• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Jets Come Up Short 25-27 to Patriots

ByBarry Holmes

Oct 19, 2014

FOXBOROUGH, MA – Thursday night was a brief preview of why Rex Ryan had stuck by the quarterback that everyone believed needed to take a seat and let Michael Vick take over. Geno Smith on the road had arguably his best game of the 2014 season thus far. Smith finished with 20 completions on 34 attempts with 226 yards. He threw for one TD and for the first time all year, did not throw for an interception. He did a good job of surveying the field, and not putting his defense in bad situations. Even with the game on the line, he drove his team down to make the game winning 58 yard field goal attempt by Nick Folk. However, the field goal was blocked and the Jets fell short to the New England Patriots 27-25.

The rushing attack that we were used to seeing early on this season showed up to play. Chris Ivory finished with 107 yards on 21 carries and a TD. Chris Johnson was right behind with 61 yards on 13 carries. Smith even added 31 yards on 7 carries of his own. He did a good job of sliding and not putting himself in harm’s way too much. He only took 3 sacks from the Patriots defense. Smith also got a lift from his receiving core. Smith connected with 8 different receivers, including Jeff Cumberland for his lone TD pass. Eric Decker led all receivers with 4 receptions for 65 yards, but no TD catch.

Tom Brady remained undefeated on Thursday night, by having himself a very good game. He looked sharp as he finished with 3 TD passes on 20 completions out of 37 passes (worse completion percentage than Smith). Brady got a huge help from Shane Vereen who picked up the full workload from injured teammate Stevan Ridley. Vereen finished with 2 TD’s including a highlight catch in the 1st quarter in which he was fully extended. He finished with 5 receptions for 71 yards, which led the team. He also led the team in rushing with 43 yards on 11 carries.

Credit: Charles Krupa/Associated Press ... Tom Brady led his team to a divisional win
Credit: Charles Krupa/Associated Press … Tom Brady led his team to a divisional win

The Jets for the first time all year, looked like they were playing inspired. They fought all game, and held the lead in the 1st and 3rd quarter. Had their field goal at the end not been blocked, we may have been talking about Gang Green’s 2nd win on the year. Instead we are talking about a Rex Ryan coached team that has a 1-6 record, and winless on the road. The Jets however proved that when they take care of the football, they can compete with the best. Even with converting on just 2 of their 4 chances in the red zone, they only lost by 2 points. If the Jets can fix their red zone efficiency problem which has plagued them all year, and they can continue to play mistake free football, they may have a chance to win Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.

 

Barry Holmes/Pure Sports NY

 

By Barry Holmes

Graduate of Millersville University, with a BS in Communications focused in Broadcast. Senior Writer & Social Media Manager for PureSportsNY.

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