The New England Patriots went into the swamps of New Jersey and came away with a great AFC East win over the New York Jets, 37-16 on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.
TE Rob Gronkowski and LB Rob Ninkovich literally beat the Jets to a pulp on both sides of the ball. Gronkowski had 8 catches for 113 yards and a pair of TD catches on nice passes from QB Tom Brady. He also helped along with the way with several punishing blocks and on offense he looked like a one man wrecking crew.
Then there was Ninkovich, who duplicated the great play of Gronk on the defensive side of the ball. Ninko had two INT’s one killed a potential scoring drive in the 3rd quarter and led to a Gronkowski TD. The other he didn’t wait for the offense to score as he took his second INT of the game to house to finish off the shell shocked Jets.
The unusually silent New Yorkers, were licking their chops at the though of playing the worst defense (yards allowed) in the NFL and a make shift secondary and linebacking corps.
But it was the New Englanders who persevered and put on a show defensively that also featured the sack machine known as DE Andre Carter who registered four and half sacks of Jets QB Mark Sanchez. Sanchez was taken down five times as Mark Anderson shared a lick in on the beleaguered Jets signal caller with Carter as well.
The win is huge because it gives the Patriots a season sweep of the Jets and the tiebreaker come playoff time. Most importantly the win snapped a two-game losing streak and keeps the Patriots streak alive with 148 games played without losing three games in a row. It’s the fourth longest streak in NFL history. Next week they will tie the Cleveland Browns for third longest.
Just when people doubt the Patriots they pull the unknown players from out of nowhere and beat your brains out.
Well done. Now like Deion I’m going to mock Fireman Ed.
Patriots at Jets Gamebook. This includes the box score, all the stats, play by play, drive charts and more.
Patriots at Jets Game Recap via Associated Press.
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Turning Point of the Game
LB Rob Ninkovich drive killing INT in the third quarter, it led to Rob Gronkowski’s 2nd TD catch of the game.
Offensive Player of the Game
TE Rob Gronkowski had 8 catches for 113 yards and 2 TD’s
Defensive Players of the Game
LB Rob Ninkovich had 4 tackles, 1 assist, 2 INT’s and 1 TD and DE Andre Carter had 5 tackles, 1 assist and a team record 4.5 sacks.
Game Notes
Starters for the Patriots were:
On Offense:
LT – Light
LG – Mankins
C – Connolly
RG – Waters
RT – Vollmer
TE – Gronkowski
TE – Hernandez
WR – Welker
WR – Branch
QB – Brady
RB – Green-Ellis
On Defense:
DE – Ellis
DT – Wilfork
DE – Love
LB – Carter
LB – Mayo
LB – Tarpinian
LB – Ninkovich
CB – McCourty
CB – Arrington
S – Moore
S – Ihedigbo
Inactives for the Game:
Patriots
1. LB Brandon Spikes (MCL)
2. LB Dane Fletcher (hamstring)
3. WR Taylor Price (hamstring)
4. S Patrick Chung (foot)
5. T Donald Thomas
6. RB Shane Vereen
7. QB Ryan Mallett
Jets
1. QB Kevin O’Connell
2. WR Eron Riley
3. S Brodney Pool (knee)
4. RB Bilal Powell
5. TE Shawn Nelson (illness)
6. DT Kenrick Ellis (ankle)
7. DT Martin Tevaseu
The spread (Pick ‘Em) was covered as was the over/under (47 1/2). I am now 6-2-1 vs. the spread and 6 of 9 calling the under/over.
New England won the toss and deferred to the second half.
The Patriots lead overall series vs. Jets 53-52-1 including playoffs.
The Patriots have swept the Jets 14 times in the series before this season the last time was in 2007.
Since 2003 New England is 27-3 following a loss and have lost back-to-back games only three times; once in 2006, once in 2009 and this season.
Since Robert Kraft purchased the team in 1994 the Patriots are 24-14 vs. the Jets.
The Patriots are 53-16 vs. the AFC East since 2001.
Since 2000 have the Patriots the best road record in the NFL at 60-33.
The Patriots are 18-14 all-time on Sunday Night Football.
Bill Belichick now has 183 wins – he is now tied for 9th all-time with Bill Parcells.
Tom Brady is now 16-5 vs. the Jets including 1-1 in the playoffs.
Brady has thrown 23 TD’s and 10 INT’s while being sacked 16 times in 8 games.
Brady has 284 TD passes in his career he is now 8th all-time. Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas is 7th with 290.
With the win Brady and Belichick broke the record they shared with Dan Marino and Don Shula as the winningest quarterback-coach combination in the Super Bowl era. They now have 117 wins as a quarterback-coach combination.
Brady’s 117th career win tied him with Joe Montana for 7th all-time. Johnny Unitas is 6th with 118 and Fran Tarkenton is 5th with 124.
