Patriots Four Down Preview: New York Jets (2-7) at New England Patriots (8-2)

Posted By on November 13, 2025

Kickoff: The Patriots take on the rival New York Jets on Thursday Night Football at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots have won seven games in a row and are arguably the hottest team in the NFL.

After looking like they could possibly go winless, the Jets themselves come in on a winning streak, winners of two straight.

Here are four keys to the game for the Patriots.

1st Down: Stop Breece Hall: Hall is the focal point on defense this week. The Patriots need to control the line of scrimmage and keep him in check. The Jets could very well run him 30 times tonight. The Patriots will get a heavy dose of him. Stopping him and force the Jets to throw more is the plan on defense.

2nd Down: Don’t give up an opening score: Look, the Patriots are the much better team so even if they did give up a touchdown on the opening drive, it may not matter much. That being said, they need to get teams off the field on their opening possession before it becomes a problem. Tonight is a good night to do that.

3rd Down: Come out slinging: The Jets pass rush is not very good and Sauce Gardner was traded away. The Patriots need to get Drake Maye into a rhythm early so look for them to come out and throw the ball early and often. Jump on them early and make them play from behind.

4th Down: Play to the standard: The Patriots have established a standard that they want to play to and they just meet that standard tonight. Do not play down to this team. Sure, the Jets have two in a row and they are playing hard. They are still a bad football team and the Patriots should win tonight if they execute and take care of the ball.

Extra Points: New England leads the series 75-56-1 overall. The Patriots are 39-25-1 in regular season home games against the Jets, including 19-4 at Gillette Stadium. (Courtesy of patriots.com)

Final Drive: The Patriots should win tonight and run their win streak to eight in a row. Losing to this team would be unacceptable. Mike Vrabel, his staff and the players know that. I would expect a great effort tonight and two score win for the Patriots.