Good news, the Patriots aren’t the worst team in the NFL!
That’s probably the cynically sarcastic celebratory response from many New England fans Monday night after Bill Belichick’s team escaped New York with a 30-27 comeback win over the winless Jets on Nick Folk’s 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Snapping the team’s first four-game losing streak in nearly two decades, the Patriots celebrated like the winners they officially were, at least for this night.
“It was a good win,” Belichick said. “I thought we made the plays that we needed to make at the end of the game. The players worked hard. They deserved to win. I’m happy for them.”
Forget the fact that it took a full 60 minutes and some good fortune to dispatch a Jets team that’s 0-9 for the first time in franchise history, a squad that’s putting up some historically bad stats in its 2020 ineptitude.
Forget the fact that the Jets were without starting quarterback Sam Darnold yet surprisingly saw backup Joe Flacco, the aging skeleton that is the former Super Bowl winner, throw three touchdown passes, nearly matching New York’s passing game touchdown production (4) from the first eight games combined.
Forget that a Jets team that hadn’t scored more than 10 points in a game in more than a month and barely averaged more than that total for the entire season scored on five of its first six possessions of the night while twice mounting doubled-digit leads, 20-10 at halftime and 27-17 in the fourth quarter.
Forget that the comeback effort needed a boneheaded first-and-10 deep ball from Flacco with New York up seven points with six minutes to play that resulted in an easy J.C. Jackson interception, helping turn the tide on the cornerback’s tough night that saw him allow a pair of touchdowns.
Forget all the bad, ugly, losing football, especially on defense, that at times probably had plenty in Patriot Nation rethinking their hesitation to root for their once-proud dynasty to tank for a higher draft pick, a plan that clearly would have been strengthened by a shocking upset loss to the lowly Jets juggernaut now chugging along toward the No. 1 overall selection next April.
Nope, for at least a few minutes and hours, let the warmth of a hard fought victory wash over all the losing and negativity that’s settled into New England over the last month-plus.
“I’m not going lie, it felt good. This was a much needed win for multiple reasons, not just for the division but also for our confidence. We just needed one in our opinion,” Cam Newton said after completing 27 of 35 passes for 274 yards while rushing for another pair of touchdowns.
Newton led an offense that scored on all four of its second-half possessions, including three drives longer than 11 plays and 63 yards. The visitors held the ball for 13 minutes and 36 seconds in the fourth quarter.
Not only did New England run the ball 41 times for 159 yards, but second-year receiver Jakobi Meyers had a career night with 12 catches on 14 targets for 169 yards as he continues to develop with Julian Edelman and N’Keal Harry sidelined with injuries.
So for the here and now, it doesn’t matter that the Patriots (3-5) still are way behind the Bills (7-2) and Dolphins (5-3) in the AFC East and remain unlikely to even make a Wild Card run at the postseason.
Oh, and forget that the feel-good fever in Foxborough may only last a week with the Patriots set to host Lamar Jackson’s 6-2 Ravens next Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.
“I’m more relieved not having the feeling of losing,” Newton said. “There are a lot of people in that locker room that deserve more than what we have been showing. A lot of our fans have been let down with the lackluster performances of myself amongst other people, but I can only speak for myself and I will. This is a game that we can build off of and we will build off of it and that’s a good thing.”
The Patriots, as former Jets coach Herm Edwards would say, played to win the game Monday night at MetLife Stadium and got the job done. Regardless of how hard it was. Regardless of how long it took. Regardless of what some fans and many media types with tanking agendas may have preferred.
A win is a win, especially when you’re midway through the season and only two teams in football had fewer, including your opponent on this night.
Forget that Belichick lamented that his defense “didn’t play well in the passing game” before it “salvaged it a little bit” with the Jackson interception. Forget that even while discussing a win, first in a month and coming against the hated, rival Jets, Belichick broke into some cliché quotes that are usually reserved for after losses.
“We just have to keep working, just take it one week at a time. I don’t think the team lacks confidence. We just gotta coach better, play better,” Belichick said. “Just keep working and keep grinding and I think we’ll have better results.”
It doesn’t matter how it looked. Doesn’t matter how it felt. The Patriots beat the Jets Monday night.
Put another way, New England didn’t lose in New York when it very well could have.
The Patriots clearly aren’t the worst team in the NFL. That’s a good thing, right?
The Link LonkNovember 10, 2020 at 01:11PM
https://www.radio.com/weei/sports/patriots/forget-what-we-think-the-patriots-were-winners-vs-jets
Forget what we think or we saw, the Patriots were winners Monday night in New York - RADIO.COM
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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