The Haphazard Blog

It started out well, but it didn’t end well.

The announcers said the Jets won the toss and elected to kick. I thought it couldn’t be true, because then the Patriots would also choose to receive in the second half, making the Jets idiots. The Jets got the kick-off in the second half, so the announcers were wrong.

Tom Brady is back. I was sure he was before, but after today, there’s no question. His ducking under Kyle Wilson avoiding a sack while keeping his eyes down field to hit Welker on the other side is classic Brady.

Stephen Gostkowski has missed 3 FGs in a row now. He’s a career 85% kicker, so that means he’d have to make the next 17 in a row to stay at 85%. His kickoff also seemed like they were short (he has been good at getting touchbacks) so it has me wondering if he’s injured.

The announcers seemed to say it was clear the ball hit the ground on Patrick Chung’s interception, but at least to me, there wasn’t indisputable visual evidence of it on the replay review. Regardless, they overruled it and what could’ve been something else to continue Mark Sanchez’s woes was for not. The Patriots did still get a 3 and out, so at the time, things were looking up. Also, Chung has made a very impressive improvement in his second year. He looks like the best guy on the defense.

Tully Banta-Cain continues with the stupid penalties. What a pointless late hit he made. This defense has an incredible ability to make opposing offense and QBs look so good. And to think, I was thinking this during the second quarter before the Patriots allowed the Jets to do whatever they wanted and see the resurrection of the Sanchize and Braylon Edwards catch everything thrown his way.

That TD catch by Randy Moss was simply amazing. I thought the ball was overthrown with him only putting one hand up to grab it, but he was just catching it with ease. Of course, Darelle Revis grabs his hamstring and isn’t seen from again. It’s kind of funny the game was going much better for the Patriots with him in then with him gone. $32M for 2 years. :)

Brady threw a great pass to Antonio Cromartie. Moss was more of a defender in the second half than a wide receiver. I have no idea what happened to the offense in the second half of this game. Where were all the receivers besides Moss? Wes Welker (I noticed he played sparingly after taking that hit), Julian Edelman, Brandon Tate, Alge Crumpler and Rob Gronkowski? It was just 3rd and long followed by deep pass after deep pass. There was nothing underneath? The Jets took away all the supposed weapons in New England’s offense without their best CB? If that’s the case, then there are big worries on offense now. Why did they wait so long to go hurry up and break out the screen passes? Was it only working because the Jets were playing soft with a 2 TD lead? I didn’t see them at least try (and fail). Did the Patriots quit at the end? They had 2 timeouts, the Jets were in 2nd and long. Stop the clock after 2nd and 3rd down, they punt, you have over a minute left. Sure it’s a long shot, but you don’t even try?

I figured the game was over on the second pass interference by Darius Butler. They weren’t stopping the Jets. I guess this is the defense I expected to see in the first game. I’m not going to panic (just as I didn’t anoint them after the win last week), but this was a bad loss. They were outplayed the last 3 quarters, especially the second half. It was the same problems as last year. Road collapses after halftime. It’s only week 2 and just between the Patriots and Jets games, it’s a nice circle. The Patriots beat the Bengals, the Bengals beat the Ravens, the Ravens beat the Jets and the Jets beat the Patriots.

Back to the drawing board, and it’s going to suck being the Buffalo Bills next week.