New England Patriots' High-Octane Offense Hits a Wall vs. New York Jets Defense

At half-time of Sundays game against the New York Jets, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots looked every bit like the high-octane offense that many thought they would be after an impressive showing against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1.

But the Jets defense dropped a bomb on the Patriots in the second half, and it was the Jets offense that dominated with its aerial strike.

Tom Brady made some uncharacteristic bad decisions, though, one of which throwing the ball right into the arms of Antonio Cromartie when he had Randy Moss completely covered, even beating him down the right sideline.

Add to that a slew of misfires toward open receivers, and we are reminded that Brady is human, and that six quarters of dominance in football don't mean anything without the last two.

The offense looked like the well-oiled machine that lit the record book on fire and wrote a brand new one in 2007, but they laid an egg in the second half due to excessive pressure from the Jets defense.

Pressure that finally reached the quarterback, ending the six-quarter streak of no sacks allowed by the Patriots offensive line as Jason Taylor reached Brady with a heavy hit that forced a fumble, recovered by the Jets.

To his credit, the second interception was a bobbled pass by Moss—although it was thrown a little behind him.

But what started off as a lights-out 13-for-20, two-touchdown performance in the first half, is immediately forgotten behind 7-of-16 and two interceptions to close out the game.

I'm not saying that Brady isn't worth every penny of the $72 million contract extension he signed a little over a week ago. It's not like the rush attack got anything going, either.

In fact, the Jets defense did a much better job of harassing Brady and forcing the quick decisions and off-balance throws in the second half.

And hey, now the token bad game for Brady is out of the way, and there are still 14 games left in the season.

In that respect, he probably couldn't have picked a better defense to have a bad game against. It's not as though he played this poorly against the St. Louis Rams (I'm looking at you, Jason Campbell).

But it serves as a reminder that he's human.

Aren't we all?