Week 7 comes to a close as the New England Patriots venture to MetLife Stadium to face the New York Jets on Monday Night Football. This will be the second and final meeting between the two AFC East foes. In the first–with Luke Falk at quarterback–the Patriots completely dismantled the Jets.
This time, the hope in New York is that things will be different. Part of the reason for the optimism is what they were able to do to the Dallas Cowboys last week in Sam Darnold’s first game back from mononucleosis. With their quarterback back in the fold, the Jets look much more like the team everyone thought they could be entering the 2019 season. Instead of opponents overloading the box in an effort to bottle up Le’Veon Bell they now have to pick and choose between stopping the pass or stopping the run. The Cowboys choose the latter and Darnold rip them apart to the tune of 338 yards, two touchdowns and 71.9 completion percentage.
Tonight, the Patriots bring in arguably the league’s best defense. They are one of the units that can simultaneously shut down the run and the pass. New England is powered by its group of linebackers known within the locker room as “The Boogeymen”. Ja’whun Bentley, Jamie Collins, Donta Hightower, Kyle Van Noy, and Elandon Roberts have helped transform this defense this season. New England has looked like a throwback to the Bill Belichick teams of the early 2000s where the defense led the way. However, Tom Brady is no slacker and he remains the greatest of all-time to ever play the quarterback position. He still has his running mate Julian Edelman and the running back duo of Sony Michel and James White is one of the better tandems in the league today.
Belichick might have finally made a trade with the Jets organization but he is not about to let them gain ground on them in the AFC East race. Though this is a road game and the Jets fans will be anxious to see their team get a second big win in consecutive weeks. New England hopes to remain as one of the final two unbeaten teams in the NFL. New York will come out hoping to put its stamp on this game defensively. With Josh Gordon sidelined, the team down to Benjamin Watson, and zero healthy fullbacks it remains to be seen how Josh McDaniels and Brady go about attacking the Jets defense especially with their big offseason acquisition of C.J. Mosley returning to the field this week.
This is a different Jets team than the one that was a laughingstock of the league just a few weeks ago. The Patriots come into this game very hobbled on offense but their defense remains at the top of their game. In the end, they prove too good to let New England fall from the ranks of the undefeated.
PREDICTION: Patriots 24 , Jets 20
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