No Tears, Just Dismal Truth for Jets

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It was a what-else-can-go-wrong game for the Jets that revealed their warts and showcased the Patriots' muscle. Everything about this 31-14 Patriots victory here on Sunday essentially pointed to one fact: the Jets are frauds.

They talked a big game before the first snap of the season and more smack when they toppled the Patriots 16-9 back in Week 2. They were throwing a rookie quarterback sensation at opponents, combined with a defense designed to growl and intimidate.

They sped to three straight victories -- but have since lost six of seven games. And those six losses have come in a pair of three-game losing skids, including the current one. They are a 4-6 team steamrolling to a 7-9 or 6-10 season.

Rex Ryan cried last week before his team while trying to convince them how much he still believed in them. Here on Sunday, he had no tears to shed and no fingers to point.

But the culprits were inescapable.

The rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, was awful (four interceptions, one lost fumble, just 8 of 21 passes completed for 136 yards).

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And the play-calling by offensive coordinator Brian Schotteheimer was haphazard. Sanchez was given far too much freedom to make far too many mistakes that killed the Jets, beginning with his pick returned 53 yards for a touchdown by Patriots cornerback Leigh Bodden with nearly six minutes left in the first quarter. Those were the game's first points. This after the Jets' defense had stopped the Patriots' offense cold on their first two possessions, with the Jets forcing a fumble and the recovering it on that second possession. Four plays later, Sanchez hit Bodden going the other way. The Patriots would never trail.

The Jets on offense were too frisky, too fancy with Sanchez. After the game they reminded everyone he is a rookie quarterback. Someone should remind them of that before games -- they keep dialing plays and putting him in positions to make tough throws against crafty defenses that are baiting him.

The Patriots smothered Sanchez. They pushed his touchdown/interception differential to a weak 10/16 this season.

It was easy to see which team is 7-3 and leads the AFC East. And which team has crashed.

"We kept the pressure on him, which is what you do to a rookie quarterback," Bodden said of his three picks and of Sanchez's 37.1 quarterback rating for the game. "I know after they beat us the first time back in New York, nobody was saying how much of a rookie he was. After that second game of the season, they were living it up. Hey, it was only the second game of a long season. We are in it for the long haul."

The Jets?

Ryan has said all year that his team is a "good" team. A couple of times after this latest disaster, he was saying it was a "decent" team and that "we've got to look at what we're asking him [Sanchez] to do."


Excellent idea. Less is more. New York running back Thomas Jones had a game-high 103 yards rushing and averaged 4.9 yards per carry. The Jets ran it 21 times and threw it 21 times. But even that proved too much of a burden for Sanchez in this game.

The Jets have long been seduced by the unique plays he can execute, and they simply keep calling for more and more, when the rookie is not ready for consistent greatness. It was a miserable experience for Sanchez. For all of the Jets.

There is no way the veteran players in the Jets locker room do not see how the young quarterback is being given too much, too soon to solve. There is no way the head coach is not beginning to see that. To ask about that. To ponder changing that.

Of course, the Patriots have no such problems

They have 10-year veteran Tom Brady. He was a ho-hum (for him) 28 of 41 for 310 yards and a touchdown pass. He helped make sure the Patriots scored in every quarter but the third. And he kept finding receiver Wes Welker.

Welker burned the Jets for career-highs in catches (15) and receiving yards (192). Late in the first quarter, Welker let the Jets know that it was going to be about him all day. Already ahead 7-0 after Bodden's big scoring return off Sanchez, the Patriots made it 14-0 as time expired in the first quarter on a Brady 4-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss. But on that 76-yard scoring drive, Welker caught passes of 17, 15 and 19 yards and added a run of 11 yards. It was a special spree of one-man domination for the Patriots. It was embarrassing for the Jets.

The Jets were supposed to re-route him, keep a hand on him at the line of scrimmage, jolt him, knock him off his feet. Welker turned that plan into a joke. He out-maneuvered all of the Jets. He outplayed them. He was a slippery headache.

Welker set Patriots' franchise records for most catches in a non-overtime game and most receiving yards in a home game.

"When you're in the slot," said Brady of Welker's positions, "you have the whole field to work. You can go short inside, short outside, long outside, long inside, you can stop at any point and you're typically on the third DB [defensive back] that comes on the field. You've got to see things very quickly. Wes is able to use his quickness to get open over the middle, in the flat, down the field. Wes really took advantage of it."

The Patriots have put that sour loss at Indianapolis behind them. They mauled the Jets. Now the Patriots travel to play at the undefeated New Orleans Saints next Monday, and then they play at AFC East rival Miami. New England feels perfectly suited for both tasks.

For the Jets -- well, who really believe that, with games against the Panthers, Falcons and Bengals and at Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Indianapolis, that they can finish with a winning record, let alone a with a playoff berth? It is unclear if the Jets even think it possible.

"We are a desperate football team now," Jets linebacker Bart Scott said.

With no magic remedy, he added.

Here's a start-up solution -- rely more on your defense, running game and special teams, and less on your rookie quarterback. Let him be a complement for now, not the axis. That time will come.

The Patriots are happy to be above and beyond all of that.

"I think you have to give all the credit in the world to the players," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "The Jets are a tough football team, but I was really proud of the way our guys stepped up and played all the way through."

Belichick said he saw this coming from a high-energy team practice on Wednesday.

But we've heard and seen for much longer the bottom coming for the Jets, with their big mouths and their bungled use of Sanchez.