Same Ol' Jets Return in Loss to NE 22-17

[MBGreen]

Now that the spirits have calmed a bit, I'll share my perspective. I commented the game, which was freaking hell but helps you see things with a little bit more of perspective because forcefully, you don't get that involved. I'm not as down as some are here, and let me explain why.

- Our defense is legit. The Pats started most of their series around midfield and scored only one TD. Mac Jones converted 4 3rd downs in the first two series and only one since. He was sacked six times. Granted, their receivers are not good but we limited them and they started rushing on us only when the defense was gashed near the end. We are GOOD on that side of the ball.

- About the offense, losing Hall was a blow. You could see the difference with Carter in those outside runs where he was simple not fast enough. I think MLF could have schemed to give him the ball in space but the reality is that the Pats were selling to stop the run. They didn't do it as well as they would have liked it but to be honest we were mostly ineffective, despite the numbers being somewhat misleading.

Zach Wilson sucked because of his dumb plays, but he also threw some great passes, the thing is that the dumb plays completely overshadow anything good he can have done. There were some legitimately good passes to Wilson and Conklin and the one to Mims late in the fourth. But, of course, you can't win if you make these mistakes. I would like to see the All-22 to see if all the times Wilson was dancing behind the line of scrimmage were caused by the receivers having no separation or him just not seeing them. According to that I will know if the O-line sucked or Zach sucked even more.

Same with MLF. IMO he mostly called a good game but you can't win if you freak up when the game is on the line, the two pass calls in 2nd and 3rd and 2 are inexcusable. But he managed to scheme receivers open against a good defense.

And of course, special teams, and the JFM penalty. Just the usual sheer stupidity when we play the Pats. There's something psychological there, and I think it will keep on happening until we actually beat them.

All in all, it was more or less the game I expected. We just can't defeat our own demons, but this team is not bad and I think if we had lost against any other well coached team our view of matters would be different. IMO we have a good team, and in the NFL you win and lose games, the mistakes are not because of a lack of talent but because of mental hurdles, and I think that's easier to solve.

On to Buffalo and I don't think we'll lose as bad as some predict. Yeah, offensively it will be a challenge but our defense is good enough, especially against explosive plays, where they actually shine. I expect us to be competitive.

This is a great post....but I'm not backing down on MLF.

[delavan]

It’s amazing how we always and I mean always find a way to play stupid against the patriots. There’s some sort of aura/mystique/magic in the air that prevents us from being idiots against belicheck.

I continued to be shocked by the graphic they kept showing about “plays for negative yardage” I think at one point it was 18 to 1. At the same time it was 6 sacks to 1. And we weren’t even competing in the game at that point.

Pats got guys running wide open in space and we can’t get guys into any space whatsoever. That’s entirely on play design.

Oh and last complaint for now, we seemed to run effectively up the middle, so naturally let’s spend a bunch of time running outside where we can’t beat their speed, getting into third and long and going from there. Zach was bad, LaFleur was bad, the OL was bad.

 our ST with its worst overall performance this season today while the Pats ate us alive in field position.

You nailed it overall - your points in bold in particular.