Brady surpasses 3,000 passing yards on season in the 9th game. Only second QB do ever do it that quickly the other is Saints QB Drew Brees.
The New England defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 20 times in 9 games.
WR Wes Welker now has catches in 91 consecutive games including playoffs, 74 as a Patriot. The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.
Welker recorded his 500th reception as a Patriot on the scoring drive prior to half time. Only Troy Brown (557) and Stanley Morgan (534) have more in team history.
Welker’s 500 catches were done in 70 regular season games no one has ever had 500 catches with one team in that few games.
Recently signed Patriots LB Niko Koutouvides is a Plainville CT native.
Koutouvides recovered a big fumble on the muffed punt by the Jets Joe McKnight in the 3rd quarter putting the Patriots on the Jets 14-yard line leading to a field goal.
K Stephen Gostkowski’s 50 yards field goal in the first quarter was his first attempt of the year from 50-yards or more. He is 5 of 7 in his career from 50+ yards.
DE Andre Carter had two first quarter sacks of Jets QB Mark Sanchez, shared one in the second quarter and two back-to-back sacks in the fourth quarter to give him 9 on the year.
Carter had two or more sacks in a game for the third time this season.
The 4.5 sacks by Carter are the most ever allowed by the Jets to one opponent in a game and a new Patriots franchise record.
DE Mark Anderson shared a second quarter sack of Sanchez with Carter he now has 5 on the season.
LB Rob Ninkovich had a drive killing INT in the third quarter. It was his 1st of the season and 3rd of his career. It led to Rob Gronkowski’s 2nd TD catch of the game.
In the fourth quarter Ninkovich sealed it with a second INT a huge pick six of Sanchez to break the game open.
Gronkowski’s 2 TD catches give him 5 games with 2 or more TD’s in his two-year career.
WR Chad Ochocinco’s 1st quarter 53-yard bomb from Brady was for more yardage on one play than he had total all season.
WR Deion Branch mocked Jets super fan Fireman Ed right in front of him after his fourth quarter TD catch.
WR Julian Edelman saw some late game action on defense as a cornerback he made a hell of a hit on LaDainian Tomlinson sending him from the game.
On Saturday the Patriots released WR Tiquan Underwood and promoted S Ross Ventrone to the 53-man roster.
RG Brian Waters got hurt (left knee) on the second play of the game he returned later in the first quarter.
CB Devin McCourty hurt his shoulder during a collision with teammate CB Sterling Moore and Jets WR Plaxico Burress in the 2nd quarter. He did not return.
RT Sebastian Vollmer was injured on the Gronkowski TD in the 3rd quarter. He returned.
S James Ihedigbo suffered a neck injury late in the third quarter. He did return.
The Patriots are now PLUS 3 in turnover differential.
Pro Bowl voting is open feel free to cast your votes for deserving players.
The Jets are 27-25 as the home team in the series.
New York has lost 15 of the last 20 meetings with New England including playoffs.
New York is 33-33 vs. the AFC East since 2001.
The New York defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 18 times in 8 games.
The Jets are now PLUS 1 in turnover differential.
Jets head coach Rex Ryan is now 3-4 vs. New England in his career including playoffs.
Jets QB Mark Sanchez is now 3-4 vs. the Patriots including 1-0 in the playoffs.
He is 2-1 vs. the Patriots in home games.
Sanchez has thrown 14 TD passes and 9 INT’s while being sacked 22 times in 9 games.
Jets DL Jamaal Westerman got a safety when they grabbed Brady in the end zone and he tried to throw the ball away that led to him being called for intentional grounding.
LB David Harris hurt his left leg in the third quarter he did return.
WR Jeremy Kerley got hurt on a punt return (ankle) in the first quarter. He returned.
Fireman Ed was carted out of the stadium his pride was severely injured in the beat down. He is probable for the Broncos game on Thursday.
The 37 points allowed by the Jets are a team high at home since Ryan took over as coach in 2009.
Gene Steratore was the game referee. The temp at kickoff was 42 and it was cloudy with a 10-mph wind.
Steratore suffered a facial cut in the second quarter when he jumped into the fumble pile to see who had the ball.
Game Attendance: 82,566 at MetLife Stadium; Meadowlands NJ – Sell Out
Post Game Interviews
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady post game press conferences via patriots.com
This Week in the AFC East
Dallas routed Buffalo, 44-7
Miami beat Washington, 20-9
AFC East Standings
Patriots 6-3/3-1
Jets 5-4/2-2
Bills 5-4/1-1
Dolphins 2-7/0-2
Next Game
The Patriots host the Kansas City Chiefs next Monday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA. Kick off is at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem
Photo credit: Getty Images
