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Week 18 Game Recap: New York Jets 16, New England Patriots 37What you need to know
QB Chad Pennington started off very shakily, completing just two of his first seven passes. But after hooking up with Jerricho Cotchery for a 77 yard touchdown, Pennington really settled in and played very well. RB Leon Washington could never get in a good rhythm and the Jets’ running game as a whole never really got in gear as a result of trailing from the outset. The New York defense had very few answers for the Patriots’ offense. While the numbers don’t necessarily back it up, several announcers and studio personnel commented on how much New England appeared to be dominating the game despite what the score suggested.
The Patriots’ running backs had an outstanding game. The trio of Corey Dillon, Laurence Maroney, and Kevin Faulk combined to carry the ball 34 times for 145 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and they added another two receptions and a touchdown through the air. WR Jabar Gaffney was the surprising recipient of the most looks from Tom Brady. He finished with game highs of eight receptions and 104 yards. QB Tom Brady engineered six separate scoring drives, including a critical six minute touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter that put the Patriots up by 14 points and essentially ended the game.
What you ought to know
Pennington struggled to open the game, and was under heavy pressure early on from the New England defense. He was victimized by DE Richard Seymour on a particularly hard hit that sent Pennington to the ground. He lay there for a moment trying to flex his left (non-throwing) arm and eventually came off the field for an injury timeout. He only missed one play, however, and returned showing no ill effects. His touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery was a short pass that Cotchery turned into a big gain, and Pennington had very little to do with the actual scoring of the touchdown. However, it’s not as if he wasn’t putting the team in a position to score. New England was giving the Jets a lot of the shorter, underneath routes – which plays right into the Jets’ hands. They executed their offense pretty much as they wanted to, and Pennington simply took what the Patriots gave him. Pennington nearly threw another touchdown to TE Chris Baker, but the ball was tipped at the line. The deflection disrupted the timing, and Baker did all he could to make a diving catch of the ball but was down three yards short of the goal line with the catch. There was plenty of negative in Pennington’s game, namely turning the ball over. He turned the ball over twice, and each proved extremely costly to the team. The first was sort of a fluky turnover, as it was essentially a screen pass. But, since it was thrown backward, it was a lateral and recovered by New England. The Jets trailed by one score prior to that turnover, which resulted in a field goal. Pennington’s second turnover was the gamebreaker. New England had just scored a touchdown to go up 14 points when Pennington dropped back and attempted a pass to Justin McCareins. The ball never reached its target, and was returned by Asante Samuel 36 yards for the touchdown that sealed the win for the Patriots. Samuel nearly intercepted Pennington again on the ensuing Jets’ drive, but most of those passes were made out of desperation by the Jets QB.
Washington never really got into the flow running with the football, and was far more effective (relative to number of touches) in the passing game. Thirty of his fifty yards on the ground came on back-to-back runs in the third quarter, meaning his other nine carries resulted in just 20 yards over the course of the entire game. That led to an inability to sustain many drives and really made things difficult in the red zone for the entire offense. No other running backs saw significant action.
Cotchery was busy, but did the vast majority of his damage with one catch and run. He caught a short curl from Pennington before quickly planting and turning upfield. With that one move, he pretty much beat the entire Patriots’ secondary to the sideline and then simply outran everyone to the end zone. Interestingly, Cotchery has three receptions this season of forty yards or more, and all three have come against New England. The touchdown was the longest pass play in New York Jets’ playoff history
Coles had a quiet game, though he was still as active as usual. He just had a tough time gaining much separation from the New England secondary underneath, and was never able to get open very far downfield (as evidenced by his long gain on the day going for just 14 yards). Coles appeared to injure himself making a reception early in the third quarter. He made a catch over the middle and was tackled somewhat awkwardly. He was able to walk off the field and seemed fine on the sidelines, and soon returned. He later had an eight yard reception negated by a penalty.
Half of McCareins’ six pass targets came in garbage time after the Patriots went up by 21 points. What’s more, he had no receptions until the last gasp drive, when he caught two balls for 31 yards against a nothing defense. Suffice it to say, his impact was negligible on the actual outcome.
Baker picked up the slack for a somewhat gimpy Laveranues Coles during the third quarter, when he did most of his damage. Even when Coles returned healthy, all of Baker’s action came during the second half, and all of it was when the outcome of the game was yet to be decided. He showed nice hands on two plays in particular. The first was a grab he made at the New England three yard line off a deflection. He demonstrated great concentration in managing to hold onto the ball, though he came up short of the goal line. On another he reached out and plucked a ball out of the air for a 13 yard slant route early in the fourth quarter. That play came just after a big gain down the seam for 23 yards.
Nugent closed out his outstanding 2006 campaign by connecting on three more field goals (28, 21, 37) and finished with a streak of 21 consecutive successful field goals.
