The New England Patriots may be the beneficiaries of the NFL’s softest schedule, but at least they keep doing what they’re supposed to do against bad teams.
It wasn’t always pretty, but New England did it again on Thursday night, beating the lowly New York Jets 27-14 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. It was their eighth straight win, making them the hottest team in the NFL, and they extended their record to 9-2. Aaron Glenn’s miserable rookie season as Jets coach continued as they fell to 2-8.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Drake Maye is a worthy MVP candidate
It’s hard to get too excited about the numbers he put up against a Jets defense that traded away two of its best players a week ago. But Maye was 25-of-34 for 281 yards and a touchdown. Those are the kinds of numbers veteran quarterbacks put up in preseason games against teams that don’t bother game-planning against them.
Maye now has 2,836 yards, 20 touchdown passes and just five interceptions on the season, and he has to be considered one of the MVP favorites, probably with Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Regardless of whether Maye wins, he’s an incredibly impressive quarterback as a second-year player.
What’s impressive goes way beyond the numbers. Watching him, it’s clear he has the pocket awareness of a 15-year veteran. He is completely poised and calm and doesn’t seem to be rattled by pressure at all. When the pocket closes in, he’s got a knack for buying time with little, subtle moves — a step-up, a roll, just a few steps to the side. Then he gathers himself and completes his pass.
Maye is also a master of finding ways to get his receivers open, sometimes with a small movement like a pump fake or a look in a certain direction. Those are things that elite quarterbacks do years into their careers. Maye has learned to do it much faster than most.
It was all smiles all night for Drake Maye (left) and Mike Vrabel. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
2. Aaron Glenn needs to bench Justin Fields
I guess it’s understandable that the Jets head coach has become really cranky about answering quarterback questions and refuses to name a starter each week because by now, it’s clear that the option he keeps choosing is really, really bad.
Fields, the quarterback Glenn picked in the offseason to run his team, had another nightmare outing, completing 15-of-25 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t cross 100 passing yards until the game had only 4 minutes left, and he’s now thrown for just 170 yards total over the last two games.
Granted, the Jets are depleted and Fields was without top wide receiver Garrett Wilson. But honestly, at this point, could backup QB Tyrod Taylor really be any worse? Whatever Glenn thinks he has in Fields, he’s clearly wrong. The Jets aren’t generating any offense, except for the odd drive here and there.
Unless he’s just tanking for a higher draft pick — which is certainly a possibility — there’s no reason not to shake things up with a quarterback switch. Fields right now is playing terribly. He’s not giving the Jets a chance to win. And isn’t that what a quarterback is supposed to do?
3. It’s hard to take the Patriots seriously as a championship contender
The Patriots are on the longest winning streak in the NFL and have a pretty comfortable lead in a division that features a team everyone considered one of the Super Bowl favorites. They have legitimate candidates for Coach of the Year and MVP.
But it’s still hard to buy completely into the success of this team.
It’s not that they’re overrated, because they’re not. They’re probably the best team in the AFC East and have a real good chance at taking the No. 1 seed in the AFC. But does anyone really trust them to be a real threat in the postseason? How could you, considering their marshmallow-soft schedule?
So far, New England has run its record to an impressive 9-2 against a slate of opponents with a collective record of 37-66. That’s a winning percentage of .359 against only three teams with a winning record – the Patriots beat the Bills and Buccaneers and lost to the Steelers.
It’s also not like New England is going to be tested the rest of the way either. The Patriots’ remaining six games are against teams with a combined record of 20-37 (.351), and their only future opponent with a current winning record is the Bills, although the Ravens should join them soon.
So, the Patriots are good, but they will head into the postseason largely untested. That doesn’t mean they can’t make a Super Bowl run. It’s just hard to believe that they can.
4. Developing a strong running game would help New England in the playoffs
If there’s one glaring, missing ingredient with the Patriots right now, it would seem to be their rushing attack. They rank in the middle of the NFL pack and, after gaining just 65 against the Jets, are averaging just 112.9 rushing yards per game.
The ingredients seem to be there, though. Rookie TreVeyon Henderson, their 2025 second-round pick, has rushed for 209 yards over the last two games on 6.3 yards per carry. That was helped by two long touchdown runs last week in Tampa, but it also included another 62 yards on 19 carries against the Jets.
Three of those carries came when they were grinding away the clock in the final 2 minutes. Why only 16 carries the rest of the game, when the Patriots seemed to be in some control as soon as they answered the Jets’ first touchdown drive? Clearly, the Patriots’ best player is Maye, and it makes some sense to lean heavily on him. But leaning a little more on running backs — whether it’s Henderson or Rhamondre Stevenson, when he returns from his toe injury — can only help make life a little easier on Maye.
New England will need that in the postseason against some of the teams it will face in the playoffs. Asking Maye to run the gauntlet against the likes of Bills QB Josh Allen, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, and maybe Ravens QB Lamar Jackson and/or Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers, might be a little much for a second-year quarterback if he doesn’t get a little ground support.
4 ½. What’s next?
The Patriots now have a two-game lead in the AFC East over the Buffalo Bills, and the good news is they have a chance to cruise into their bye week. New England is at Cincinnati (3-6) and home against the Giants (2-8) before its week off in Week 14.
Then, when the Patriots return, it’ll be for the biggest game they’ve played in years: at home on Dec. 14 against the Bills (6-3), maybe with a chance to put the AFC East away.
As for the Jets, their season to nowhere continues with a trip to Baltimore to face the hard-charging Ravens (4-5) next week. None of it matters anymore. They’re just playing for pride and draft position.
But Jets fans might want to circle the home game against the Dolphins (3-7) on Dec. 7 and the road game in New Orleans (2-8) on Dec. 21 on the calendar. Those would seem to be the best, if not the only, chances for the Jets to get another win before heading into their 15th straight, playoff-less offseason.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.
