Pats Pulpit
Ahead of this year’s training camp, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained that he was looking at his team’s performances in three distinct categories. There is the good, the bad, and, as he called it, the s—t that gets you beat.
The Patriots’ 42-10 beatdown of the New York Jets on Sunday featured a lot of the first of those categories. Still, if the coach wants to look at his team through all three of those categories, who are we to disagree? Let’s break down the Week 17 game in exactly that manner.
With 14:55 left in the second quarter, this game was effectively over. The Patriots had just jumped to a 21-0 lead thanks to a Drake Maye touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, and — unlike in Week 13 when they allowed Buffalo to come back from an early three-touchdown deficit — not even the most pessimistic viewers would have predicted the Jets to pull off a comeback.
The difference in class between the two teams in the first half was simply too big. If the Patriots were on the top of One World Trade Center, the Jets found themselves in the depths of Hudson River next to it. If there was a mercy rule in the NFL, this would have been the contest to use it.
It was pure domination on both sides of the ball.
With Drake Maye at quarterback, the Patriots played a perfect offensive game. They scored six touchdowns in six drives, and along the way gained 391 yards.
Defensively, the Patriots allowed the Jets to gain only 77 yards in the first half. They also intercepted a pass when Jaylinn Hawkins read Brady Cook’s intentions from a mile away.
Both the offense and defense were on point before easing up in the second half and removing several starters from the lineup. Among them, the starting QB: Maye was pulled from the game with 8:21 to go in the third period, at which point New England’s lead had grown to 42-3. Had they left him in, there was no sign the beatdown would have slowed; having thrown five touchdowns already, he possibly would have even threatened the single-game record of seven.
He didn’t, and for good reason. The Patriots have their sights on far bigger goals.
The Patriots were firing on all cylinders against the Jets, and to find any negatives requires some effort. The biggest among those blemishes might have been rookie kicker Andy Borregales missing a 41-yard field goal try in the late third quarter, after Drake Maye had been pulled.
That miss, of course, was inconsequential to the game’s outcome and took place after Borregales went 6-for-6 on extra points. That said, the youngster has cooled off slightly and has now missed three total field goals in his last six games. With the playoffs awaiting and points at a premium in the tournament, such misses could end up...
