Close, But Jets Can’t Solve Patriots in Foxborough

­

(Darren McCollester)

The Jets were handed their second loss of the season on Sunday afternoon as they fell to the Patriots 30-23 in New England. The Jets now have a 4-2 record on the season as the Patriots move on to 6-0.

The Patriots left the door wide open for the Jets to win but New York simply could not take advantage of the Patriots’ miscues. Like halfway through the fourth quarter when the Patriots had third-and-17 with the Jets leading 20-16. The Jets gave up a huge play over the middle of the field giving them a first down. The Patriots scored a touchdown later in the drive to put them up 23-20.

To go along with that, several Patriots’ receivers had trouble catching the ball. The Jets caught a lot of breaks with that but they could not capitalize. The Jets caught a very good team on a day where they were not at their best and they were unable to take advantage of it.

Other than not capitalizing on miscues, here are a few other observations from Sunday’s game.

1. Chris Ivory – Chris Ivory clearly did not have his best game as he only had 41 rushing yards on 17 carries. And since Ivory was off the field for a lot of the game because of a leg injury, the Jets were forced to use Zac Stacy a lot more than they had hoped. And since the Jets could not get the run game going, they had to pass the ball with Fitzpatrick a lot. And he did not have a bad game, but when you’re playing a tough team like the Patriots, it takes more than a decent passing game. Not having a big threat out of the back field really hurt the Jets in this one.
2. Receiving – Overall, the receiving core had a good game. Eric Decker had 94 yards on 6 receptions while Brandon Marshall had 67 yards on 4 receptions. But Brandon Marshall had a dropped pass the really came back to haunt the Jets. When leading 17-16, the Jets had the ball in the red zone and Fitzpatrick threw a pass to Marshall in the end zone on third down. The ball hit Marshall’s hands but he could not hang on. So instead of taking an eight point lead in the fourth quarter, the Jets had to settle for a field goal and a four point lead. It completely changed the complexion of the game and gave the Patriots a reason to hope.
3. Defensive Line – The Jets’ defensive line is always good against the run. The only problem is that the Patriots barely ran the ball. Tom Brady was actually the leading rusher for the Patriots with 15 yards. But it seemed like the d-line wasn’t getting too much pressure on Brady. He had a lot of time to examine the field which is obviously a bad thing when a quarterback like Brady is dropping back to pass. You cannot make his life that easy.

No one is arguing that this was a tough loss to swallow because every Jets fan is sick of losing to the Patriots by now. But at the end of the day, the Jets are still a 4-2 team with an easy schedule coming up. They will play in Oakland next Sunday and then will come home for the Jaguars and Bills. The Raiders are coming off a 37-29 victory over the Chargers but they are still a team the Jets should beat. The next three games for Gang Green could very well be three more wins.