How does that medicine taste, Patriots? Your own flavored?

Gang Green blows out the Patriots 24-3 on Thursday night. Plus, how the tides have finally turned after two-plus decades...

Rich MacLeod

Sep 20, 2024

This week’s episode of Just Jets: The Podcast will release later this afternoon!

What’s Up with the Jets? 🛩️

The Jets (2-1) blew-out the Patriots (1-2) by a 24-3 score on Thursday Night Football (box)
Last night’s win marks the first time since October 15, 2000 that the Jets beat the Patriots by at least three scores
QB Aaron Rodgers was incredible in the victory, going 27/35 (77.1 percent), 281 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 118.9 rating
New York’s defense dominated all night long, holding the Patriots to 61 net passing yards (139 yards total) while recording seven sacks, 15 QB hits and forcing a turnover
DE Will McDonald IV had a second consecutive outstanding game on the edge, recording two more sacks (5.0 this season) and four QB hits
TE Tyler Conklin led the Jets in receptions and receiving yards, catching five passes for 93 yards on the night
RBs Braelon Allen and Breece Hall combined for 109 rushing yards, seven catches, 42 receiving yards and a touchdown
RT Morgan Moses left the third quarter of the game due to an undisclosed knee injury, though it is not expected to be a serious injury
The Jets have scored at least three offensive touchdowns in three straight games – it’s the first they’ve accomplished that since the 1989 season
It only took three games for the Jets to score nine offensive touchdowns this year – last season, it took the team until Week 11

Game Balls 🏈

OFFENSE

🏈 Aaron Rodgers: If you didn’t grow up watching the Jets during the Joe Namath era, this may have legitimately been the best quarterbacked game you’ve ever seen by someone wearing the green and white. I know it was for me.

From the very first snap tonight, you could tell that Rodgers had it tonight. The offense came out humming, with creative and aggressive play-calling that kept a solid Patriots defense completely off balance. Rodgers was constantly checking at the line, moved in and out of the pocket better than we’ve seen all season, and made a number of incredible throws in so many different varieties. Whatever rust we saw from the man over the first two weeks seems to be gone, as Rodgers was totally in his bag all night long.

DEFENSE

🏈 Will McDonald IV: While we’re giving this to an individual this week, a major shoutout to the Jets defensive line as a whole. Even though they were going up against a depleted Patriots O-line, the Jets have dealt with some major hits of their own with Jermaine Johnson tearing his Achilles and Haason Reddick still not joining the team.

But once again, for the second straight game, the defensive game ball has to go to Will McDonald IV. Going into this year, people were pretty critical of the second-year pass rusher who was taken in the first round last year. Some pundits felt pretty strongly that this was another whiff for Joe Douglas & Co., but over the six days McDonald has shut a lot of people up. After a three-sack performance on Sunday, the 25-year-old edge rush recorded another two sacks tonight and four quarterback hits. We’ll see how he fares as teams begin to game plan for him more in the future, but it’s hard to not be impressed with this kid’s trajectory right now.

Play of the Week 📺

There were so many times last season where it felt like pulling teeth to pick the Play of the Week, and nowadays it seems as if there’s too many moments to choose from.

Last night was packed full of awesome moments for the Jets on both sides of the ball, but I think I have to go with the third and final touchdown of the night when Aaron Rodgers found Garrett Wilson for the first time this year.

Rodgers was incredible all night long, but this might have been his biggest “wow” throw of the game for me. With Patriots corner Christian Gonzalez attempting to jump the route, this is a ball that pretty much any Jets quarterback of the last 15-plus years throws for a pick-six. But Rodgers threw this ball with such impeccable placement and velocity that his receiver was the only one who could make a play on it.

Also, an extra kudos to Garrett for adjusting in full speed to reach the ball over the plane before his momentum took him out of bounds.

A Look at the Standings 📈

The Jets defeated the Patriots on Thursday night, while the Bills and Dolphins won’t play their games until this weekend. Here’s how the AFC East looks going into the rest of Week 3…

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The Jets have finally, mercifully flipped the script ✍️

As the afterglow of the Jets blowout win vs the Patriots fades, a very surreal feeling remains with me while I write this newsletter. The New York Jets, the football team with a PHD in toxicity and the authors of our sports trauma over the last decade-plus, just dismantled the New England Patriots on national television.

After years and years and years of the shoe being on the other foot, it was finally the Jets laying the smackdown and embarrassing their division rival in primetime in front of the entire country. Pinch me.

“Divisional game… primetime… we came out and got our ass kicked,” Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers said after the game.

Over the years we’ve become so accustomed to those quotes coming from the players on our own team, and now it’s the Jets who are forcing their opponents into saying them? I mean seriously… what world are we living in here?

I honestly feel as if I won’t have much useful analysis in this editorial this week, at least not as long as I’m riding this high, because it still feels like we’re living in a complete dream. Sure, if you take a step back and look at the two rosters and the varied expectations for both of these teams, this was probably the result that should have happened. The Jets did their job. But we’ve been talking about Patriots PTSD for the last week now, and that’s something that Jets fans truly needed to finally be given permission to overcome before they’d be able to do so.

Even the most optimistic of Jets fans expected this game to be a dog fight solely because of what we’ve been conditioned to when seeing that set of laundry on the opposing sideline. And I’m sure more than a few of us had that fleeting thought to ourselves as kickoff got closer, “oh god, what if we actually lose??”

Tom Brady is gone, Bill Belichick is gone, but that logo had still made Jets fans see ghosts. And for a team that has had so many low points against these Patriots in primetime like that Sam Darnold ghosts game, or 45-3, or the infamous and way over-discussed butt fumble, it sure felt sweet to give that damn team a taste of their own medicine.

This time it was the Jets quarterback that looked like he was completely in his bag, dominating the game in all facets and having the Patriots completely on their heels all night long. It was the Jets defense that seemed to have all of the answers to the test and refused to let New England get in the end zone, even in garbage time. It was the Jets that looked like the team that was going places, and the who Patriots limped off the field to uproarious mockery and criticism.

We have not seen this franchise beat up on pretty much any team in recent years, but especially the Patriots. Last night marked the first time since 2000 — four years before Braelon Allen was born — that the Jets defeated the Patriots by three or more scores.

“We are trying to change this whole attitude around here,” Aaron Rodgers said after the game. “[Jets fans] have been tortured for a long time.”

Thursday night wasn’t just a necessary win for this team, it was an exorcism. For this franchise, it feels as if a cloud has finally lifted from them and the turnaround that we’ve been waiting on for so long has now officially begun. Rodgers has gotten through these first three games unscathed and has looked better and better every week, both sides of the ball are coming to life, and now they’re finally the ones beating up on their inferior division rivals.

This win was the official changing of the guard that needed to take place in the psyche of this fan base to move forward, and now we finally can.

No more ghosts. Instead, it’s the Patriots who are having nightmares about us.

Next Week’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Jets (2-1) vs. Broncos (0-2)

Where: MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ

When: Sunday 9/29, 1:00 PM EST

Where to Watch: CBS

Around the NFL 🏁

The Panthers are officially benching QB Bryce Young, who they selected No. 1 overall just one year ago, in favor of veteran Andy Dalton
Bengals WR Tee Higgins practiced for the first time since injuring his hamstring