By Andrew Rosario
Pathetic. That is the only way to describe the New York Jets 54-13 loss to the New England Patriots last Sunday. Gang Green was coming off a bye week after traveling across the pond in their 27-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. With all of that time to prepare, Gang Green was totally embarrassed by a Bill Belichick team who made rookie quarterback Mac Jones look like the second coming of Tom Brady. Jones finished his day completing 24 of 36 passes for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns. The defense, if you can call it that, gave up a total of 551 yards and saw Pats running back Damien Harris rush for 106 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Jets trend of not putting points on the board in the first quarter continued as they gave up the ball after 5 plays. This came after New England drove down the field on their very first possession. 7 plays and 70 yards later, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels went into his bag of tricks for the first score off the game. From the shotgun, Jones throws a quick flare pass to wide receiver Kendrick Bourne who was going in motion from the left side. Bourne takes the swing pass from Jones and it appears as if he was going to take off when he suddenly pulls up and lofts a pass to a wide open, wide receiver Nelson Agholor for the 7-0 lead. The Patriots would never look back as the Jets missed an opportunity to get on the scoreboard when field goal kicker Matt Ammendola missed a 48-yard field goal the next time they had the ball. The Jets have been outscored 106-20 in the first hal of games this season.
Just when you thought things could not any worse for New York, they see their “franchise” quarterback go down with a knee injury in the second quarter. Wilson gets hit by Pats outside linebacker Matt Judon as he attempts a long pass. Judon lands on Wilson tweaking his right knee. Wilson took an MRI this past Monday and the results confirmed a sprained posterior cruciate ligament. He is expected to miss at least two weeks. Said Wilson of the play, “I threw the ball and l think my front toe and foot got stuck on the ground. Dude just kind of fell on it with all of his weight and kind of felt like it was twisted. Felt a pop in there. Was thinking about the worst scenario,” as he laid on the ground.
Backup quarterback Mike White was put in an untenable situation and made the best of a bad situation. After a 39-yard Nick Folk goal put New England up 17-0, White gets them in the end zone after a 10-play drive ended in a 3-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Corey Davis cutting the lead to 17-7. The Patriots would torch the Jets the rest of the way as Belichick would not take his foot off the pedal outscoring the Jets 37-6 the rest of the way. The last time the Jets gave up more than 50 points was against the Miami Dolphins in 1995.
First year head coach Robert Saleh, who was hired with the reputation as a brilliant defensive coordinator, talked about the overall performance or lack thereof from the team. “It starts with coaching all the way down. Obviously, we got to do better. They punched us in the freaking mouth and scored points so credit to them.”
The New York Jets will host the Cincinatti Bengals Sunday who are coming off a dominating performance against division rival Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals outscored Baltimore 28-7 in the second half and in doing so are tied for first place in the AFC North for the first time since 2015. Cincy will be drooling when they see the tape of the Jets loss.
