The bottom line on Sunday is that the Patriots won a divisional game to improve to 4-2 on the season. It wasn’t always pretty, but ultimately, they got the job done.
That’s the good news.
The bad news isn’t hard to find, though, as this was a far-from-perfect 60-minute showing for New England. With two second-half fumbles by the offense, the Patriots could never breathe easily with a comfortable lead, eventually walking away with a 26-19 win.
Perhaps the greatest letdown of the day was A.J. Brown, who made his home debut after missing the last four games due to a high ankle sprain.
Brown failed to haul in a deep shot from Drake Maye that hit his fingertips, dropped a touchdown in the back of the end zone, and then dropped consecutive passes on third and fourth down to give the ball back to the Jets. To cap it off, Brown botched the Jets’ onside kick attempt in the final minute, though DeMario Douglas was able to recover that loose ball while Brown buried his head in the artificial turf.
“To see him come back and have difficulty simply catching the football was a little bit jaw-dropping,” Tom E. Curran said on Patriots Postgame Live. “Then to see the game conclude with him having another one boink off his hands and have to be recovered by DeMario Douglas. And honestly, the two drops consecutively at the beginning of the second half was what kind of breathed life into the Jets. They took those two drops, the second one on the fourth down, and turned it into a touchdown. All of a sudden, it’s 17-10. I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’m always a big ‘he’ll be fine’ guy. But, wow.”
Ted Johnson described Brown’s performance as “timid.”
“I was surprised,” Johnson said. “I was a little bit surprised just because it looked like A.J. was a little bit timid out there. It looked like he was worried about maybe getting hit. The slant route, which is this his bread-and-butter play, the timing was off on that play. And he looked like he short-armed that deep ball.
“So it looked like maybe, just maybe, he was out there maybe a little bit before he was ready. But nonetheless, he was out there. So hopefully he’s got all these drops out of the way. But the offense just sputtered all day long. It was just really hard to watch at times.”
Michael Holley remained fixated on the deep ball in particular, even if that one didn’t technically qualify as a “drop.”
“It was a beautiful ball from from Drake Maye, and I think as we looked at it, he had options. He could have gone to A.J. Brown down the right sideline … or he had somebody down the middle. He goes to his number one wide receiver, and it’s just not there.”
Glenn Gleason-NBC Sports BostonGlenn Gleason-NBC Sports Boston
A.J. Brown can’t haul in a deep pass from Drake Maye vs. the Jets.
Phil Perry noted that the concern heading into a game like this for a player coming off a high ankle sprain would be mobility. In that regard, Brown was better than expected. The lack of hands, though, was jarring.
“When a guy comes back from an injury like this one, you’re not worried about the hands. You’re worried about how he’s moving. And I thought he actually moved OK,” Perry said. “I mean, he won that route down the field. You saw he’s not exactly blazing down the sideline, but great physicality. He’s getting the DB’s hands off of him. He creates some separation that could have potentially been a touchdown had he just been able to track the football there and reel it in. And the [third-and-5 drop], to me, is a little bit of a concerning one because that is his bread and butter route, as Ted put it, and the timing on that one actually looked OK. It hit him right in the stomach between the numbers. He’s trying to basket catch it. Maybe he should get a little lower, try to catch it with his fingers to the sky. Just when you see the ball hit his hands as many times as it did, there was one in the back of the end zone there as well, and he doesn’t come down with it. That to me is rust. So is that something that gets solved by next week, especially when it’s a short week upcoming here?”
That will be the big question, as Brown’s three-catch, 27-yard day was a forgettable way for his home career in New England to begin.
