Inches from the Jets’ first season sweep of the New England Patriots since 2000, Rhamondre Stevenson scored a 1-yard game-winning TD with 25 seconds remaining as victory was snatched away from the Green & White, 25-22, in Foxborough, MA, on Sunday afternoon. Despite outgaining the Patriots, 336 to 247, the Jets dropped their fifth consecutive game and fell to 2-6. The Patriots snapped their six-game losing streak and are also 2-6 after eight games.
“We talk about being at our best when our best is required and that was not it,” interim HC Jeff Ulbrich said. “That’s on coaching, first of all, and then second, we’ve got to execute, and we did not execute in critical moments. We say that’s not who we are, but it’s who we are until we demonstrate otherwise.”
Backup QB Jacoby Brissett led the Pats to 10 points on their final two drives including a 12-play, 70-yard march that culminated on Stevenson’s fourth-down plunge. Brissett kept the drive alive with a 14-yard run on third down and then got the Pats inside the 10 on a 34-yard third-down strike to Kayshon Boutte.
“I’m still stuck on that play,” Gardner said. “That’s a play that can be made. That’s on me. I have to be better, especially when it comes to knowing our fire-zone coverages or something like that.
“I feel like we have to be better. We started off fast. Individually, something I wanted to make sure I was doing better was tackling. I had quite a few tackles [5]. I was just trying to bring the energy. I don’t know what happened in the second half. We have to be better. We’re definitely not playing up to the standard.”
Aaron Rodgers threw 2 TDs, Garrett Wilson had 113 yards receiving and DT Quinnen Williams racked up 1.5 sacks in defeat.
With the Jets trailing, 17-16, Rodgers and Wilson went down the visiting sideline for a critical 22-yard gain. Later, Rodgers went to Davante Adams for 16 yards to get the Jets to the NE 3-yard line. That set up rookie Braelon Allen’s rush TD, a bruising 2-yard run with 2:57 remaining. But the team’s eighth penalty – a delay of game infraction – on a 2-point conversion attempt pushed Rodgers back and his completion to Mike Williams fell well short of the end zone.
“We had a shift and a motion and by the time it came down to it, the defense they were playing wasn’t good for the play that was called,” Rodgers said. “I figured let’s just move it back to the 7, not that much of a difference. I liked the play that we called, but they brought zero pressure. I guessed wrong, they guessed right.”
With the game in their hands at 2:57 on the clock, the Jets defense wasn’t able to get a handle on Brissett.
The Jets had a disjointed start, burning three timeouts on offense in the first quarter and having problems with rookie QB Drake Maye’s scrambles. But after spotting New England a 7-0 lead, Rodgers answered with short scoring passes to TE Tyler Conklin and WR Xavier Gipson as the Jets took a 13-7 lead into the third quarter.
Trailing by 7-0, the Jets narrowed the gap on Rodgers’ 2-yard rope to TE Tyler Conklin who held on despite getting rocked in traffic. Rodgers kept his team’s first scoring drive alive with a pair of third-down pass interference penalties on the Patriots, getting 17 yards on a shot to Adams and then 13 yards on an end zone attempt to Breece Hall. Greg Zuerlein’s point after attempt went wide left and the deficit was 7-6 heading into the second stanza.
