Patriots vs. Jets: 7 Things We Learned About New England in 37-16 Win

The New England Patriots and New York Jets came into Sunday Night Football on opposite ends of the spectrum, with the Jets riding a three-game winning streak and the Patriots losing two games in a row for only the third time since 2002.

They left the game also on opposite ends of the spectrum. Everything that once seemed so certain for the Jets was now left in question. Likewise, the Patriots answered a lot of questions and exorcised a lot of demons on Sunday night.

Here are just a few things we learned about the team in their big divisional win.

Brady Hasn't Completely Lost It

There was some inaccuracy for Tom Brady, as has been discussed already in New England. There is speculation that his elbow could be bothering him, which would make sense since it's widely accepted that the shoulder affects velocity while the elbow affects accuracy.

It was the fact that he was efficient despite that which made Sunday's performance memorable. He completed 66.7 percent of his passes for 329 yards and three touchdowns, and had a 118.4 passer rating against the Jets defense, by far the highest number they've given up thus far this season (by 17.6 points).

Ochocinco Can Still Make a Defense Pay

Yes, it was two receptions. Yes, the first one looked like Chad had no idea where he was on the field. Yes, both looked like they came against busted coverage.

But i was better than anything the Brady-Ochocinco duo has achieved this year. Ochocinco had a 12-yard catch for a first down, and followed that up with his longest reception of the season for 53 yards.

It wasn't the awakening of a sleeping giant which Albert Haynesworth alluded to, but it was certainly better than what we had seen from Ochocinco at all this season.

Andre Carter and the Pass Rush Can Get There

Note the headline of this slide. Andre Carter gets a majority of the credit here for his 4.5 sack game, which is also a team record. Beyond the sacks, he was in Sanchez's face nearly every time he dropped back to throw.

Mark Anderson also got there a few times, forcing Sanchez to move around and getting him out of the pocket at times.

The defense looked a lot more like what we had seen in the preseason, an attacking and even blitzing style of defense.

Patriots Hurry Up Offense Keeps Jets Defense on Its Heels

Brady and the Patriots ran the hurry-up offense more often than they have in recent weeks, and it worked out very well for them. The Jets couldn't match up with the Patriots offense, and the tempo was just too fast for them to get set.

That tempo allowed Brady to read the defense and find his best matchups. This included a few plays where the Jets defense simply couldn't get set, leaving a receiver wide open for an easy first down.

Patriots Defense Is Improving

They got gashed a bit in the running game, but the Patriots defense played much better against the pass than advertised. 

They gave up a bit up the middle but were able to get pressure (go figure) with Mark Anderson and Andre Carter doing a majority of the solid work in that area. They held Mark Sanchez to 20-for-39, 206 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions on the day.

The Patriots knew that giving up yards in the running game was favorable to letting Sanchez have his way with them, and the game plan magnified that. Despite rushing for over 100 yards against the Patriots—becoming the first team to do so this season—the Jets were unable to keep a rhythm going, and that was largely due to a lack of execution by Sanchez and sound coverage by the Patriots on defense.

Despite Being Short Manned

Jeff Tarpinian. James Ihedigbo. Sterling Moore. These are just a few of the unknown names that were asked to step up on Sunday.

In fact, after Devin McCourty's injury took him out of the game in the second quarter, New England's entire secondary was comprised of undrafted players according to Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe.

It may have come against lesser competition, but the Patriots defense played one of their best games of the season on Sunday night against a road foe that was supposed to take advantage of them.

Whether against the Jets and Mark Sanchez, or against anyone else. Whether with their starters, or with replacements. Nobody thought this Patriots defense was capable of a performance like this.

Gronkowski Is a Monster

Throughout Tom Brady's struggles, he continued to look to his tight ends in the middle. That was part of the problem then, but it was part of the solution on Sunday night. He found Gronkowski for two touchdowns, including a third that was called off due to Gronkowski being pushed out of bounds while running his route in the back of the end zone.

On the night, Gronkowski caught eight passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns. He continues to be a matchup problem for any defense that lines up against him.

He now has 52 receptions for 709 yards and eight touchdowns on the season.

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter @ErikFrenz.