Jets 24 Patriots 3: A Perfect Night

Well that was as enjoyable of a football game as I have watched in some time.

The Jets didn’t just beat the Patriots on Thursday Night Football. They dominated the Patriots. This is now a 2-1 football team, and the ugly Week 1 loss in San Francisco from 11 days ago feels like an eternity away.

Of course in the NFL the most important thing is to win games. I think how the Jets play in the early part of this season also has significance, more than it does with most teams.

I fully understand the name of the game is winning. There aren’t style points in the NFL the way there are in college football where a group of people subjectively rank teams and can be swayed by victory margins.

That said, this Jets team is different from most others in the NFL. It is essentially a team that has big expectations but one that was also built on the fly.

It isn’t that hard to win the “offseason championship.” Any team that brings in a bunch of big names can be declared the offseason winner by the national media and a contender. We have seen that happen over and over with the Jets in recent years. All of the offseason accolades mean little if the big name players don’t continue to produce at a high level. Age, injuries, and a new system can lead to very different results from the past.

There is also the matter of the pieces needing to fit. You can have a group of accomplished players, but it means little if those guys don’t play well together.

Among the teams projected to the top dogs in the AFC this year, the Jets are the one team I would classify as essentially a new group.

If the Chiefs had gotten off to a slow start, I doubt their fans would be worried. They have a group of players that has weathered storms and won big together.

I am sure Ravens and Bengals fans are less than enthralled with their respective teams’ 0-2 starts to 2024, but they can take comfort in knowing their teams have also proven they can win.

This Jets team has no such track record. We used the phrase “looks good on paper” over and over through the offseason to the point where it practically became a cliché. Again, it’s one thing to look good on paper. It’s another to actually show you can play at a championship level. Until you do, there will always be doubts.

The first two weeks of the season were unremarkable for the Jets. They didn’t appear to be the equal of another of the NFL’s giants, the San Francisco 49ers. Week 2 brought a win but one where the Jets struggled to beat a team that projects to be one of the league’s worst (and in some ways were lucky to come away with a win).

In Week 3, we saw for the first time what this team can be if all the pieces come together.

I know the Patriots have a pretty lousy roster *on paper*. Guess what. You’d expect a Super Bowl contender to throttle an opponent like that. You saw the results of this game.

Going in I personally felt this game was a bit trickier than a lot of the experts. There are a handful of situations that tend to produce flukey results in the NFL. Facing a divisional opponent and playing on a short week are at the top of the list. The Jets faced both.

They also got an opponent that might not prove to be much of a team but one that did overperform expectations the first two weeks of the season. And on top of that, the Patriots feature the type of run heavy attack that gave the Jets problems in the early stages of 2024.

What we got was a masterpiece on all levels. Aaron Rodgers, who had been solid but not Rodgers-like in the first two weeks of the season, looked like a vintage version of himself. It went beyond his accuracy and reads. You could see him over and over making adjustments at the line of scrimmage and manipulating defenders to help his receivers shake free. His mobility, which has been a concern in the early going, looked worlds better in this game. Simply put, the ceiling is exceptionally high for this Jets team if Rodgers looks like that for a good chunk of the remaining games.

And on the defensive side of the ball, the Jets gave up almost nothing against a team that in theory could have done damage. This isn’t the same Jets defense that has been so dominant the last few years. A lot of the key players have moved on. The defensive line in particular is less talented than Jets fans have become accustomed to. None of that mattered. The Jets dominated the Patriots. Credit to the coaching staff for making a few gameplan tweaks against this opponent that netted results.

One game is one game. You should never get too high or too low from 60 minutes of football. Eleven days ago, I warned against taking the loss to the Niners too hard. Despite everything I just mentioned, the Patriots are not a particularly talented team.

But the level at which the Jets played will translate to good results against any opponent. It could be a special season if this becomes the norm. And lord knows we have all earned that.