Image courtesy of AP Photo/Charles Krupa
FOXBOROUGH – When determining playoff seeding in January, the NFL won’t ask how the Patriots won their games, just how many.
On Sunday at home, the Patriots earned a 26-19 win to get to 4-2, but as he was following the victory over Las Vegas, Mike Vrabel wasn’t thrilled with the overall performance.
“We’re lucky to win, is probably where I’d start, but we’re happy that we won,” said Vrabel. “We’ll enjoy it for about an hour, and then we’re going to focus on the next task…Fortunate, whatever. We just didn’t play very well. We tried to beat ourselves, but we made enough plays in critical situations to help us get through here today.”
New England built a 17-3 halftime lead and appeared to be in complete control, but these are no longer your classic pushover Jets. Geno Smith kept his team in it until the final few minutes before the Pats ultimately closed things out.
After executing a perfect two-minute drive to end the half with a 9-yard touchdown catch for Pop Douglas to push the Pats’ lead to 14, New England had a chance coming out of halftime for the old school double score.
Instead, an A.J. Brown on fourth down – he struggled in his first game back, catching three balls for 27 yards on 10 targets – resulted in a turnover on downs. Three plays later, the Jets were right back in it when Smith hit Omar Cooper Jr. for a 48-yard TD.
Things continued unraveling three snaps later when TreVeyon Henderson was stripped with New York recovering at the New England 36. Thanks to an Elijah Ponder sack on third down, the Jets settled for a 36-yard field goal to cut it to 17-13 late in the third.
Just 50 seconds into the fourth quarter, Drake Maye (18-32, 235 yards, 3 TDs) hit Hunter Henry for a 7-yard touchdown, capping off a 13-play drive. Andy Borregales missed the PAT, keeping it a 10-point game at 23-13.
Moments later, Charles Woods came up with Smith’s first interception thrown of the year, but disaster struck soon after as Douglas hauled in a 40-yard bomb, but was stripped from behind. The Jets once again had to settle for a field goal on the drive, cutting it to 23-16 with 7:20 to go.
In impressive fashion, Corey Kiner then took over, pounding the rock for the majority of a 13-play drive that lasted just over six minutes and ended with a 27-yard field goal for Borregales.
The Jets did add one more field goal of their own with 1:12 left, but New England grabbed the ensuing onside kick to ice the game.
“I think Coach has a great perspective on how we feel like we’ve attacked the week and put the results into the game. I feel like we weren’t… It was sloppy, it wasn’t clean,” said Maye. “It wasn’t football that we felt like we weren’t complimentary. We weren’t protecting the football on offense. It took us a while to get into a rhythm. We had the first drive that we didn’t get anything going. Then we had a one-play touchdown, which was kind of weird, so we weren’t out there very long. Then we just kept on doing ourselves again, hurting ourselves. From there, I think it’s hard.
“Coach always says you’ve got to take wins in this league and enjoy them, and at the same time realize we won, but it wasn’t how we want to accomplish. Let me find out what I’m trying to say. You guys understand what I’m saying, so got it.”
New York opened the game with an impressive 13-play drive that chewed up about seven minutes and ended in a 42-yard field goal after Kevin Byard made a big PBU in the end zone. Both teams traded punts – with Milton Williams and Christian Barmore getting back-to-back sacks on the Jets drive to force it – but the Pats grabbed their first lead two plays after getting the ball back as Maye hit Romeo Doubs for a 42-yard touchdown. Doubs ended up leaving the game with a shoulder injury after.
The score stayed 7-3 until New England forced the first of back-to-back turnovers on downs. A 32-yard field goal from Borregales made it 10-3 with 1:46 left in the half. That drive included Brown’s first catch as a Patriot for nine yards. It also included a little razzle dazzle as Rhamondre Stevenson threw a ball back to Maye, who threw it to Douglas for a first down moments prior.
The Jets had an immediate three-and-out, setting up the two-minute work for New England before the half.
Along with Doubs, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Morgan Moses and Ben Brown all had to leave the game. Dre’Mont Jones was also banged up, but was able to finish the game.
Chicago looms on Thursday, but Vrabel knows no one will feel sorry for the reigning AFC champs.
“I mean, again, listen, we are all smart people here, some smarter than others. But it’s a short week. So whether they can make it back or not, I don’t know,” Vrabel said when asked about some of the guys that left possibly being available for prime time on Thursday. “They don’t finish the game. We’ll have to see. But I don’t know any other thing other than that. And we’ll just have to figure out who we have available and find 48 to put out there.
“So it’s just hard to say, but it’s a short week. And if you don’t finish the game, that’s a quick turnaround.”