Immediate Reactions to Jets’ 24-17 Loss to Patriots

Josh McCown places a firm ceiling on this offense: McCown posted 347 yards and sparked an impressive 14-0 start to the game, but his egregious mistakes that the box score will not reflect are the reason this offense can’t find more than 20 points in a game.

There were numerous instances where receivers ran free and were missed by McCown. I can think of a couple immediately; Lawrence Thomas in the flat on the failed 4th down play in the 3rd quarter and Travaris Cadet on the final play of the game. He has very little sense for the pressure and poor field vision. This is not what you pay a “veteran” QB for, and the Jets leave a lot of points on the field with these mistakes.

Jamal Adams isn’t Superman yet, but that’s OK as he’s taking necessary trial by fire: Adams looked unstoppable over the first four weeks, but has come down to earth over the last two weeks. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. Adams struggled with David Njoku last week and the Patriots did not hesitate to throw Rob Gronkowski right at him this week. He was mostly beaten by one of the greatest tight ends of all time, but it’s good that he is taking on these assignments early.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins is a lethal weapon: Don’t look at his yardage. Don’t even look at his underrepresented touchdown total, because neither of will properly reflect his impact. ASJ is becoming a beast, using his size to become a conversion machine on third and short and in the red zone. When at his best, like he was today, Seferian-Jenkins doesn’t look too much unlike the Pats tight end who wears #87. ASJ should’ve been the first Jet tight end to catch two touchdowns since Dustin Keller in 2011, but he fumbled the ball out of the end zone by not dropping it. Yep.

The pass rush is MIA, but the secondary is looking improved: The two biggest names on this defense, Leonard Williams and Muhammad Wilkerson, have no sacks this year. Now, sacks are an overrated stat, but the Jets are creating almost no pressure, even when they’re blitzing. Despite that and a few poor penalty calls, they still held Tom Brady’s top ranked offense to 24 points. Kony Ealy is the only Jet who seems to make consistent plays as a pass rusher. This is a seriously pressing issue, but if fixed, the Jets might really be on to something. The secondary played a mostly solid game against a historically lethal passing attack. Darryl Roberts played very well while Marcus Maye made his share of plays in center field. This was one of Brady’s least efficient performances of the past few seasons.

Addressing the elephant in the room: The Jets had plenty of chances to put this game out of reach of the officials. However, like any player who messes up, the mistakes of the officials should not be overlooked and deserve criticism when it is justified.

Inexcusable.

Robby Anderson drew a personal foul on a helmet to helmet hit that was picked up for some reason.

There was also a really questionable pass interference called on Jamal Adams against Rob Gronkowski in the second quarter that played a major role in the Pats getting their first touchdown of the game.

To me, this game proved that the Jets are going to compete and have the opportunity to win most games they play. They’re better than anybody thought. They just don’t have enough of a pass rush or a good enough quarterback to string together wins against good teams who will make the key situational plays while the Jets will not. You can dominate Blake Bortles’ team and survive backbreaking interceptions and fumbles. You can’t expect Tom Brady to not fully capitalize on those mistakes.