Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets Take Off vs. New England Patriots

It started so well. It started like every Patriots fan in the world though it would.

New England dominated by forcing the Jets’ offense led by the inconsistent Mark Sanchez on a three and out and, on two consecutive drives, the Patriots executed nearly flawlessly (with the minor exception of Stephen Gostkowski’s missed field goal to start the game).

It was perfect.

But, alas, it wasn’t to be. By the end of the game, Sanchez was picking apart New England’s pass defense, LaDainian Tomlinson was looking like, well, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Tom Brady and the offense that looked so flawless for the first several series all of a sudden couldn’t move the ball and turned the ball over three times.

After Patriot Nation was riding high following the win over the Bengals and the Jets’ loss to the Ravens last weekend, it was a humbling experience. It all came crashing down.

To start, let’s look at the keys to the game, and what, at the end of the day, gave New York a 28-14 victory over our beloved Patriots.

Sanchez actually looked like a solid NFL quarterback and New England's young secondary played, well, young

Sanchez’s stat line for Week 1 against the Ravens: 10 for 21 passing for 74 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions and a QB rating of 56.4.

Sanchez’s stat line for Week 2 against the Patriots: 21 for 30 passing for 220 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a QB rating of 124.3.

That’s quite a difference.

The problem for New England had been that players like Dustin Keller and Braylon Edwards were running wide open all over the field. Cornerback Darius Butler was exposed, and our linebackers aren’t exactly coverage specialists. Sanchez capitalized on this, gashing New England’s defense while proving to the world that he’s not completely inept.

For a good portion of the game, New England’s pass rush actually appeared to be effective, as Sanchez was sacked three times (twice by defensive end Gerrard Warren and once by outside linebacker Tully Banta-Cain) and rushed countless other times as well. However, as the game progressed, this consistent rush became less tenacious, leading to Sanchez developing a rhythm and capitalizing on a young, inexperienced Patriots secondary.

New England turned the ball over—a lot

Three turnovers in the second half after not allowing one in the first three halves. That’s not a recipe for success.

Brady tossed two picks and then fumbled once (although the blame for that fumble totally rests on the shoulders of left tackle Matt Light who let linebacker Jason Taylor cruise into the backfield untouched for a free shot on Brady), effectively killing any hope the New England offense had of keeping up with the suddenly high-flying Jets offense. The fumble was particularly damaging, as it came when the Pats were knocking on the door with one final chance to stay in the game.

Simply put, you cannot turn the ball over three times and expect to win. Even though the first of Brady’s two interceptions essentially ended up being just as good as a punt (which they would have had to take anyway), it’s still a boost for the opposing defense to pick off one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

The Jets corners (besides Revis) looked good—with some help from the pass rush

Thinking about it, really the only New York cornerback who had a bad day was Darrell Revis, who got burned by Randy Moss for New England’s second touchdown and then re-injured his hamstring. Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson both looked solid and they played well enough to totally disrupt the passing attack after the Patriots’ first couple drives.

It certainly helped that Wes Welker wasn’t the same following a blow to the head by Jets safety Eric Smith, but at the same time, Cromartie, Wilson, and the rest of that New York secondary picked up the slack for the injured Revis and reigned in the Patriots receivers.

This was due in part to an improved pass rush on Brady as the game wore on. Brady, who had ample time to relax and pick apart the Jets defense early on, couldn’t stand back and examine the field late in the game. Taylor’s sack of Brady that forced the fumble epitomized the deteriorating New England pass protection throughout the game.

The increased pass rush from the Jets can be explained with a couple different reasons. For one, as the momentum slowly shifted throughout the course of the game, New York’s defense picked up steam and pinned back their ears. They could smell blood in the water and they went after it. Secondly, and probably most importantly, after New England scored its second touchdown, the Jets changed their defensive philosophy. Which leads me to…

Rex Ryan and his staff changed defensive philosophies after the first few drives

When New England was essentially marching the ball up and down the field with ease, part of the reason Brady received such ample time to throw was because Jets head coach Rex Ryan and his staff tried a defensive philosophy that saw most of his guys sit back and try to clog the passing lanes.

Bluntly stated, the strategy failed.

Brady shredded New York’s defense by finding Welker and tight end Aaron Hernandez repeatedly. Ryan was trying to make his defense do something it wasn’t used to doing. The beauty of New York’s defense is that they know how to get after the quarterback. It’s a blitzing team. Ryan’s guys love to blitz, and their good at it to boot. New York was trying to take an aggressive, pin the ears back style defense and turn it in to a conservative clog the passing lanes style defense.

Once Ryan figured out that was not the way to beat New England, the wheels started to come off. The Jets pinned their ears back, got after it, pressured Brady, and, all of a sudden, he didn’t have time to throw and the same secondary he had been systematically picking apart looked like an all-world crew.

It stalled the New England offense, because, from the start, it had been nearly one-dimensional. Which leads me to…

New England couldn't run the ball effectively

For the game, New England amassed a whopping 52 rushing yards on 20 attempts, a 2.6 yards per carry average.

Not gonna cut it.

Once things started to go downhill for the passing game, the Patriots had nothing to fall back on. Many Patriots faithful were hoping that, since star nose tackle Kris Jenkins tore his ACL against the Ravens last weekend that there would be some open running lanes. However, with the exception with one thundering Fred Taylor run that was called back because wideout Brandon Tate was lined up illegally, the rushing attack was stymied.

While New England is clearly and undoubtedly a pass-first team (as it should be with the repertoire of receiving options it has), there needs to be some semblance of balance for this team to succeed in the long run, and that was not present on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Jets racked up 136 yards on the ground between Tomlinson and Shonn Greene which kept New England’s defense on its toes. They didn’t know what was coming when. That’s what New England needed today, and they just didn’t get it.

While the game wasn't pretty, there were some bright spots:

For one, Hernandez is continuing to prove that he is the answer to New England’s tight end problems. The speedster was a handful for the Jets all day, catching six balls for 101 yards (a 16.8 yards per catch average). In short, he caught every ball thrown his way (Brady targeted him six times). This kid is the real deal, and he is a very nice third option behind Randy Moss and Welker out there on the field.

On the defensive side of the ball, rookie cornerback Devin McCourty, for the most part, played a solid game. He only recorded four tackles on the day, and he did get beat for one touchdown later on in the game, but for the most part, he held his own while covering Jerricho Cotchery for most of the game. Some of that had to do with the fact that Edwards was having a field day with Butler on the other side of the field and that Dustin Keller was burning any linebacker trying to cover him, but McCourty held his own, and it was nice to see.

Also on the defensive side of the ball, the pass rush looked solid, particularly early on. Sanchez was sacked three times (hit four times total), and he was rushed several other times as well. The pass rush seemingly evaporated towards the end of the game, but for three-fourths of the game, Warren, Banta-Cain and the rest of the crew were getting after Sanchez. If the defense can harness that for a full four quarters, the Patriots could start to make progress in negating some of the inexperience in its secondary.

In conclusion...

While there were some bright spots for the Patriots to look at on the flight back to Foxboro, on the whole, the 28-14 Jets win was a pretty accurate display of the two teams on hand in the Meadowlands on Sunday.

New England will improve, but for now it would be foolish to try to assert that this team is better than the Jets. The combination of inexperience and lack of true leadership on the defensive side of the ball really did New England in this week. There is a lot of talent out on the field, but it is raw and unrefined, and needs a lot of grooming before the Patriots can sport a truly intimidating defense.

Fortunately, New England’s next opponent is Buffalo who will hopefully provide a nice boost for the Patriots as they look to get back on track.