The Jets struggled mightily in this aspect of the game for much of the season, and today was no exception. The Patriots pounded the ball all game long, gaining 158 yards on 38 carries (one carry was a kneel by Vinny Testaverde that lost one yard). The Jets had trouble tackling early on, allowing Corey Dillon to break through several defenders on his way to an 11 yard touchdown run to kick off the scoring on the opening drive of the game. Dillon bookended the game by picking up a critical first down late in the game as well. With New England leading by seven points and facing a third down and one at the New York 17, Dillon was able to side-step his way across the line before bursting ahead for a seven yard gain. Tom Brady threw a touchdown to Kevin Faulk three plays later, putting the game out of reach. The Jets did force a fumble on Dillon early in the game, which seemed to be a portent of good things to come, but it didn’t materialize that way. It was reported as the first playoff fumble of Dillon’s career, though it should be noted that he had played just six postseason games prior to this game (105 carries).
New York made broke the cardinal rule of playing Tom Brady, and that is, if you blitz him you will get burned. The Jets constantly sent extra defenders at Brady, and for a little while it kind of worked. The Patriots offense didn’t look great, players weren’t getting open downfield, and the only option they had was to dump the ball off in the flat or throw safe out routes to Jabar Gaffney. But eventually New England caught on and adjusted, which resulted in Brady improving greatly as the game went on. The Jets had a couple of early opportunities to make plays, but couldn’t quite get it done. S Kerry Rhodes nearly made a spectacular diving pick of a pass intended for TE Ben Watson on the end zone sideline, but was only able to knock the ball away. LB Jonathan Vilma made a huge defensive gaffe midway through the second quarter on a rush to the QB. Vilma came off the edge and had Brady in his sights. Rather than register an easy sack, Vilma ran to the side of the QB and tried knocking the ball loose for a fumble. Brady simply stepped up in the pocket and pulled the ball down to elude Vilma, then scrambled for a 12 yard gain on third down and six from the 37 yard line. That drive eventually resulted in a field goal. Late in the third quarter, David Barrett blew a great chance for a key play with an interception (also in the end zone) but was unable to hang onto the football. New England kicked another field goal on the next play.
With more consistent play from his receivers, Tom Brady’s stat line might have been outstanding instead of merely very good. As it stands, he completed 65% of his passes, went over 200 yards, and threw two touchdowns. The first touchdown pass gave him a TD in his tenth straight playoff game, tying him with Ken Stabler and Joe Montana for the third most consecutive games with a touchdown pass in the playoffs. Only Brett Favre (16) and Dan Marino (12) have more, and Brady will have the chance to tie Marino next weekend in San Diego. As for his performance, Brady played pretty much as we’ve come to expect him to. He consistently found the open man, didn’t try to force anything foolish, and saved his best for last. Early on, his receivers did him no favors, especially Daniel Graham (dropped a 27 yard touchdown) and Jabar Gaffney (dropped a 41 yard touchdown). Yet Brady still was able to move the ball downfield with mostly shorter passes. His best play of the first half wasn’t even a pass at all. With LB Jonathan Vilma charging hard off the edge, Brady stepped up in the pocket to avoid Vilma (who whiffed on a fumble attempt) and took off for a 12 yard scramble and a first down to convert a key third down situation. In the fourth quarter, New England led by seven and faced a third down from the New York seven yard line. New York sent an all-out blitz, but Brady coolly hoisted a pass over the rush to RB Kevin Faulk in the flat, who waltzed into the end zone untouched for the score. Brady’s miscues were few and far between, as he was nearly intercepted on two occasions in the end zone. But each time, the Jets’ defender was unable to make the play.
Maroney actually carried the ball more than any other player in the game, but he did so in a very quiet way. He saw no passes go his way through the air, he didn’t make any spectacular plays (or terrible mistakes), and his big gain of the day went for just eight yards. Yet despite the seemingly marginal game, he still averaged a fairly respectable 3.8 yards per carry. One aspect that Maroney owners would’ve liked to have seen was a score, but he failed on his only goal line attempt. He took a carry from the five yard line down to the one before being taken down. On the ensuing play, FB Heath Evans was stuffed at the goal line. On second down, Maroney was given the ball but he, too, was stuffed as Evans missed his block. TE Daniel Graham scored on the next play.
Dillon’s afternoon began well enough when he fought through a line of Jets’ defenders to power into the end zone for an 11 yard score. Yet two possessions later, Dillon made a then-costly fumble (his first-ever in the postseason) that seemed to swing momentum heavily in New York’s favor. After that moment, Dillon didn’t make another mistake really all game. He didn’t break very man big gains, and his RB counterpart Laurence Maroney actually got the lion’s share of the carries (including short yardage), but Dillon was on the field for much of the fourth quarter as the Patriots tried running out the clock. Dillon had a particularly crucial run on a third and one situation in the fourth quarter. He took the handoff and ran laterally down the line until he found a hole. Once there, he burst through it for a seven yard gain and a first down. Kevin Faulk caught a touchdown pass later in the drive that put New England up by 14.
