By Chad Graff, Zack Rosenblatt and Sam Jane
A year ago, the New England Patriots and New York Jets sat in the cellar of the AFC East standings at 4-13 and 5-12. What a difference a year — and an MVP-caliber quarterback — can make.
Drake Maye and the Patriots coasted to their AFC-leading ninth win of the season on “Thursday Night Football,” defeating the Jets 27-14 at Gillette Stadium. New England (9-2) won its NFL-leading eighth game in a row, while the Jets (2-8) continue to slide.
The Patriots’ wealth of options was on full display Thursday as rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson scored three touchdowns, wideout Stefon Diggs posted 105 receiving yards and five players recorded receptions. While Maye’s numbers weren’t huge, he showed a national audience how much he’s grown in his second year.
Henderson delivers breakout performance
Henderson has arrived.
After a slow start to the season, the rookie has scored five touchdowns in five days while filling in for the injured Rhamondre Stevenson. Henderson has been so good that he may end up taking the starting job from Stevenson, who has missed the last three games.
After he ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns last week in a win over the Buccaneers, Henderson totaled 93 yards on 24 touches Thursday night along with those three touchdowns (two of them rushing, one receiving).
Henderson has been the outside, big-play threat for the Patriots’ running game, but he showed he’s plenty capable at running between the tackles Thursday night.
It’s unclear if Stevenson will play in New England’s Week 12 game in Cincinnati, but Henderson has given the coaches plenty to think about as they manage the depth chart.
‘MVP’ Maye continues to shine
Maye received plenty of “MVP” chants from a fired-up crowd watching the Patriots play their first night home game in two years.
They started when Maye took the field as the last Patriots player introduced, then continued as the second-year standout played well in an impressive performance.
This wasn’t Maye’s best game, but it might have been one of the most important in validating his status as a legitimate MVP candidate, given the national audience and remarkable throws.
Maye completed 25 of 34 passes for 281 yards with a touchdown. He completed his first 11 passes and didn’t throw an incompletion until three minutes remained in the first half.
Maye is one of the MVP front-runners along with the Rams’ Matthew Stafford and the Seahawks’ Sam Darnold, and he will need some impressive games down the stretch to earn the award. But Thursday night was a chance for the nation to see how well he runs this offense.
His strong night came despite a pair of rare drops from Diggs and with rookie Kyle Williams appearing to run a couple of wrong routes.
Incoming QB change for Jets?
As it turns out, Justin Fields is still not the solution at quarterback for the Jets. And yet, for some reason, coach Aaron Glenn keeps running him out there. Week after week, it’s clear that Fields doesn’t belong out there anymore — and that was especially true Thursday night, even if there were a few drops from his wide receivers.
A low moment came when a third-down pass late in the fourth quarter deflected off the back of left tackle Olu Fashanu’s head — and then Fields followed that up by dropping the ball on a snap and fumbling it away to the Patriots, who turned around and made a field goal a few plays later to pretty much put the game away.
Fields put together an impressive first drive where the Jets leaned on his running ability — but it was mostly a disaster after that, and he totaled only 116 passing yards on the night. At some point, perhaps Glenn will switch to Tyrod Taylor or undrafted rookie Brady Cook.
New York’s new wideouts take the field
Wide receiver Adonai Mitchell made his Jets debut, and it didn’t go especially well. His first catch was a third-down conversion on a slant that helped set up Fields’ touchdown run on the opening drive.
But after that, Mitchell dropped a perfect deep ball from Fields that would’ve gone for a big gain. Fields missed him badly later in the second quarter on what would’ve been an explosive play, and then Mitchell dropped another pass in the fourth quarter.
The upside is that Mitchell has the athleticism and upside to get open and beat man-to-man coverage, but he needs to correct the focus issues that led to the drops and mistakes. On the flip side, the other receiver the Jets acquired recently acquitted himself well: John Metchie started and caught a 22-yard touchdown when he was left wide open in the third quarter.
New England’s defense settles in, loses Milton Williams
The Patriots defense got off to another slow start, allowing a touchdown on the Jets’ opening drive, before settling in after that. The Jets went three-and-out on their three other drives in the first half. Then the New England defense had an impressive performance in the second half.
A fumble recovery by Anfernee Jennings helped seal the win on a night that New York managed just 245 yards of offense.
Still, there are areas of concern for the Pats defense. The first is that the Jets converted eight of their 14 third-down attempts, which is something to monitor going forward. Second, Fields scrambled much more than Patriots coach Mike Vrabel liked, even for a mobile quarterback. He ran for 67 yards on 11 attempts with a touchdown.
Finally, it’s concerning that the Patriots lost Milton Williams, their highest-paid player, to an ankle injury. The defensive tackle played only eight snaps. That’ll be an injury to monitor when they return to practice next week.