Took a bit of a break from the internets after the loss yesterday. Not because I found it all that distressing, but because I knew the Chris Jones penalty would be argued and lamented non-stop. It happened. I’m not going to get into what was or wasn’t called or what the rule book did or didn’t say. We’ve had plenty of good calls and bad calls go our way over the years.
The Jets were the better team yesterday. Barely. So hats off to them, in my eyes they won the game by being better on both sides of the ball on third down and totally overmatching the Patriots offense for their first three possessions of the second half. That was frighteningly similar to the 2009 and 2010 losses.
Did the Pats find enough in the tank at the end to make it interesting? Sure. They always seem to, and even when they’re as shorthanded as we’ve ever seen them and not playing their best game in a hostile environment, it still took until overtime to put them away by a (controversial) field goal.
Let’s keep some perspective. The AFC is wide open this year. Look at all the devastating injuries around the league that happened yesterday. Reggie Wayne. Brian Cushing. Doug Martin. Every team is dealing with that and it’s going to level the playing field even more.
So the Pats aren’t going to waltz off with another division title by late October. Does anyone really think the Pats have been good enough that they should be 2-3 games up in the division? I don’t. And they’re still in pretty good position.
So what did we learn yesterday? Gronk is back, but isn’t an instant fix. The Pats need Amendola and Vereen back because they’re still struggling to find any consistency moving the ball.
But there were glimmers of hope yesterday, and let’s remember that’s a Jets defense that is playing very well right now. It’s not often you can point to one area to fix coming out of a loss, but third down is that one area as I see it.
The middle of the offensive line needs to be better. Brady can’t get too locked into Gronk. And the defense need to re-establish a new identity without Mayo and Wilfork. Getting Tommy Kelly back and adding Armond Armstead could be just the boost they need. Vellano and Smith have been better than I thought they might be.
Otherwise, it was a hard-fought game and I look forward to pouring back over it to see exactly what the Pats were doing on defense and just what went wrong on all the third downs.
The 2013 season very well could be a dogfight down to the end, and those can be enjoyable. This great “re-healthening” has begun. Let’s hold on for two more weeks, get to the bye and see where we’re at then.