Faulk’s impact was minimal in the running game, though he did oddly enough get a late game carry as New England was trying to run off some clock. That is typically the time of game for Corey Dillon, but Faulk got a rare look in that spot. But his main impact was on the one pass that was thrown his way. With New England leading by seven midway through the fourth quarter and facing a third down, Tom Brady found Faulk wide open in the flat for an easy seven yard touchdown pass. The Jets sent extra defenders, and got burned when no one accounted for Faulk on the right side of the field.
Gaffney’s production was the biggest statistical surprise of the game, as he was far more involved in the offense than most people would’ve anticipated. Brady’s first three completions of the game went to Gaffney, and they didn’t slow down much after that. He finished with a game high eight receptions for 104 yards, numbers that could’ve been even better if he hadn’t dropped a 41 yard touchdown bomb in the end zone that hit him right in the hands in stride. Most of Gaffney’s receptions were of the short yardage variety, and occurred mostly on out quick out routes to the sideline.
Some expected Caldwell to be the guy in the postseason for New England, but that simply was not the case today. As usual, Tom Brady spread the ball around and consistently found the most open receiver. In this case, that was rarely Caldwell. His numbers increased once the Jets decided to account for Jabar Gaffney, but he was never able to hit that one big strike.
In typical Troy Brown fashion, the veteran receiver’s name was almost never called out all game long, and then he suddenly made one of the most crucial third down receptions of the game. New England led by seven after a New York field goal cut the lead from ten, and the Patriots were facing a third down and eight from their own 39 yard line. Brown hauled in the pass over the middle and slid forward for the first down. While his impact on the stat sheet isn’t huge, it’s clear that Tom Brady still trusts him in big spots.
Watson had an inconsistent showing. He caught four passes, but dropped at least two passes. One drop was justifiable because it wasn’t a great pass from Brady, and it would’ve been a very nice play if Watson could’ve held on. But the other was simply a drop, and it was near the end zone to boot.
Graham didn’t see a lot of action, but his contribution to the game was rather large. He caught what would turn out to be the game-winning touchdown with eleven seconds left to play in the first half. Brady fired the ball to the back line of the end zone, and Graham did a very nice job of hauling in the pass in traffic of two defenders. It wasn’t all good for Graham, as he also dropped a potential 27 yard touchdown early in the first quarter. But that drive resulted in a touchdown anyway, absolving Graham.
Gostkowski asserted himself well in his first career playoff game and the first Patriots’ playoff game without Adam Vinatieri since 1997. Gostkowski connected on kicks from 20, 40, and 28 yards out and none of them were ever in question.
The Patriots got up early on the Jets, and despite the game being close for most of the afternoon, one never got the sense that the Jets were about to march the ball downfield on New England. They came up with the stops when they needed to, and never allowed Leon Washington or anyone else to get into a good running rhythm. The Patriots allowed 70 total yards on the ground. Of those 70 yards, 19 came courtesy of two wide receiver reverses by Jerricho Cotchery, and 30 of them came on successive runs by Washington midway through the third quarter. New York’s twelve other carries resulted in a grand total of 21 yards gained, and New England obviously did very well in allowing the Jets only a handful of decent runs without allowing a consistent rushing attack.
New England got a lot of pressure on Chad Pennington early, and he struggled mightily to open the game. But somewhere during the first half, the gameplan changed and Pennington wasn’t put under anywhere near the same amount of pressure. The result was a great improvement in New York’s ability to throw the football, and that resulted in a 300 yard game for the New York passing game. Granted, 77 of those 300 yards came on one freak play. WR Jerricho Cotchery caught a simple short curl for a first down, but then quickly turned it upfield for a 77 yard score (outrunning the entire Patriot defense in the process). The Patriots did a much better job of tackling the rest of the way, and the Jets couldn’t get another receiver past the secondary for the remainder of the game. Of course, they didn’t really attempt to do that much, either. New York was content to ‘dink-and-dunk’ their way downfield, a plan that worked very well until they got into the red zone. The Patriots clamped up when New York had the ball in close, resulting in three Jets’ field goals of less than 40 yards away. Perhaps the two biggest plays of the game came courtesy of the New England pass defense. The first was a batted pass at the line by Rosevelt Colvin. Technically, the play was considered a fumble because it was a backward lateral, but it was more or less a pass. Coming off the edge, Colvin knocked the ball down, and while several players around the ball thought it was simply an incomplete pass, Vince Wilfork alertly scooped up the football for the Patriots and rumbled 31 yards to the New York 15. That turnover would eventually lead to a field goal. And the game-clinching play was made by CB Asante Samuel, who intercepted a Pennington pass and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown that put New England up by 21 points (and put the game out of reach).
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