Pats- 14
Mark Sanchez and the Jets offense came alive in the second half today as the Jets defeated the Pats 28-14. Mark Sanchez and LT provided a huge spark in the second half as the Jets offense dominated the Patriots defense. The defense suffered a major injury (minor injury but major name) in the first half when Darrelle Revis came up lame on a touchdown pass to Randy Moss and had to leave the game with hamstring troubles. We will get more info on Revis in the coming days but my guess is that he will be held out of practice all week and will hopefully be able to start next week against Miami. However, even without Revis the Jets defense showed a lot of life in the second half. Cromartie took on Revis's role of covering Randy Moss and played a pretty good game. He collected his second interception and assisted in Pool's interception.
Thumbs Up:
- Mark Sanchez: Mark Sanchez played one of the best games of his career today in finishing 21/30 for 220 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brian Schottenheimer opened up the playbook today and seemed to do everything he was afraid to do last week. The Jets allowed Sanchez to throw in running situations and got Braylon Edwards heavily involved right from the start. Sanchez seemed committed to throwing the ball downfield and it was a great thing to see.
- LT: Tomlinson played a great game today and showed outstanding burst. Tomlinson runs hard on every play and is showing why he is considered one of the greatest running backs of all time. There are few times when he goes down at the first contact and showed great speed to get around the edge.
- Brian Schottenheimer: The three thumbs up are all going to offensive people partly because of how bad the Jets offense was last week and how much they improved. Schotty expanded the playbook today and didn't back away from giving Sanchez a chance to throw the ball down the field. I am extremely excited to see what he can come up with when the Jets best WR Santonio Holmes gets on the field.
Thumbs Down:
- Offensive line: I'm not sure who individually to put this on so I will just point out that the offensive line had a pretty horrible game in pass protection. Sanchez seemed to be moving around in the pocket a ton, especially in the first half. The pass protection needs to greatly improve or the Jets could be looking at an injury to Sanchez in the near future.
Game Overview:
Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the way that game turned out. The Patriots looked great last week against the Bengals (a pretty good team) and we managed to beat them by 14 points. The defense will not face many challenges greater than attempting to shut down that offense (especially without Revis) and responded by only giving up 14 points. The main concern for the last week, the offense, was a completely different animal from what we saw last week. Sanchez threw the ball great and Tomlinson looked like he did a few years ago showing some great burst and making people miss. Schotty opened up the playbook and called more plays where Sanchez looked downfield and also got back to throwing the slant routes that Sanchez is so good at. With the Dolphins game coming up next week this win was necessary and the Jets responded.
