All season long we’ve been hearing about how terrible the Thursday night football games have been. Teams have been ragged, worn down, and not sharp when playing just four days after their previous game.

Last night the Patriots looked ragged, worn down and not sharp. The Jets hung tough all night long, running the ball at will against the Patriots, who were playing their first game without Jerod Mayo this season.

For many of those following or covering the team, the Thursday factor is no excuse. It may be for other teams, but for the Patriots, last night was just another example of how poor the team is. (“Putrid” according to a Boston.com headline.) Gary Tanguay was shouting on the postgame  “WINDOW CLOSED!”

It’s funny, as much as Shaughnessy and others like to claim how weak the AFC East is, the division games are usually some of the toughest on the schedule. Buffalo excepted, most of the time. Games with the Dolphins and Jets are more often than not, ugly slugfests. Winning two division games in four days is OK with me, no matter how it happens.

This morning some tried to create a controversy out of the ending of the game, when the officials moved Donta’ Hightower from over the long-snapper on the final field attempt.

Why did official help Patriots avoid penalty before Jets’ field goal got blocked?

The NFL pretty quickly shot this one down.

On WEEI this morning, they demanded to know why Belichick didn’t challenge the David Nelson catch with 23 seconds left to go, which looked like a bobble while standing out of bounds.

They had to be reminded by the producer/engineer that coaches can’t challenge under two minutes. They then changed it to demanding that Belichick should’ve used a timeout there to allow the officials time to look at it. They then quickly moved over to talking about how 1-5 over the next six games is possible.

So, Jason Cole, what happened to the “surprise” that the Patriots and Darrelle Revis were cooking up for the Jets last night?

Get the coverage this morning over at PatriotsLinks.com.

Media Columns:

Jim Nantz, Phil Simms part of the CBS showcase – Chad Finn on the CBS tandem, and notes on the MLB playoffs and NBA preseason.

Socci thinks Thursday NFL games come up too fast – Bill Doyle has the Patriots radio voice talking about the challenges of games like last night.

This week’s Sports Illustrated has a excerpt from Bill Parcells’ new book. – Parcells: A Football Life

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Exclusive Book Excerpt: The Belichick-Parcells Split

Before he built the Patriots powerhouse, Bill Belchick was the Jets’ head coach – for a mere 24 hours. His shocking resignation and flight to New England produced one of the most memorable press conferences in NFL history and sparked a fuel with rival Bill Parcells that still rages on. SI has an exclusive excerpt on the behind-the-scenes closed door coaches’ meetings, Charlie Weis’ plea for the head coach position and all the events leading up to the press conference from Parcells’ new book, Parcells: A Football Life

“I didn’t begrudge Bill getting another job somewhere else. In fact, I’m probably the one that got it for him.” – Parcells on Belichick

“I knew I did the right thing and I didn’t know where my career was going.” – Belichick

“I’ve told many coaches that friendship and loyalty is going to be more important than ambition. Some guys don’t realize that until after they’re done. I don’t bear animosity toward Charlie. I can say that with a straight face because I know what he is. His actions back then don’t bother me anymore” – Parcells on Weis’ departure from the Jets

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

20 thoughts on “Patriots Swat Away Jets Upset Plans”

  1. I mentioned the Parcells/Belichick thing in the Bob Ryan thread, but it’s worth repeating here. The notion that Bill Parcells, who tried to walk out on virtually every single coaching contract he ever signed before the expiration date arrived, would chastise Belichick for not abiding by his contract with the Jets back in 2000 is laughable to me. The fact that he’d chide Weis for a lack of “loyalty” is also laughable, given that he (Parcells) is the same guy who ran up Bob Kraft’s long distance phone bill pretty high in that New Orleans hotel room during Super Bowl week in 1997 with all of the calls he made, and received, from the NYJ’s headquarters in Hempstead — while he was supposed to be showing “loyalty” to the 53 players in his charge as they prepped for the biggest game of their professional careers. (And no, I’m not saying the Pats lost that game because Parcells wasn’t focused; Green Bay was the better team, for sure, but still, Parcells’ actions that week were despicable.) I appreciate Parcells’ greatness as a coach and I don’t view his time in New England as anything but a positive for the franchise, but the hypocrisy that apparently drips from the pages of that book is astonishing. Parcells was the ultimate mercenary!!

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    1. Sanctimony is near the top of the list in Parcells’ playbook. Maybe hypocrites like Saban didn’t learn it from him, but they’re worthy successors.

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  2. Some Thursday Night Game thoughts:

    – Lost in the media coverage is the fact that the Pats dropped 27 points on a pretty damn good defense in not optimum conditions. I have some complaints about how McDaniels called that game…especially the three possessions after the opening Touchdown…Note to McDaniels…Gray is a LOAD…use him like the battering ram he looks to be. Still the Pats moved the ball, kept Brady upright and kept pressure on the Jets all night.

