The Patriots won this game in the first half and sealed it with their 9+ minute drive to begin the second half. They made a great deal of mistakes, however. Brady did not show up with his A game. The defense did very well once again and a combined rushing attack allowed the Pats to dominate the game. The Jets sucking helped out a lot, too.
Mike Vrabel stood out as the best player on the field. He caught 2 TDs and sacked Bollinger as one of his 4 solo tackles and 6 overrall. He is the first player since sacks have been recorded as a statistic to record one and catch 2 TDs in the same game. Vrabel now has 6 career regular season TD catches. He has only caught touchdowns.
The Pats had a great combined running attack. 50 carries spread to 6 players. Dillon had 26 for 77 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Faulk had 10 carries for 38 yards. Heath Evans came in for 6 carries and 16 yards. Patrick Pass had 3 for 14 yards. Tom Brady sneaked 3 times for 7 yards. Each sneak was a succesful 1st down run. Doug Flutie carried it twice for -1 yard. 50 carries for 151 yards. Not a great average per carry, but a consistent and relentless ground attack that dominated the time of possession. The Pats had the ball for 24 minutes in the 1st half and 44 in the entire game. At one point, they ran 31 straight plays before the Jets got the ball back.
The defense was stellar. The Front Seven got excellent pressure on Bollinger. They recorded 4 sacks. Few of those Sacks were pure individual pressures. They were well designed and well executed plays. McGinist, Colvin, and Vrabel all had great days once again.
The defense pressured Bollinger and stopped the run as well. The Jets only had 40 rushing yards in the game. The defensive backs were able to cover decently enough and gave the pressuring pass rushers time to get to Bollinger and force some bad throws, including the one Samuel picked off.
There are a few things to be worried about. Brady was not very accurate or all that wise with his decisions. He was good, but not the normal Brady we're used to seeing. The biggest worry from the game is the status of Tedy Bruschi. TB54 went down in the 1st quarter with what appeared to be a problem with an ankle. All that is officially known is that it is a left leg injury and that he will be receiving X-Rays. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw little to no Tedy Bruschi in the Miami game on Sunday.
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