After coming off their second straight win, the New York Jets will have a short week. They get their first game of the season against the New England Patriots on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium. The last couple of seasons, this was a battle to stay out of the AFC East basement.
This year, the Patriots are sitting on top of the division at 8-2. Under first-year coach Mike Vrabel, New England is coming off a 28-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in Florida.
The Jets are sitting at 2-7 after their win over the Cleveland Browns, 27-20, on Sunday afternoon. It doesn’t matter to New England, who isn’t taking things for granted against Aaron Glenn’s team.
Patriots Not Overlooking Jets
The last two seasons, the Jets and Patriots have split their season series. New England is 2-0 in divisional games with road wins against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, with the Jets 0-2. Don’t tell Patriots defensive back Christian Gonzalez, this isn’t just any game.
“It’s a divisional game. Any divisional game is big,” Gonzalez said. “We want to win the division and do what we’ve got to do, so you don’t get overly hyped about one game versus another team. You kind of just go into it the same way you would for a different game, but it means more because it’s a division game.”
Despite wins over the Bengals and Browns in their last two games and trading away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, New England defensive end Milton Williams isn’t looking past New York.
“This is my fifth year in the league,” Williams said. “What I learned is you’ve got to show up every week. I don’t care who you play. Those boys are getting paid over there, too. They feed their families, and they have people to take care of just like us. So, it’s really any given Sunday.”
Jets Offense Needs to Play Better in Foxborough
If the Dolphins can beat the Bills, who is to say that the Jets can’t win in New England on Thursday night? If there is one thing we have learned, despite records, anyone can beat anyone in any given week.
Against Cleveland, it was another less-than-stellar performance from quarterback Justin Fields. They got the job done, thanks to a kickoff return for a touchdown from Kene Nwangwu and Isaiah Williams’ punt return for a touchdown, both in the first quarter.
Fields was 6-for-11 for 54 yards in the game, which was just a 4.9 average. Forty-two of those yards came on a screen pass that went for a Breece Hall touchdown 48 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Winning two games in a row rarely calls for a quarterback change. If Glenn wanted to make a switch this week against the Patriots, he couldn’t do it in a short week. Tyrod Taylor was a healthy backup against Cleveland, but is he going to solve the Jets’ quarterback issues? No, despite the success he’s had as a backup throughout his career.
If the Jets thought they were going to sneak up on the Patriots during their eight-game winning streak, they’re not. However, this is the NFL, and regardless of records and streaks, anything is possible. The Jets have nothing to lose and everything to gain in ruining their rivals’ streak.
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