foxborough, it reads like this: The Patriots without Antonio Brown is like a\nfish without a bicycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lament his demise if you wish, but Sunday\u2019s 30-14 win\nover the New York Jets on Sunday at Gillette Stadium further underscored how\nlittle they needed him. The Patriots\nscored 63 points in two games without Brown, and 43 points with him, but 14 of\nthose 43 points came on defensive touchdowns. \nBrown, who was released on Friday when his menacing text messages aimed\nat a second woman who accused him of sexual harassment surfaced, turned out to\nbe a luxury rather than an important element of the Patriot offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only way that losing Brown turns out to be anything\nconsequential is that if Julian Edelman misses significant playing time after\nleaving the game with a rib injury in the second quarter. Late in the first half, Edelman took a quick\ndump pass in the right flat, then got blasted by Brian Poole and came right out\nof the game and went right to the locker room. \nEdelman never returned, and the Patriot offense seemed to get stuck in\nneutral from that point on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A late report said that x-rays on Edelman\u2019s ribs were\nnegative, which is certainly good news for the Patriots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots scored touchdowns on their first three\noffensive possessions, but did not score again until the third quarter. The Patriots managed ten points on two\nconsecutive third quarter drives, then nothing for the rest of the game. But with a big lead which eventually reached\n30-0 against the offensively challenged Jets, running up big offensive numbers\nwas not needed to win this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again, the Patriot defense carried the day with a\nterrific suffocation of a Jet offense which is LeVeon Bell and nothing\nelse. The Jets were forced to start a\nthird string quarterback, Bell was held to 63 yards from scrimmage, Luke Falk\nwas sacked five times, and the Jets did next to nothing at all\noffensively. The final score says that\nthe Jets scored 14 points, but those points came off uncharacteristic, if not\nfluky, turnovers by the Patriots. The\ndefense gave up nothing. They shut out\nthe Jets, held them under 100 yards through three quarters, and dominated a\nteam they were expected to dominate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom Brady had a great game probably without breaking a\nsweat. He finished 28 of 42 passing for\n306 yards, two touchdowns and a 103.9 passer rating. It came a little harder for Brady to keep a\nrhythm after Edelman went out with his rib injury, but he basically ran things\npretty easily and treated the Jets like the 0-3 team they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Particularly pleasing to the Patriots was the performance\nof Josh Gordon. He made two leaping\ncatches and led the Patriots with 83 receiving yards. Gordon was targeted 11 times and made six\ncatches, and at times seemed out of sync with Brady, but again showed the brilliance\nhe is capable of. Edelman led the Patriots\nwith seven catches (62 yards) and a touchdown, while Philip Dorsett chipped in\nwith 53 yards on six catches and a touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another element regarding the offense was the absence of\nJames White. Following the lead from\nlinebacker Kyle Van Noy a few weeks back, White missed the game because his\nwife was about to have a baby. Wins are\nnice, but always family first. Some\nplayers would never miss a game for these family reasons, but this is the\nsecond time this season a key starter missed a game for childbirth reasons. While the phrase \u201cin the fall, football players\nplay football\u201d echoes everywhere, nobody should complain about either player\nwho wants to be there when a baby is born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What will come under coaching scrutiny will be the two\nmistakes, both by rookies, that gave the Jets their 14 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the tail end of the third quarter, the Jets had fourth\nand 24 at their own 49. Lachlan Edwards\npunted the ball towards Gunnar Olszewski, who decided to make the catch at the\nPatriot 12. But Olszewski muffed the\ncatch, and the ball rolled backwards into the Patriot end zone. The ball was covered by Arthur Maulet, and\nthe Patriots surrendered their first touchdown since the 2018 AFC Championship\nGame at Kansas City, as well as their first points since the season opener\nagainst Pittsburgh. Olszewski was not\nbenched, as he was in there for every subsequent punt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the fourth quarter, Bill Belichick decided to put in\nrookie backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham. \nOn his first play, he hit Dorsett in the right flat for 11 yards for his\nfirst NFL completion. He was sacked on\nthe next play by Neville Hewitt for a seven-yard loss, then hit Rex Burkhead in\nthe right flat for three yards. On third\nand 14 at the Jet 48, Stidham had Brandon Bolden wide open in the right flat,\nbut clearly overthrew him and Jamal Adams had an easy pick. He bolted up the left sideline and took it 61\nyards to the house. Brady came back in for\nthe next offensive series and played the rest of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final score will not adequately portray how dominant\nthe Patriot defense was. The Jets managed\nonly 105 total yards for the entire game. \nThey had only six first downs and were 0-12 on third down\nconversions. Again, against a depleted\nJet offense, this is not astonishing. \nBut when you put up numbers like this against a team you were expected\nto do well against, it is still a good thing. \nFalk finished with only 12 of 22 passing for 98 yards and a paltry 47.1\nrating. Braxton Berrios, who was with the\nPatriots in the preseason, led the Jets with 29 yards receiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots are 3-0 for the first time in three years,\nand next week travel to Buffalo to meet another 3-0 team. They will be tested for the first time this\nyear against a rejuvenated Bills team. \nThe Bills rallied late at home to beat Cincinnati on Sunday, setting up\nthis battle of the unbeatens next week up in western New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots need to put Brown in the rearview mirror and\nmove on. On to Buffalo, and no more\nwhining about Brown\u2019s time here or his release on Friday. If you bought a Brown jersey, remember the\nphrase caveat emptor<\/em> (Latin for \u201clet the buyer beware\u201d) and build a\nbridge (and get over it). He\u2019s gone,\ndeal with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And get ready for what should be a great game next Sunday\nat Buffalo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday\u2019s 30-14 win over the New York Jets on Sunday at Gillette Stadium further underscored how little they needed Antonio Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2120,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2019-patriots-regular-season","category-patriots-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n