It’s the game we all had circled when the schedule came out as the battle for first place in the AFC East, right? The New England Patriots (3-2) travel to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Jets (3-2).
The game will be presented by various beers, chips and Papas of Johns on your local CBS station at 1 p.m.
The Game: New England Patriots at New York Jets (+9)
O/U: 47.0
The History
The two teams have met 116 times with the Patriots holding a 61-54-1 advantage in the all time series.
Last year the Pats swept the Jets, 22-17 and 41-3.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (3-2)
It’s been a hard road for the defending Super Bowl 51 champions. They’ve dropped two games at home, where they rarely ever lose. Coming into this game, Tom Brady is dealing with a sore left shoulder and All-Universe tight end Rob Gronkowski has an injured thigh. Both guys are going to play, make no mistake, but with Gronk and Tom Terrific banged up on the road, that probably spells a closer game than people think.
Receiving back Rex Burkhead should make his return to the field this week too, so if Brady isn’t feeling the long pass, he’ll have plenty of dump off options.
Last week New England survived a Thursday tussle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady finished 30 of 40 for 303 yards, one touchdown and one interception against a welcoming defense. The Jets have been harder to move the ball against than the Bucs, but that could have a lot more to do with who they played than actual talent.
New England has been using a committee approach to their running back crew. Last week Dion Lewis had seven carries for 53 yards., Mike Gillislee had 12 carries for 52 yards.
After some early misfires, Brady has been hooking up with newly acquired Brandin Cooks on the reg. Last week Cooks caught five passes for 85 yards. Danny Amendola hasn’t replaced Julian Edelman, but as a store brand alternative he’s been decent. Against the Bucs, he had eight catches for 77 yards. Chris Hogan caught eight passes for 74 yards and a TD.
NEW YORK JETS (3-2)
The Jets come into this contest on a three game winning streak, which is two more games than I thought they’d win all season. If New York just shut it down from here on out, they would still outperformed pretty much every sportswriter’s expectations in the country.
While the Jets have to feel good about their victories (at least their players do. I’m not sure the front office is too thrilled as that No. 1 draft pick continues to slip away), they’ve done it against lackluster opponents to say the least. New York beat the Dolphins 20-6, the Jacksonville Jaguars 23-20 and the Cleveland Browns 17-14. It could be that the Jets are just the best, shitty AFC team. In which case, they’ve got maybe two more wins this season and that’s it.
Against the Browns, starting quarterback Josh McCown went 23 of 30 for 194 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. He spread the ball around to seven different receivers, if you can call it that. Nobody caught more than four passes and no receiver had more than 39 yards.
New York made up for its lack of explosiveness in the passing game by rolling up a paltry 34 yards on the ground. Elijah McGuire led the way with 11 carries for 20 yards for a whopping 1.81 yards per carry. Bilal Powell hasn’t practiced all week and I’ll be surprised if he’s a factor in this game.
On defense, Muhammed Wilkerson has also been held out of game prep with shoulder and toe injuries. He’s still listed as questionable, but I’ll be surprised to see him suit up.
The Pick
If the Jets can pull off this upset, Todd Bowles will not only save his job, he might be coach of the year. I don’t expect that to happen. What I do see is a low scoring game that New England is happy to just win and get the hell out of there. Patriots 20, Jets 13
This week
Straight up: 0-1
Against the spread: 0-1
Last week
Straight up: 6-8
Against the spread: 6-8
Season
Straight up: 43-34
Against the spread: 38-39
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