The loss to the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets was bad, but it was compounded by the week-long yapping of the Jets players and coach. