Commish Battle Round IV: Patriots 35 - Jets 17
The Patriots take a huge step towards claiming their 2nd consecutive AFC East title by traveling to the Meadowlands and taking down their bitter rival Jets. The Patriots spotted the Jets a 14-0 lead before they ever touched the ball when the Jets came out in surprising ground and pound mode and got a long TD from Green, followed by a Darius Holmes fumble on the ensuing kickoff which the Jets took back for 6. The Pats didn't panic though, and then went beast mode, outscoring the Jets 35-3 the rest of the way, including 21-0 in the second half.
Tom Brady had his biggest game of the season, completing 9 of 10 passes for 199 yards and 3 TDs (all to Roddy White). The only incompletion was a drop by Aaron Hernandez.
Mark Sanchez was decidedly less accurate, going 12 of 34 for 157 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT.
Cobie Ross carried 18 times for 111 yards and 2 TDs. Green-Ellis was finally a factor again as well, with 4 carries for 65 yards, including a 50 yarder when set up the TD that iced the game.
Shonn Green carried 9 times for 99 yards and a TD, most of those in the 1st half before the Jets got more pass happy.
Roddy White had by far his biggest game as a Patriot, catching 5 passes for 150 yards and 3 TDs. He was also finally used on some of the deep patterns I got him for, including one ridiculous play where he caught the ball in the middle of about 4 Jets and then spun around and took it for a TD. No other Patriot had more than 1 catch (though Welker's one was a HUGE 3rd down conversion late).
Delency Kilgo lead the way for the Jets, with 5 catches for 65 yards.
The teams each turned it over once, on the aforementioned Holmes fumble on the KR, and a pick by Pat Chung.
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gg uber! Needless to say, this win was immeasurably huge for me. I'm very glad I didn't panic down 14-0 and stuck with my gameplan.
As I said, I'm definitely a little surprised you didn't stick with the run longer since it was working. You've had more passing success against me than pretty much anyone in the league, so I came into this one playing 100% pass defense. I think I was in the 3-4 for maybe 2 snaps or something. Definitely a lot of that had to do with the way the game was going, but especially in the rain I was surprised you didn't stick with the ground and pound longer.
We've now split the series 2-2 so far, I look forward to next year's game!