When It Rains It Pours: Final Thoughts from New England Patriots' Week Two

These are the days when it's best to just turn off the radio.

When you write about a team that is followed by a fanbase as passionate as the New England Patriots', you have to expect a little bit of an overreaction after a performance that can, at best, be described as disappointing.

With two large sports talk stations to listen to now in New England, you're going to hear a lot of people voicing their dissatisfaction after watching their supposedly Super-Bowl-bound club get outplayed for two straight weeks.

There were two teams on the field Sunday. One looks ready to take the league by storm with a smart, efficient quarterback and a defense led by a coordinating prodigy not afraid to let his defenders loose.

The other is a struggling offense that seems unsure of itself, lacks a clear plan B for losing key players on offense and defense, and has been unable to assert itself or take advantage of the opportunities afforded to it.

Before this season began, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was far more likely that the Patriots would be the former and the Jets the latter.

But on Sunday, it was clear that, as things currently stand, the Patriots are not ready to contend for anything this winter.

(Fortunately, neither are any of the other supposed juggernauts this year, but we'll get to that in a bit.)

The Jets seemed to obliterate the Patriot offensive line, rushing Brady so often that he was guilty of the sort of pressure-induced ticks and hesitations that you'd expect to see from his freshman opponent, not the man himself.

After the game (as was cleverly pointed out by Deadspin's Tommy Craggs), the word on Sanchez was "poise."

While the cliché parade was humorous, it was telling because while Sanchez played well, his composure was really drawn into its sharpest detail when compared to the skittering, arrhythmic performance of Brady.

Overall though, I don't think Week Two was an indictment on the Patriots so much as it should be a celebration of these reborn New York Jets.

Beating the perennial 8-8 Texans wasn't the sexiest victory in the world for the Jets last week, until you see that those same Texan offense absolutely walked all over a Titans defense that shut down the Steelers to open the season.

That is a pretty talented Titans defense, even without Albert Haynesworth, and they didn't do anything to slow down the Texans—at least not compared to what New York did.

A large part of that, to these eyes, is Darrelle Revis. I said it before Week One, but get to know the name.

He has the hardest slate of receivers to cover in football and so far he's got an A+, going man-on-man against Randy Moss and Andre Johnson in consecutive weeks.

The final score for those guys? Eight catches, 59 yards.

Combined.

I'll allow Moss' claim that Revis had considerable help from his mates in the secondary, (and certainly from the front seven putting pressure on Brady and Matt Schaub), but the Jets blitzed continuously throughout the game.

As I wrote before the game, blitzing leaves your secondary on an island, as they now have to do more with less.

Revis wasn't perfect—Moss should've caught the ball that Revis intercepted but didn't get enough elevation—but he was pretty damn close. You can't fault the help, as Moss said, but you can't argue with the results, either.

I think what was most telling about the Patriots' passing game, besides the fact that Moss had so few yards and catches, was that Julian Edelman, deputizing for the inactive Wes Welker, had so many.

Many teams facing a heavy blitz use their slot receiver as the "hot read" to hit quickly if the offensive line won't be able to contain the pressure.

But as good as Edelman will be in the NFL if given the opportunity, if he's being targeted 16 times to Moss' eight, something's wrong.

The rookie pulled in half those targets for nearly 100 yards, so he certainly deserves some credit, but the fact he was so frequently looked at, usually while Brady was under intense pressure, indicate that New England wasn't able to do what it wanted to do passing the football.

That may seem like a no-brainer given the result, but there's a big difference between attempting to pass the ball and failing in the execution and being harried to the point that you can't even attempt the majority of what's in your playbook.

The Patriots' problems in Week One versus the Bills stemmed somewhat from the constant pressure, but their major struggles, especially in the first half, were down to timing between Brady and his receivers.

Against the Jets, he simply got pressured. While he didn't get sacked—a testament to his ability to get rid of the ball quickly—he did get hit seven times and had six passes defensed.

Tom Jackson of ESPN pointed out, quite correctly, in his analysis today that the Patriots won't have to deal with teams that blitz as effectively as the Jets all season long and, as they showed against the Bills, they can eviscerate lesser defenses if given the slightest opportunity.

I agree, and I think the Patriots will win quite a few games this year because, quite simply, most defenses in the league aren't nearly to the calibre of this New York team.

But the problem is that most of the teams they will face if they want more out of this season than an early playoff exit can bring that sort of pressure.

Namely, New York, Baltimore, San Diego, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh all have exceptional pass rushers on their roster who, if healthy should they face New England in the playoffs, will be attempting to repeat what the Jets did this past Sunday.

The question now is really, can the Patriots begin to cope with this pressure in the future? They possess a relatively talented offensive line, but they haven't really been an elite pass-blocking unit since the 2007 playoffs.

The addition of RB Fred Taylor and TE Chris Baker helps that cause, but it has to start with the elite "talent" players on that line who need to contain pressure better to give Brady time to ease back into game.

What was overshadowed, in my mind, was a pretty solid performance by the Patriot defense against the Jets.

Gary Guyton was solid with a week to prepare for extended playing time, Vince Wilfork looked like a man on a mission, and Jarvis Green and Ty Warren were able to contain the New York rushing attack at the line of scrimmage.

Great rushing attacks like New York's excel at getting their guys to the second level. The Patriots managed to keep New York's running backs from getting to their linebackers too often—the Jets ran for 117 yards but only at a 3.8 clip and with only two rushes over 10 yards—limiting the big plays and getting five tackles behind the line.

Still, the Patriots have a lot of hatches to batten down this week. They were barely able to make a dent on the Jets' pass blocking, finishing with just two QB hits (both sacks) and their special teams coverage was appalling.

Luckily, the Patriots are in solid company when it comes to other AFC teams who are failing to live up to expectations thus far.

Namely, Pittsburgh (1-1, won in OT), Indianapolis (2-0, won barely over Miami and only had the ball for 14:53), and San Diego (1-1, barely beat the Raiders).

The Patriots can count themselves lucky to be 1-1, as well, after two pretty poor games, but it'll take a lot more than luck if they don't plug the holes quickly with a talented Atlanta team next on the docket.