You’d be hard-pressed to find a lot of people who felt real good about the Patriots chances heading into last night’s game with the New York Jets. The Patriots were scuffling, the Jets were soaring, and the AFC East lead was on the line.

Playing a cast of unknowns on defense, the Patriots rocked the Jets 37-16 at MetLife Stadium, to sweep the season series with the Jets and jump ahead of them in the standings.

Patriots seize top spot in AFC East – Ian Rapoport has the Patriots with a statement game after two weeks of struggles. Shalise Manza Young says that after “a week in which Bill Belichick was questioned like never before by fans, he was able to leave the Meadowlands with a satisfying win.” Fans. Yeah. Paul Kenyon notes that the entire team was filled with guys who had special nights. Art Martone says that “the defense played well by any standard and VERY well by its own.” Jeff Howe says that the Patriots revealed a lot of character last night. Nick Underhill has the defense led by Andre Carter and Rob Ninkovich leading the way.

Throwback effort for Pats defense – Mike Reiss says that unexpected performances from fill-in players evoked championship memories last night. Ron Borges has the Patriots unknown defense putting itself on the map and overcoming the general manager’s many missteps of the past several seasons.

Ten Things We Learned Sunday Night: Patriots win a throwback game – Christopher Price has the takeaways from last night’s statement win. Dan Duggan and Mary Paoletti have the best and worst from last night.

Happening right on schedule – Greg A Bedard says that this victory should put worries about the team “in the back of the minds of most fans, until the Patriots’ inevitable loss in the postseason.”Karen Guregian says that the Patriots responded in the right way last night.

Patriots show their grit, guts, sweat – Jackie MacMullan, who predicted that this game would result in “the darkest hours of both Belichick and Brady’s career in New England” says that for this week anyway, the Patriots were “a mix of grit and gristle and sweat” but that next week is anyone’s guess. Bob Ryan says that this win had to be sweet for Belichick and company. Jim Donaldson says that it wasn’t talent that won this game. It was tenacity. It was guts. It was character. Bill Burt has the Patriots again answering their critics and skeptics.

Chung sits; McCourty hurts shoulder – The Globe notebook from Shalise Manza Young and Monique Walker has the Patriots playing without Chung for all of last night and without McCourty for most of the night. The Herald notebook from Ian R. Rapoport looks at a record night for Andre Carter.

Big holes to stitch up in these Sox – John Tomase has the Red Sox with a lot of work to do. Nick Cafardo looks at some of the big issues Ben Cherington will have to deal with in the coming days.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

14 thoughts on “Patriots Beasts Of The East For Another Week”

  2. Bedard's column was one of the finest examples I've ever seen of , "trying to rain on the parade" after big win….nice try but didn't work on me. I take em' one at a time and the thought of "Fireman Ed" crying in his helmet, Rex Ryan looking glum at presser, and EMPTY Jets stadium with 3 minutes left BRING HUGE SMILE TO MY FACE…ha-ha-ha -HA-HA-HA!!!

    Like

  3. So what happened. How did so many pundits misunderstand the JETS? Clearly the story could and should not be about how the Pats using spare parts and fillins out coached, out played and beat up the perceived to be bigger, badder and better Jets team. It just amazes me week in and week out how people covering Patriot games and Jets games get it wrong. Because the Jets have 2 good games in a row…the fact that their offensive line still sucks …hey Al tell me again how D'brickashaw Fergurson might be the best left tackle in football…when anyone but a Jet fan who has been following him since he came out knows he plays high, is lousy in space and at best is an adequate run blocker…by any account he is a bust for a #1 pick….and the fact that their QB sucks…he holds the ball, makes lousy decisions and thinks he is as good as the NY media tells him he is on a regular basis… and that their defense, other than Revis is incredibly over rated….they cannot get to the QB without blitz help. Cromatie and Wilson were beaten like drums all night.

    At the same time the Pats because they are using players no one has heard of must have holes on their defense. That because Chad 85 can't get playing time there must be issues…even though you don't want to take Branch, Welker, Hernandez or Gronk off the field. The Pats lost a game to Pitt they could have won and a game to the Giants they should have won. Its not like they were blown out of either game. Its not like a performance one week carries over to the next. Obits on the Pats were written based on flawed observations of the Pats over two weeks. Now we get to hear the mia culpas. I would really prefer better journalism up front.

    Lastly, what someone like Greg Bedard does not understand…Pats fans could stomack 2 -14 as long as both wins were blowouts of the JETS.

    Like

    1. Not if one of those 14 was a loss to the Raiders….

      Andre Carter was moving Ferguson around in the second half like he was a futon. Carter's a good DL, but that was ridiculous.

