Very interesting piece-I think the last line sums up an important point--the Jets could have made this a statement game but because of poor playcalling at critical times, no definitive statement was made. http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?&articleid=1132338&format=&page=1&listingType=pats#articleFull FOXBORO - Woody Johnson left early. Some guys never learn. The cocksure owner of the Jets, who made his money by being born into it, broke into wild cheers when his team took a 31-24 lead with three minutes, 10 seconds to go. Then he left the visiting owner?s box, strode through the pressbox like his team already had accomplished something and headed downstairs to party with his players. Not long after he got there, Matt Cassel threw a laser to Randy Moss, who was perfectly covered in the end zone by the one Jet who knew such things were possible, Ty Law. Moss dove and caught the ball anyway, dragging his feet inbounds with Law sprawled all over him. Somewhere Woody Johnson was stomping his feet, which is what you do when you come up the way he did. In a sense though, he was a good reflection of his players because they, like he, thought they killed the king without taking his pulse. The Patriots [team stats] are many things, now including beatable because they are old in too many places and wracked by injuries. But if you?re going to beat them, you better bring a lunch pail and your overalls because it?s going to take awhile. Last night it took overtime and a 34-yard field goal for the Jets to hold off the Patriots, 34-31, having blown an 18-point lead in the process. This was a heavyweight slugfest from back in the day. The Jets, young and cocky, came to Gillette Stadium intent on knocking out the king, the New England Patriots [team stats]. They succeeded, but it wasn?t fun. It was a fistfight that lasted nearly until midnight. They wobbled the defending AFC champions early, scoring the first four times they had the ball to take a resounding 24-6 lead. The Patriots? chests were heaving and their noses bloodied, but the young Jets didn?t understand that none of that mattered. They were ahead, but the king was not dead. The Jets had a chance to take care of that when they got the ball back with 2:33 in the first half. But they?d spent too much time patting each other on the back after sacking Matt Cassel on fourth down at the Jets 23. So they did nothing and had to punt. Lo and behold, the old champions came back and scored just before the half to make it 24-13. And then they came out in the second half and destroyed the young challengers, running up 178 yards to New York?s 20 in the third quarter, scoring again and converting a two-point conversion to make it 24-21 with 15 minutes to go Now it was the kind of fight the Jets should have expected even when everything was going so well for them. But they didn?t and turned the ball over, which the Pats turned into a 47-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal. With 10:16 to go the game was all even, but it appeared the fight was not. Now it was the old champions who held the advantage, except for one thing. They are older now and weakened by injury and it showed. The Jets got the ball back and held it for 7:06, marching 67 yards in 14 plays to take the lead once again on a 1-yard Thomas Jones TD run with 3:10 to play. They had pressed and pushed the old champions, and for the first time in a long time the Pats cracked. Twice late the Patriots [team stats] did what so many of their opponents had done in the past when under pressure. They blinked. Mike Vrabel was called for defensive holding on a third-and-6 at the 7 that gave the Jets a first-and-goal at the 4. Two plays later it was James Sanders [stats] who was called for defensive holding when he grabbed Jones because he knew he was beaten for a touchdown if he didn?t. That put the ball on the 1. Soon Jones was in the end zone and Johnson was striding to the elevator like there was a new sheriff in town. Not so fast Mr. Band-Aids. In the end the Jets did win. But it wasn?t what they thought it was going to be. It was a win that put them a game up in the AFC East, but it was far from a coronation. It was a victory that said one thing clearly - Woody Johnson best hope there?s not a rubber match.
I have to agree with the article's basic premise. If the Jets had scored on the last possession of the 2nd quarter we could have broken their backs. Instead of going into the locker room at half leading 31-6 we let NE back into the ballgame. Great clubs have the killer instinct and put out opponents with the knockout punch. The Jets have to learn how to do that. And I think that's mostly a function of the coaching staff (scared play calling) rather than the players.
