Oh J-E-T-S, Where Is Thy Sting?

Attention Pats fans, tree huggers and Mike Garvel holdouts! This Matt Cassel thing might not be too bad after all... as long as he just keeps on dumping the rock off to Kevin Faulk & Wes Welker( 7 rec. for 72 yards) for the short stuff and somehow learns to toss it up for Randy Moss the Patriots should be able to win some more games. Underdogs for the first time in years, the Pats beat the New York Jets by a score of 19 to 10, the first victory since 2000 in a game without Tom Brady as the starting quarterback. Overall, the defense had an excellent game and Steven Gostkowski kicked the pigskin off the football all day (four field goals & about a billion touchbacks). Another player who had a great game was the former Jets, LaMont Jordan who tore right through the Jets defense the entire second half of the game (11 rushes for 62 yards)

Not everything that happened was positive by any means. Cassel still isn't in rhythm with Moss & it really showed today (especially on the deep pass that Cassel underthrew by about 15 yards) and took way too many sacks (despite the offensive line playing pretty well). Because the Jets stink, it didn't matter too much today - and might actually not matter too much the next three weeks (Dolphins, Bye, 49ers) - but when the harder games start piling up after week (Chargers, Broncos, Colts, Bills), it's going to be essential that the Patriots have a legitimate deep threat. One reason for the lack of coordination may have simply have been that Moss missed most of the practices last week with a back injury (as did Jabbar Gaffney who had no receptions at all in today's game).


Anyways, this game has too be a huge disappointment for Jets players & fans. For what was supposed to be a revenge game for the Jets (for SpyGate, the opening day blowout last year, the Mangini vs Belichick thing, etc), they really missed what was probably their best chance in this decade to really pound the Pats (Brady will be back next year & by the next time we play them in week 11, the Patriots should be a better team).

Next week - it's the 0-2 Miami Dolphins (the last team the Patriots actually lost to in the regular season back in 2006).