After suffering their first loss of the season in Week 2, the Patriots have the luxury of a quick turnaround for their Week 3 battle with the Jets (1-1), which gets underway on Thursday night at MetLife Stadium.
This will be New York’s first home game in 2024, as they currently enter the game as 6.5-point favorites at BetMGM.
The Jets are coming off their first win of the season, handing Tennessee a 24-17 loss in Nashville. That win came after a Week 1 loss in San Francisco, losing to the 49ers 32-19.
The Jets entered this season as one of the trendy picks to take a leap in 2024, with All-World quarterback Aaron Rodgers returning from the torn Achilles he suffered in his team’s home opener Week 1 of last season.
Adding Rodgers to an offense that includes fantasy football favorites Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall, to go along with a defense that finished 2023 12th in overall defense, it’s no wonder the football world has the bar set so high for a team that hasn’t finished above .500 since 2015 (7-10 each of the last two seasons).
But through two games in 2024, the Jets offense hasn’t soared in the way offseason pontificators had predicted:
- Rodgers hasn’t cracked 20 completions or 200 yards passing in either game this season
- Hall has yet to get close to 100 yards rushing (54 in Week 1, 62 in Week 2)
- Wilson has 10 combined catches through two games, has yet to crack 100 yards receiving, and has not found the end zone
On top of the offensive woes, New York’s defense has allowed the ninth most yards in the NFL (701), ninth most rushing yards (310), 16th most receiving yards (391), and is ranked 18th in turnovers (2).
Despite New York’s sleepy start to 2024, Patriots veterans on offense are not taking the Jets lightly on the defensive side of the ball.
“I think, you know, it’s pretty obvious they’re just a really good defense,” said center David Andrews. “You don’t look at one depth of that defense and be like, ‘Oh they don’t have a good player there.’
“Their D-line’s really good, they got two really good linebackers, and a really good secondary. So, you know, overall it’s a really good defense, really good playmakers, and it’s kind of a different style of defense than we’ve seen [in 2024].”
Starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett shares Andrews’ sentiment, and believes his offense is up for the challenge of attacking New York’s talented-but-underachieving defense.
“You know, it’s a defense that’s been in [their] defense for a long time,” said Brissett. “A lot of good players. Coached really well. You know, play fast, play hard, physical defense. So, you know, we got a good test for us, but I think we’ll be up for it.”
Will “up for it” mean implementing a more explosive offense than we’ve seen through two weeks of football for the 2024 Patriots?
If you believe everything head coach Jerod Mayo told The Greg Hill Show on Monday morning, along with his comments from his Monday media availability, we will see a Patriots offense putting an emphasis on “pushing the ball down the field,” and getting more players involved in the offense - namely wide receiver DeMario Douglas.
Brissett told the media that getting more players involved is “the plan,” and that the offense “got stuff in [the game plan] that can accomplish all of those goals.” He went on to say that the plan is to “try to spread the wealth a little bit more this week.”
Even with this plan being a clear reaction to a Patriots offense that was held to three total receptions for their receivers on Sunday, Brissett made sure to mention how close his team was to beating the Seahawks with a ground-and-pound style.
“We were two plays away from winning the game,” said Brissett. “And then everybody’s like, ‘Oh it’s great.’ Hunter [Henry] had a great day. Running game was good, and all of this, and this-that-and-the-third. But yeah, obviously we want to get more players involved.
“We want to spread the wealth, for sure. So yeah, this game’s the opportunity to do that.”
Thursday Night Football kicks off at 8:00 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.