BRING IT. Hopefully it is at our house in the playoffs. And we get that much needed home win vs. New England.
Does it really matter if the jets didnt whip them? They went in there and won in OT. I'll take it. The win is worth just a much as a 24-0 win.
I was sick to my stomach wathcing the defense on the Pats last drive when they scored the tying touchdown. Why on earth would you give Randy Moss that much cushion and (If I am not mistaken) why in the hell was Ty Law on him. That three down lineman stuff has got to stop. If I am going to get beat its goin to be with my best, CBs on their best WRs and trying to bring some heat if necessary. That bend but don't break defense broke last night....
Right! What were they supposed to say after coming back and forcing OT? And I agree with the over arching theme. We are up a game but this is by no means shows that we are the top dogs in the east.
Cassel wound up having a lot of time to throw the ball because Welker had to be smothered. He was starting to kill us again like he did in Week Two. So Cassel had more time and even open space to run it himself. Randy Moss did not have "that much cushion." Law was on him but Randy Moss made a diving catch on the sidelines with a PERFECTLY thrown pass that most QBs cannot make with that degree of accuracy. Moss' footwork was extremely quetionable as well, IMO. He had his left foot planted at the time of the catch but not his right, and he never put the right down until after he went out of bounds and had his right foot touch down out of bounds. The pass was out of bounds, IMO.
I hear you 227, but let's agree to disagree on the cushion point. With respect to the catch, I thought he was out also, but there was one replay angle where it looked like he was in, but it should not have come down to that. That last defensive series was horrible.
New Englanders are a bunch of bitches. Trust me, I've been living up here for 6 years and nothing stands out more than the fact that they are the very worst of winners and losers. I love how the article portrays a spoiled little brat, but the whole article is written in brat fashion. For all you guys complaining about the win, I think you can order Xanex over the internet these days. Really, it's disgusting how you guys take what was a hard fought game, and turn it into some sort of moral loss. Is there any shame? They had to back off on pressuring Cassel because you have Randy F'ing Moss and Wes Welker out there waiting for 3" of space to catch a ball and burn you. Add to the fact that you have Cassel playing some pretty decent football, and who can clearly run, and you have a defensive nightmare. Trust me folks, Cassel has been burning teams for weeks now. Those throws he made were perfection. The catch Moss made could not have been covered better. Wes Welker is always tearing people up. Randy is Randy. They Jets went into Gillette, beat a team that had the same damn record, that has traditionally dominated us in any venue, in shit weather, with a HOF coach that knows more about our coach than our coach knows about himself, and came away with a win after 2 clutch drives by the O. You can't bitch about that. I'm sorry, you just can't, and if you do, it's just impossible to make you happy. It wasn't a perfect performance, but you find me a team that has a perfect performance against the Pats and I'll call them the Giants.
I don't think his right foot was in either. That's a turf field and you never see the black rubber fly up which you usually do when the foot is dragged. I didn't think there was any chance it was going to be overturned though.
Look, I agree that we should have kept pushing after building up that 18 point lead. Our O-line seemed to relax a bit late in the 2nd and into the 3rd quarter. The biggest problem we had was, as always, with our coverage. This is a secondary that has been improving steadily all season and had a setback last night. Part of that, however, I attribute to a lack of knowledge as to what we wanted to do. Once the Jets built a lead, they seemed to start playing around with different defensive gameplans to see best how to fit Ty Law in. While I think it will pay dividends later, it was risky to pick up Ty and make him such a huge part of the defense on one day of practice. That's why I'm ecstatic that we came out of there with the win. If we can get back to that improving secondary with our new piece in place, we'll become the force that the Globe says we're not.
I couldn't agree more. In fact, I was shocked to see Law covering Moss in the open. I'm sure part of it was like, "Now, Ty, I know you like to jump routes, but you can't do that tonight. Just covering his ass and taking him out of the game is all we want you to do."