    – The Jets inability to get the ball in the end zone those first 4 drives is symptomatic of Rex Ryan’s inability to understand that offense is a part of the overall game. John Izdic is taking a lot of heat for the way he built that roster, but I think Rex should take an equal amount of heat for not understanding how to score points, how clock management works (final drive with no timeouts is classic Rex) or how to develop younger skill players.

    – Memo to most of the Boston Sports Media…there are no style points awarded in ugly games…just W’s and L’s.

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    1. Agree on the playcalling. I found myself yelling “Another 2nd and 10!!” at the TV screen way too often during that game. The running game was OK when they used it last night, but they just kept throwing and throwing, and that contributed to the multiple 3 and out’s the offense had, which also contributed to the Jets’ massive T.O.P. advantage. But a win is a win, and you’d think that by now, after years of watching this particular incarnation of the Patriots (Belichick/Brady, etc.), the fans and the media would realize that you can throw out the pre-approved, pre-game “script” when it comes to division games. They almost never play out the way they’re “supposed to,” and they almost always end up being tougher than anticipated–remember that prime-time loss to the 4-12 Dolphins during the 2004 season (the last Super Bowl-winning year)? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

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    2. just W’s and L’s.

      Heard on G+Z about a great quote from Charlie Weis. He was asked once about anything he understood about football from having coached that the average person doesn’t, and responded with, “Yeah, you just need to score one more point than your opponent.”

      – We win 45-3 and certain people hate that all we do is blow bad teams out.
      – Win but don’t cover the spread and there is some fault/reason (Tomato Can).
      -Lose and assume usual schtick.

      I know much of the media isn’t interested in college football, but that’s the only “football” where you need style points on a win.

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      1. If the Pats don’t win every game by 50 points AND the Super Bowl, than the entire season should be unenjoyable for the fans and is proof that Belichick and everything else about the team sucks.

        That’s really what it comes down to for a segment of the fans and the media.

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    3. McDaniels needs to go. Too much over-thinking, over-strategizing, and no consistency/flow from week to week. I wonder how much of the issue on offense isn’t just him at this point.

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    4. Bravo to all who have posted there thoughts to last night’s game. The insight and independent thinking is refreshing and that’s not any b.s. from me. Last night’s game was…like wow as the kicker is getting ready to kick ,’m saying to myself. Miss it. BLOCKED. . GOOD FOR JONES. I’m happy. I decide to go to bed maybe listen for a few on the radio as I fall asleep. Hell no there is window treatment boy trying to suck out all fun and enjoyment from a lucky win to anyone wanting to hear any press conference or happiness for Jones being the hero and not the goat this year. About the the players I as people I know nothing about there character if there decent human beings or not. I hope there are good souls, all I know them is as nfl players doing there best. As I try to do every day my best clawing thru life.

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  4. Dennis & Callahan tease this morning: “When we come back we’ll tell you who we WOULD HAVE blamed IF The Patriots had lost last night!!”…. Combine that with the Felger & Mazz hysteria over Revis playing WR (which didn’t happen and was never gonna happen)…. That’s what it’s come to, these guys have to create their own little fantasy world in order to put on a show.

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  5. OK folks, so what would the media reaction around here be if the head coach/GM of the Patriots had just traded away a guy for a conditional draft pick that could be as high as a #2 but as low as a #4, barely more than a year after forking over a #1 pick for this player — a known head case and locker room trouble-maker — in a trade and also signing him to a very rich contract? The greatest organization in the history of football led by the guy Bob Kraft stupidly fired 15 years ago (hat tip: Boston Globe and Shank), out there in Seattle, just did that when they dumped Percy Harvin (and $7M in salary) on the Jets yesterday. I know that the afterglow of winning a Super Bowl tends to hide some of the rough spots, but seriously, the Harvin adventure yielded practically nothing for the Seahawks (aside from that KO return touchdown in the Super Bowl, a game Seattle wins going away, regardless). In the end, they lost money, took a net loss in the draft pick exchange, and lost cap space, with a very minimal on-field return. Belichick would be getting crucified over something like this. He’s still getting crucified for signing Amendola (perhaps justifiably so), but at least that move could be defended at the time because other teams were lining up with similar offers at Amendola’s doorstep, it didn’t cost the Pats a freakin’ first round draft pick, and, unlike Harvin, there were no “off the field/he’s a bad guy in the locker room” issues clouding his career prior to coming to NE.

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    1. yep….but this is how the “usual suspects” are going to view it. Coming soon to a radio/TV near you:>>

      “The Patriots have cap room!! ..Brady needs weaponz!!.. why didn’t they make a play for Harvin!!? ..Kraft is cheap, that’s why!!”

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      1. LOL….I think you’re right about that. And I just heard this afternoon that the draft pick compensation for Seattle is even worse than first reported yesterday. It’s apparently a conditional 6th rounder that could become a 4th, not a 4th that could become a 2nd. Talk about cutting your losses.

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    1. I don’t know of Mark Murphy is good or not but isn’t this another ‘local vs national’ situation? The NBA is just like MLB there, just without the national appeal. I have no clue if Jackie is right or wrong but I expected the locals to be fed stories to raise his trade value, to which they’d be happy to reprint.

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