Apparently the cure for a struggling offense and a remarkably bad defense is to play the Jets. Standard.

Yeah, that's what it was. Don't give any credit to the Pats at all. Jesus.

Great win tonight and it proves that people just overreact WAAAAAAY too much around here. Just what I said.

I think the Pats D turned the corner last week against the Giants. I do think they will still have some bad games but I think they can and will play good enough to win most games.

Just a fantastic performance and great win.

I certainly give some credit to the Pats but being up against Sanchez certainly helps. For example our offense played very well against a good defense.

It was a great win but that is far from proving people have overreacted. The Pats will probably finish 12-4 looking at the rest of their schedule.

OF course the Pats played well and won. We're just spoiled from the era when AFC east games were rest-games inbetween the Steelers and Colts.

In before Peyton Mannings first game back will be against against New England

Of course it proved people overreacted. Did you read this thread last week or listen to the local sports stations around here? It was absolutely ridiculous what people were saying and the Pats came out and proved the critics wrong.

I expected the Pats to lose that game and was wondering if it would be the tipping point for the season going down the tubes. It seems like they nearly always find a way to come up big in spots like this over the years. That's just a really solid win going on the road and beating a good team with the division in the balance, particularly when it appeared these teams were going in different directions over the past month.

This game was a pretty good example of what the Pats are capable of looking like when all cylinders are actually firing at the same time. The zone coverage was excellent, they generated an actual pass rush, special teams made some huge plays, and Brady played like Brady. If Brady had been a little sharper in the first half and been able to turn some of those field goals into touchdowns, this would have been a blowout. To do it in New York of all places makes it a very impressive win.

They're a legit contender and can beat anyone if (and that's a huge if) all 3 units can put it together consistently. This is certainly the first time we've seen it all year, and it was excellent.

Hey, Salva's a believer again. Shocker.

I'm in California so I don't know what the Boston area was saying but this team was always gonna win games, the talk in here has been Championship caliber football. I don't think people in here were saying this team would be 9-7, just that this team isn't gonna win a Championship with this defense.

So the last eight games were all against teams either first or second in their division. We went 5-3 which is very good. All of the remaining games in 2011 are against teams last in their division.

Belichick after the game

“Thirty-seven points on the best defense in the league, suck my d-ck”

Ha I saw that posted in the AFE East thread and thought it was a joke...

Goodie, I don't think I'm being as inconsistent as you think I am. I said IF they can put together a consistent performance on both sides of the ball, they are contenders. But that means the D playing as well as they did last night. Can they do that against a QB better than Sanchez? I don't know. I'm more optimistic after last night, but is that unreasonable? This had all the makings of a terrible matchup and a likely loss. I think I have a right to be excited about a satisfying win against the Jets and still qualified in my thoughts about the team going forward.

I think you need to stop playing the self-righteous fan who goes out of his way to call out everyone who criticizes obvious deficiencies of the team when it suddenly displays an improvement.

Solid post and you're exactly right. If only all your posts were this thought provoking and accurate instead of the foolish blanket statements you make sometimes like "this team cannot win in the playoffs". Although I'm always optimistic and you're always cautious, if you keep it real and use logic, I can't imagine I would have very much issue with your posts.

I will probably get ripped for this but this game was not the blowout we and the media are making it out to be. I am satisfied with how they played against a very good team, but the game was much closer than the score indicated.

I agree with you - but I think it's a good thing they hung in there on the road against a good team and they responded when they had to. It turned into a blowout only at the very end, but any road victory against a good team with the division hanging in the balance is a very good win imo.

Before I could LOL at Salva with a, "We won by three TDs, what do you mean this wasn't a blowout?", DonkeyOT agrees with him. You guys have to explain to me how this wasn't a blowout.

BTW, I don't think the defense looked all that "improved" this week. The pass rush was certainly its most effective to date, but I don't think the rest of the D played much better or worse than usual. They still gave up around 400 yards, and as usual settled in the 17-24 point range (if I give them a pass for the 9-yd TD drive last week, I have to ding 'em three points for the missed chip shot on the opening drive this week).

My point: They weren't "great" this week. They weren't "the worst defense in the league" the previous weeks. Nothing changed.

Parting thought, from a tweet by FauxJohnMadden: How can OchoCinco not know where the sideline is??? It's where he's been standing all season!

At this point I'm happy to focus on the fact that we're in the driver's seat for the division right now, have a very favorable schedule (I will never use the word "easy" pertaining to the NFL), a solid shot at a bye, and a chance that the Packers team plane will crash somewhere before the Super Bowl. Easy game.

You partly explained it yourself.

YTF, this is so wrong, they were much improved and if the Patriots get that kind of pass rush every week, they will be a dramatically improved defense going forward with even below average dbs. That's what we fans have been clamoring for for a few years now, a pass rush.

the teams played closer than 21 points indicates partially b/c

- weird muffed point / recovery = 3 points
- pick 6 = 7 points
- other triple tip INT fell into Ninkovich after hitting other guys
- Jets guy drops Brady INT = -3 points (that was the sane drive, right?)

basically the Pats benefited from the majority of bounces/weird plays in this game

It was a very solid and decisive victory. The game was pretty much over with 8 minutes left and completely over with 7:45 left and the Jets never really had a chance to tie or go ahead from about mid way through the 3rd quarter.

It wasn't a blowout like the GB Minny game last night but I'm not sure it matters much. The Pats beat them very decisively. It wasn't a "close" game.

The Pick six wasn't a weird bounce, that was a solid read by Ninkovich and a bad decision by Sanchez. The muffed punt wasn't weird either, McKnight dropped it and the Jets couldn't recover when they should. The Tipped ball was certainly lucky but the receiver should have had that catch and the dropped Brady interception wasn't a weird bounce, the defender just dropped an easy pick.

All four of these were either solid plays by the Pats or bad plays by the Jets.