Notes, musings, and observations from the New England Patriots’ 25-22 victory over the New York Jets.
It only took six weeks, but the New England Patriots got themselves another win and are now sitting pretty at 2-6, a mere four games out of first place in the AFC East.
We have them right where we want them.
- If you decided to stop watching this game once Drake Maye went out, I certainly can’t blame you, Yesterday was one of those perfect autumn afternoons in New England that inspire all of those awful Hallmark movies that all have the exact same plot, and by this time next week the sun will start setting at around 2:45 PM. So if you didn’t feel like watching two awful football teams try to outsuck each other without the rookie QB who represents hope for the future, you won’t catch any guff from me.
- And for the most part, you didn’t really miss much. With Brissett at the helm. it’s not like there’s a whole lot we can take away from this game in terms of whether there was any real offensive progress for 2025 and beyond.
- That said, my biggest takeaway from this game was that I’d like to think it represented some kind of turning point in the season. It was impossible to ignore the narrative coming off of last week’s loss. The team was soft. The players were upset. Jerod Mayo was out way over his skis. Kraft was an idiot for not looking outside the organization. Mayo won’t last the year. The dreaded “players only captain’s meeting” represented a last-ditch effort to get guys to buy back into the system. So if the Patriots had gotten the doors blown off them at home to this Jets team, I don’t even want to think of what the repercussions would be.
- Actually, that’s a lie. My actual biggest takeaway from this game is that it once again reminded me that I should forever express my eternal gratitude that I’m not a Jets fan. I grew up on the shoreline of Connecticut, and my hometown is pretty evenly split between New York and Boston fandom. My life could have turned out very differently than how it has.
- Because the New York Jets will always find a way to do just enough to keep their fans holding on, give them enough hope and optimism to get them back for another year, and then completely implode. They have no coach, no quarterback, aging veterans on bad contracts, and New England more or less ended their season yesterday. If you think about the expectations of each fan base heading into the 2024 season, that the Pats and Jets both have the exact same record has to sting Jets hurt Jets fans worse than stepping on a broken shard of Jagermeister bottle buried in the sand on Monmouth beach.
- I can’t remember the last time I saw a team use all three timeouts in the first quarter, particularly one that saw a fumbled snap on the other end of it. They have a kicker problem and don’t seem to want to address it. Every time the camera zoomed in on Rodgers, he seemed to be looking at the sideline the way you would look at somebody who just farted in an elevator.
- Before I get too much deeper into it, I want to make it perfectly clear that in no way do I think that the Patriots did anything particularly noteworthy for most of this game. No team has won a game in which they generated less than 250 yards of offense and generated zero turnovers since 2012; team with those stats are 0-220 since then. Ironically, the last team to win with those stats are the Seahawks in the infamous Fail Mary game during the replacement ref season. Maybe there’s something about Aaron Rodgers.
- And speaking of replacement refs…I’m wondering if any of them are available to fill in for the actual refs, because I’m kind of starting to miss the accuracy and efficiency with which that group of ragtag, part-time, poorly-educated individuals officiated football games.
- My favorite part of the whole thing was how the refs completely missed hat Drake Maye took a helmet-to-helmet, but then told him a few plays later he had to come out of the game because he took a helmet-to-helmet.
- It’s not like anything that happened in yesterday’s game was any kind of anomaly or should surprise anyone at this point. And I think I’ve said it in past Fan Notes, and it rings as true as ever: all you can really hope for in this iteration of professional football is that you come out of the season more or less even on the awful, awful calls. You’re going to be on the ass end of some, you’re going to benefit from some. If you’re lucky a missed or bogus call won’t directly cost you a game and nobody will get injured as a result.
- About that last point…
- There was nothing malicious at all about Jamien Sherwood’s helmet-to-helmet hit on Maye. Two players were going to the ground and contact was made. Not much you can do about it. But sometimes that would be a 15-yard penalty and sometimes it’s nothing. The only real hope is that it won’t keep Maye out for too long, as the concussion protocol is about as consistent as the reasoning behind throwing flags.
- Before he went out, though, I found myself saying “even if the Patriots lose this game, this is the kind of loss I could deal with.” The kid just keeps getting better with every drive. He makes good decisions, extends plays with his legs, and if there was a play he has made this year that represented a typical and forgivable rookie mistake, I can’t remember what it was.
- The next step, I think, is to find some receivers who can catch the ball.
- Drops happen, and not all drops are created equal. But it’s not the best look when one of the main narratives over the past few weeks was receivers asking for more looks in-game, only to have those looks be exactly that: looking at the ball hitting the turf.
