Troy Brown Interview: Patriots Game 'More Detrimental To the New York Jets'

Troy Brown made his living catching passes from Tom Brady, but the New England Patriots receiver could easily make a second career as a prophet.

The New England Patriots have been accused of running up the score in the past, but Monday night's game against the New York Jets was a completely different story.

This wasn't scoring for the sake of setting records, as those detractors suggested in 2007. This was scoring to prove a point. This was to kill the talk and the swagger from a team that's built on both.

I had the opportunity to interview Patriots legend Troy Brown on Monday, who was at the Patriots game last night raising money for Boston charities with Captain Morgan (click the link to learn how you can help).

His prediction for the game surprised me: "I already picked the Patriots to win this thing, and I picked them to win it by a couple of scores, too. I think the score's going to be 28-14."

It seems now that not only was he giving the Jets too much credit, but he wasn't giving his old team enough. Of course, most people predicted a much closer game than we were treated to, but the gist was the same: an impressive, convincing victory for the boys in the navy blue with silver trim.

Brown was also quick to point out that the Jets are built on their talk, saying, "The way the Jets have gone about it and a lot of the talking that they've been doing and their thing, I think when you have a letdown like that after so much hype and after so much talking...it's hard to bounce back from it in a week."

We'll have to see how the Jets rebound from the 45-3 drubbing they suffered at Gillette Stadium on Monday night. The Jets did their fair share of talking before the game, saying they wanted to kick New England's butts.

The Jets earned their 9-2 record with close wins over teams they probably should have beaten by a couple of scores. But many had this team pegged as a gritty, gutsy, come-from-behind team that was built to win playoff games.

After the beatdown, it all comes into question.

They were at a loss for words after the game. I guess the scoreboard did enough talking for Rex Ryan for once.

Even after a loss that bad, though, you could hear Ryan trying to bring confidence back to his team, saying, "I can promise you one thing. I’ll be ready to play ‘em. I’ll play them right now if they’ll go out and do it again. You know, so that’s the only way I know how to respond. I’ll sit back out there and stick my chin out again."

Should we admire or admonish such a statement? There's a fine line between confident and foolish, and Ryan teetered on that line with his statements after the game.

He knows that Troy Brown is right. For a team that builds itself on all the talk before the game to go out there and get embarrassed on national television, this could be a tough one to recover from.

There's not a whole lot to say after a loss like that, so it may help the Jets to take a lesson from Tom Brady, who said, "When you win, say little. When you lose, say less."