The New England Patriots hung on against the New York Jets in Foxboro on Sunday. It was a divisional game, so a win is a win, but you would have liked to have seen them play better throughout the contest on both sides of the ball. Still, they are now 4-2 and very much in striking distance in the AFC East.
Let’s get into what we lessons learned from the 26-19 game on Sunday.
A.J. Brown hast to knock off the rust
The Patriots finally got A.J. Brown back from his four-week stint on injured reserve, and he was not good. Despite being targeted
10 times, he only came down with three catches for 27 yards. It was his drops that were really concerning.
There was the deep ball where he pulled his arms in too soon; there was the slant that hit him right in the arms that he dropped; there was the touchdown that Drake Maye placed perfectly on his back shoulder but still went through his hands. To cap things off, he also dropped the onside kick attempt at the end of the game, but luckily Eli Raridon jumped on the ball.
Yes, it was his first game back and first game in front of the Patriots home crowd, and he probably was excited to be out there and still has to build a rapport with Maye, but his performance on Sunday was unacceptable. Hopefully, he just has to knock the rust off and will be fine moving forward. The team thinks so, at least.
Everyone is hurt
The Patriots lost Romeo Doubs, Morgan Moses, Alijah Vera-Tucker and Ben Brown for the game. They also saw Dre’Mont Jones go down for a bit, even though he did come back onto the field shortly after.
New England had a lot of injury luck last year, which allowed them to make a deep playoff run because their depth wasn’t seriously challenged. However, it’s the complete opposite this year.
The fact that New England was able to still move the ball was pretty impressive, but there are still major questions coming out of the game. We will see how much time the injured guys miss, but it’s hard to imagine that all five of them will be ready for Thursday night with such a quick turnaround.
The offensive line impresses
Given all the injuries along the offensive line, and the talent on the other side, Drake Maye getting sacked all day was pretty impressive.
And not just that: at the end of the game, with the Patriots up seven points, they were able to run the ball down the Jets’ throats to kill the majority of the clock. I don’t know how long they can keep this up, but the fact that they were able to do it at all speaks for itself.
Caleb Lomu played fantastic
I already mentioned the offensive line, but I needed to shine the spotlight on the Patriots’ first-round draft pick. Caleb Lomu played extremely well when he went in to replace the injured Morgan Moses at right tackle, and handled NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate David Bailey.
The plan all along was to have him take over at right tackle at some point, and it looks like he could do just that sooner rather than later. Of course, going into this week, we thought we would see him at left tackle with Will Campbell leaving with an injury last week, but Campbell played, and it’s a good thing he did because the Patriots literally ran out of offensive linemen (no seriously, they did: all eight on the game day roster saw extended action).
For Lomu this is the second week in a row that he has come on in relief duty for an injured tackle, and he’s looked good in both games. He’s going to have some growing pains at some point — every rookie does — but if the Patriots hit on him, that would be a big boost for their offensive line not only this season, but also into the future.
Drake Maye wasn’t perfect, but solid
Drake Maye had a few bad throws, but his decision-making continued to be good, and he was patient with the football on Sunday. He did spend a little too much time staring at A.J. Brown for my liking, but overall played a solid game.
He now has 13 touchdowns and only one interception in the last three games, and he’s back to his MVP form from last year. If he keeps playing like this, the Patriots are going to be in very good shape going forward. Of course, he and fellow 2024 first-round draft pick Caleb Williams are going to be duking it out on Thursday night, which should be a fun head-to-head.
Robert Spillane is critically underrated
The Patriots have a lot of great players who are getting attention on the defense, including Christian Gonzalez (effectively erasing Garrett Wilson), Milton Williams (first sack of the season) and Elijah Ponder (now up to 5.5 sacks in six games). They deserve the recognition they are getting, but so does one guy who isn’t regularly mentioned among the star players on this side of the ball: Robert Spillane.
The counting stats might not be there for him — he had five tackles and a quarterback hit on Sunday — but he consistently has everyone in the right spot, and is almost never out of position himself. He did get caught mugged-up a few times that ended in pretty big runs for the Jets, but he was very solid all game and goes almost completely unheralded. He was the one who picked the left tackle that got Ponder his sack on Sunday, and he had a massive stop on fourth down when he squared Braelon Allen up in the hole.
The Patriots are lucky to have a guy that can do as much as Spillane does, and his presence in the clubhouse is a huge benefit as well.
Corey Kiner gives the Patriots some very good production
With TreVeyon Henderson struggling, and with the Patriots wanting to give Rhamondre Stevenson a bit of a rest, they turned to Corey Kiner late in the game. The August trade acquisition responded with eight straight carries for 42 yards on what was effectively the game-sealing drive for New England.
It was an impressive series, especially considering that the team was down three starting offensive linemen, and when you factor in that the Jets knew they were going to try to run the ball. If the Patriots can get solid play from Kiner, it will give them another back to eat some carries, and one who has some juice as well.
Kyle Williams should get more opportunities
Kyle Williams only finished the game with one catch for 12 yards, but he was open a few other times where he didn’t get targeted. I think that the Patriots need to give him some more opportunities, especially on some deep routes.
If they continue to target him down the field, it could open up the rest of the field for other players, and they could also hit some of those shots as well. That is especially true if Romeo Doubs is going to be out this week, which seems very possible. The Patriots could get a big boost on a short week from Williams on a few big plays.
Special teamers are contributing
Often overlooked, the Patriots are getting really good contributions from the kicking game, and it’s been firing up the whole team: Cameron Latu, Erick Hunter, and Brenden Schooler all had solid plays that got the sideline going.
They have to feel good about the contributions they are getting out of them and others in the game’s third phase, with Hunter playing gunner on the punt team across from Schooler, and Latu consistently around the football on the kickoff team. The best signs of a good football team is how it plays on special teams, and right now the Patriots are playing very well.
Short week in Chicago next week
The Patriots have a short week this week, and play in Chicago on Thursday night.
It’s going to be the second matchup, both in Chicago, between Drake Maye and Caleb Williams in their young careers. You’d have to imagine that Williams will be significantly better in this one than he was in the last one in 2024, though, but I suppose that remains to be seen.
The Bears offense has been great with him at the helm, and he came back from injury this week to lead them to 31-23 win in Atlanta. On the plus side, their defense is not good at all, and the Patriots should be able to score, even with a bunch of players injured. It should be an interesting matchup on the whole, and I am hoping that we finally get a good Thursday night game (at the very least, it can’t be worse than this past Thursday, which featured another member of the 2024 draft class, Bo Nix).