- Back in the early aughts, the Patriots drafted a receiver named Bethel Johnson who was on track to become one of my all-time favorite Patriots. He had electric speed, good hands, and was a massive threat as a kick returner. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the attitude or work ethic, and New England ended up shipping him off to New Orleans. He bounced around the league for a few years before fizzling out in the CFL. I bring this up because ever since Bethel Johnson, I’ve found myself desperately searching for another receiver who can fill the void he left in my fan heart, and because of that I give guys longer leashes than they deserve. And way, way later than it should be, Tyquan Thornton just reached the end of his.
- Because man oh man was that late first-quarter throw from Maye that bounced off Thornton’s chest, hands, and helmet before hitting the ground a freaking dime. Maye scrambled out of pressure, saw open field in front of him while still looking to throw, and laced it on the run in an absolutely perfect spot. A player in Thornton’s position needs to make those grabs, full stop.
- I almost counted myself among those who decided they had better things to do with their Sunday when Brissett came in. But I’ve already established that I’m not mentally well, so I stayed around and watched the whole thing. And I feel like yesterday was Brisett’s best game as a Patriot. His numbers were completely pedestrian, but he did what he needed to do in order to keep what little momentum the Patriots had via their defense (more on that in a minute). And a fourth-quarter comeback is a fourth-quarter comeback no matter how you slice it. The throw to Boutte on 3rd and 10 to set up the go-ahead score was against Quarters Coverage with a completely unblocked delayed safety blitz. Brissett made a Brady-esque small step in the pocket and hit Boutte perfectly on the post.
- While we’re giving Boutte some love (that I haven’t made more of the obvious jokes this season shows just how much I’ve grown. Good for me), the reason the Patriots found themselves up three with 22 seconds left to play instead of only up one is because Boutte executed a perfect pick to leave Mondre wide open in the flat. I’d love to see the Patriots do more Boutte picking in the coming weeks.
- Dammit, I was doing so well. Time to reset the “We Have Gone ___ Days Without An Incident” Sign back to 0.
- But as I said earlier, tough to really put too much weight into what we saw offensively. It was great to see, but everything post-Drake Maye was more or less enjoyable wheel-spinning. On the defensive side of the ball, though, this was a great bounceback game for Christian Gonzalez. Devante Adams, Aaron Rodgers’s binky and Jets offensive savior, hauled in all of one catch for 16 yards with Gonzo in coverage. He’s having a Pro Bowl season and nobody knows it because nobody in their right mind who isn’t a Patriots fan is watching these games.
- It’s hard to get on Marcus Jones too hard as him vs. Garrett Wilson is just a mismatch. Wilson has four inches on Jones and a larger wingspan. There were a few plays where Wilson just reached up and caught the ball over Jones’s head.
- I don’t think I saw Jahlani Tavai in open coverage all game. That makes me happy.
- But you know what would make me even happier? Seeing even more political ads during the commercials. Right now there are only about two or three per break, and that’s not nearly enough. I need to be reminded on a much more frequent basis how awful that candidate is and how great this candidate is. Maybe I can talk to someone about keeping political ads going all season long instead of drying up in a few weeks.
- I’m sure they’re out there…but I can’t imagine the number of folks who can honestly give “I saw an ad for this candidate on the way back from the can during a football game” as the reason they voted justifies the cost of the commercials themselves.
- And to that point – if I had to pick a Grand Poobah of the commercial world, it would have to be beer commercials. Whether you drink beer or not, it’s easy to make a case that beer ads as a whole have been the funniest and most creative over the years. But I can also honestly say I have never once purchased a beer because I saw an advertisement for it. Every beer I’ve ever discovered has either been on tap at a new restaurant or at a friend’s house. Once in a while I’ll try an IPA that has a funky can when I’m at a liquor store. But I’ve never seen a beer commercial and bought that beer because of it. So there’s obviously a ton more to ad targeting than I know about.
- In case anyone is looking for a decent beer recommendation, you can’t go wrong with Whalers Rise APA.
- Given the way the rest of the league shook out yesterday, this win didn’t really do all that much to hurt New England’s 2025 Draft positioning. And I’d personally rather pick 3rd or 4th overall and avoid being the first team to ever go 1-16 while simultaneously ending any hopes the Jets had for a playoff berth. So rock on.
The real question for this week is whether Drake Maye will be ready to go on Sunday against Tennessee, another game that could have big draft implications. Personally, I’m looking forward to talking about that instead of all the other nonsense we’ve been dealing with as of late.