      Like

    2. Bedard speaks logically though, which is all I ask for. If you seriously think this duct taped Defense can submit an effort like this every week and in the playoffs, you're a fanboy. At least in 2001 (a similar, no name, cast off type defense) they had impact players named Ty Law, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinist,, Lawyer Milloy, and Richard Seymour.

      That being said, it was the Pats best game to date.

      Like

    3. Dude, you make it sound so easy! So the writers are supposed to correctly predict how the Pats will look each week? Is that what you are saying? I want to see you email this site EVERY Friday telling everyone EXACTLY what will transpire on Sunday. Please. Hindsight is 20/20 my friend. It's very easy to write your post on Monday's after the action has happened. Why not write your thoughts on the game instead of this "i told you so" crap. I guarantee you weren't thinking those thoughts about the Pats defense last week.

      Like

  4. Brady is hurt… that is pretty obvious at this point, but is it just me or have people been talking about him like he has been TERRIBLE??
    Look at the QB play in the league yesterday (and I'm not even counting Tebow)… there are like 2 places in the whole league who wouldn't trade their guy for the current/injured version of 12. Last night was a great example of a guy who was struggling, and then composed himself, got it together and willed his team to a win. And then there was Sanchez.

    A small part of me can't wait till Brady is retired so people around here can get some perspective back.

    Like

  5. I'm not sure why I root for the Pats anymore. Is it because I'm a fan, or just because I love seeing Belichick stick to the the local talking heads?

    Like

  6. The lack of perspective about the Pats, among media and some fans alike, truly is amazing.

    The NFL season is a 16-game marathon, not a sprint. Teams ebb and flow during the season all the time and, especially in the current NFL with the salary cap and so few differences separating a lot of the top teams, it's the team that plays its best football in January/February that more often than not comes out on top.

    Someone needs to remind these media negative Nancy's that the 2001 Pats were 5-5 through ten games and didn't become a very good defensive team until after their Week 10 loss at home to the Rams (over the last nine games they allowed 17 PPG, right through the Super Bowl).

    This current team, arguably, is better than the 2001 team at this stage of the season, and there's still plenty of room for them to get better—they need to start getting healthier on defense, however, or all bets are off.

    Like

  7. I thought Bedard's column was just PATHETIC. First off he was part of the mediots saying this was a "Must win" game. THEN AFTER the Pats win the game he writes how winning the division doesn't mean all that much, that the rest of the schedule is full of "cream puffs" and the victories will be "empty". How the Pats will now go 13-3 ("12-4 at worst") but the" inevitable loss" awaits them in the playoffs. The Headline of the column should have been, "NO MATTER HOW MUCH PATS WIN DON'T ENJOY THIS YEAR!"

    I usually find Bedard to be a decent writer but after this piece of crap I might have to put him on my Blacklist with Shank and Borges.

    Like

  8. Kinda wonder why CSNNE, in their quest for dominance, even has him on? Might just be his style/personality, but it's tough watching and listening to him as he can barely present an articulate point.

    Like

  10. Through 9 games the 2001 Patriots were 5-4; the 2011 Pats were/are 6-3.

    Through 9 games the 2001 Pats had allowed 171 points (19 PPG); the 2011 Pats had allowed 184 PPG (slightly more than 20 PPG in an NFL that, ten years later, makes it much easier to move the football through the air than it did back then).

    As for your depth argument: the 2001 Patriots probably suffered one key injury on defense the entire year–Bryan Cox. He was replaced by free agents like Roman Phifer or Parcells holdovers like Ted Johnson–guys who were familiar with Belichick's system from his days with Cleveland, the Jets, or in Johnson's case, his one year as a Pats assistant under Parcells. This 2011 Pats team has been decimated by injury on the defensive side of the ball. Moreover, Belichick's first two drafts produced the following contributors on that 2001 team: Brady, JR Redmond, Greg Robinson-Randall, Patrick Pass, Antwan Harris, Richard Seymour, and Matt Light….Brady, Seymour and Light, obviously, were great picks, but the rest were just "guys" who contributed for awhile and then went on their merry way.

    Like

  11. Correction to my earlier post: the 2011 Pats are allowing 22 PPG through 9 games; the 2001 Pats, as I said before, were allowing 19 PPG. That inched up the following week against the Rams to 19.5 PPG before they gave up an average of 17 PPG over the last nine games through the Super Bowl. Still, we're talking about an NFL that was far different than the one of today–that was still before Bill Polian decided he was going to make playing pass defense practically illegal, and the league let him do it.

    Like

Comments are closed.