Thanks to a late comeback, the New England Patriots have won the Monday Night Game of week 9 30:27, ending their four-game bankruptcy series. Cam Newton showed himself to be much improved after weak performances recently and was able to completely rely on a wide receiver. (The highlights of the game are here!)
The Jets got off to a good start, marching into the opposing half, but then went conservative and opted for a 35 yard field goal on 4th and 3 instead of playing off the attempt. In return, the Patriots countered with a good first drive on their part and a 5-yard touchdown run by Cam Newton.
Then turned the Jets and quarterback Joe Flacco on. With a remarkable 50-yard touchdown pass to Breshad Perriman, who stutter-stepped cornerback JC Jackson on a go route, he put the Jets in the lead again.
The Patriots were stopped in the opposing half on a 4th and 1, then kicker Sergio Castillo extended the lead of the Jets with a 50-yard field goal (13: 7). New England shortened a minute before the break with a 45-yard field goal, but was then shocked once more by Flacco: First the Jets got into position with a pass interference from Jason McCourty with a deep ball on Denzel Mims, then Flacco found Jamison Crowder for a 20 yard touchdown pass on a corner route in the end zone. Break stand: 20:10.
After the break, the Patriots had their best drive in weeks, marked by a few good plays by Rex Burkhead. The running back then completed the drive himself with a 1-yard touchdown run. Once again, however, the Jets found the correct answer: after eleven plays, Flacco found Perriman once more in the end zone, this time over 15 yards after Jackson stumbled early in the route.
The late interception from Flacco keeps the game open
In the fourth quarter the Patriots marched deep into the red zone again, but after 17 plays there was only one more field goal by former jet kicker Nick Folk. 27:20 Jets to play with only about 6 minutes.
The Jets then left the door wide open for the guests, because on the first play after the field goal, Flacco threw Mims over the middle at the deep ball and Jackson was there for the interception at the 28-yard line of the Patriots . They used the template and, after a few key plays by Jakobi Meyers and Damiere Byrd, equalized in the following drive with 1:57 minutes on the clock – Newton sneaked off the 1st.
Then the defense of the Patriots awoke: Thanks to good coverage, Dietrich Wise managed the first sack of his team in the game, then Flacco threw a lightning bolt through the middle at 3rd Down incomplete, so that the guests got the ball back with 47 seconds on their own 22. Enough for the Patriots who finally decided the game with the clock running out – Folk scored from 51 yards. Ultimately, Newton had prepared the field goal attempt with a 20-yard pass to Meyers on a comeback route.
The Jets remain without a victory, the Patriots in turn achieved their first victory after four bankruptcies in a row.
New York Jets (0-9) – New England Patriots (3-5)
Result: 27:30 (3: 7, 17: 3, 7: 7, 0:13) BOXSCORE
Jets vs. Patriots – the most important findings
- Newton’s touchdown was the Patriots’ first touchdown in the first quarter of the season.
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Flacco overtook Joe Montana on the All-Time-Passing-Yards-List with his 50-yard touchdown pass to Perriman and is now only in 20th place on the list.
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Flacco’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Crowder had loud Next Gen Stats a completion probability of only 6.2 percent. It was the most unlikely completion of this season and the most unlikely touchdown pass since 2017. Specifically, the ball flew 45.2 air yards and the receiver had a separation of 0.9 yards and a distance of only 0.2 yards to the sideline.
- Jackson has now caught at least one interception in four games in a row and leads the NFL with 5 interceptions.
- Wide receiver Jakobi Meyers made the best game of his career. He caught 12 passes (14 targets) for 169 yards – all career highs!
The star of the game: Cam Newton (Patriots)
After weak past weeks, Newton was able to convince this time. His mistakes were kept within limits, he appeared very focused and controlled, took hardly any risks and made the important throws at the right time. He also scored 2 of the 3 Patriots touchdowns and got one or the other important first down in the final two drives with his feet.
The flop of the game: Front Seven of the Jets
The Jets weren’t too bad tactically at the front, but at no point did they really manage to put pressure on Newton effectively. Even with Blitzes they were unsuccessful. To make matters worse, they were constantly beaten by runs and short passes with a lot of yards after the catch, especially by Burkhead and White.
Analyse: Jets vs. Patriots – die Taktiktafel
- The Patriots mainly relied on ball control in the offense. This was expressed in the fact that Newton took rather simple throws over short, medium distances and otherwise sat on the barrel. The personnel packages varied between 11 and 21, with both fullback Jakob Johnson and splitbacks being played. Occasionally, Cunningham came on the field as an extra blocker.
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The jets, on the other hand, mainly delivered the middle and tried to persuade Newton to make passes “outside the numbers”. In addition, flashes were used more frequently with increasing playing time. In fact, the Jets Newton flashed 69 percent of his dropbacks – the second highest value of his career loudly ESPN Stats and Info. Most of the time, the Patriots managed to stay in the middle themselves. External passes remained a rarity and if so, it was more of a swing pass and screen.
- As the game progressed, the Patriots used more and more play action, which made longer passes possible and especially brought Meyers back into position. At the very end, Byrd also became a factor who played out his speed on crossing routes and sometimes curl routes.
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When the Jets had the ball, Flacco as quarterback mostly looked like a flashback from earlier times in Baltimore. A lot was put on the run, with the O-Line mostly winning their duels and the Patriots Front Seven, weakened as they are these days, repeatedly had problems tackling Gore effectively. And then again and again there were the precise deep balls from Flacco that the Patriots cornerbacks couldn’t handle. To be more precise, they did not manage to win the direct duels with Perriman, Mims or Crowder in Man Coverage – their great strength – until the final quarter.
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It was noticeable that these deep balls mostly came with quite simple routes. The Perriman touchdowns were go routes, the crowd TD a corner route. The jets won here with good execution and less finesse in play-calling.
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