Patriots 30, Jets 27: Say It Ain’t So, Joe

The New York Jets have found many ugly ways to lose this year. On Monday Night Football against the New England Patriots, the Jets found the most excruciating way to lose this year. The Jets dominated the first half and went into the locker room with a 10 point lead. The Jets held their own in the third quarter and went into the fourth quarter still with a 10 point lead. With a little more than six minutes to play the Jets were still up by 10 points. Double digit leads at that point in the game should be pretty safe. The Jets said, “Hold my beer.”

The Patriots ended the game with three scoring drives and 13 unanswered points. The Jets threw an inexplicable interception, without pressure, into a double team. They took their only sack of the game and went three and out when it was crucial to not give the Patriots the ball back with time to win the game. They gave up a huge long pass to get the Patriots to within a long field goal with three seconds left. And then former Jet Nick Folk stuck the dagger in the Jets with a game winning field goal as time ran out.

It was a complete and utter collapse after the Jets dominated the action well into the fourth quarter. If the Jets hadn’t already shown how bad they are at football all year, it was a game to make you furious. As it was, I fully expected the Jets to blow their double digit lead halfway through the 4th quarter. It just felt fitting for this garbage dump of a football team.

Lets take a look at what went right and what went wrong in this latest loss.

THE GOOD

Breshad Perriman. Five catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Perriman torched J.C. Jackson. This was the Perriman the Jets hoped to get when they signed him to replace Robby Anderson.

Denzel Mims. Four catches for 62 yards. Mims had his way with the Patriots defensive backs in the first half. The Jets went elsewhere with the ball in the second half, but Mims still had a promising night and is coming along nicely.

Folorunso Fatukasi. Seven tackles, four solo. Fatukasi was only member of the Jets defensive front that was winning his battles most of the night.

Ashtyn Davis. Davis made a nice tackle at the one yard line to save a touchdown and had a pass defended to stop a big play by the Patriots late in the game. A pretty good night for the rookie.

THE BAD

Pierre Desir. Burned on several long passes, as usual. At this point we can just write the same thing every week about Desir. Why is he still starting?

Blessuan Austin. Austin was abused all night by Jakobi Meyers, who had a huge night with 12 catches for 169 yards. A good portion of that came against Austin, who played off coverage, giving up easy pitch and catch completions over and over again.

John Franklin-Myers. Franklin Myers was invisible in the pass rush when the Jets needed him most in the absence of Quinnen Williams.

Joe Flacco. For half the game Flacco was the MVP. He threw multiple long touchdown passes. He led the Jets on five scoring drives. He put up more passing yards in the first half than the Jets usually put up in full games. But in the end, Flacco cost the Jets the game. After an excellent first half, the Jets offense disappeared in the second half and gained just 77 yards. Outside of one touchdown drive dominated by Breshad Perriman, the Jets offense was completely absent in the second half. Flacco cost the Jets in a huge way with an ill advised bomb to Denzel Mims into double coverage that was intercepted. That interception came with less than six minutes to play and the Jets up a touchdown. The Jets desperately needed to stop the Patriots’ momentum by eating up some clock and hopefully putting up some points. A single field goal after eating up some clock would have put the game all but out of reach. Instead Flacco instantly gave the ball away without eating up any time. The Patriots drove right down the field for a game tying touchdown. On the next drive Flacco took a crucial sack that ended any hopes for a Jets game winning drive. The ball went back to the Patriots with just enough time to win it. Those two crucial errors by Flacco cost the Jets the game and wiped out all the good things he did in the first half.

With the loss the Jets fall to 0-9. This was the one game all year the Jets had a win in their grasp and just threw it away. I suppose a tough loss is better than a blowout loss. For those wanting to tank for Trevor, this game ended the way you wished.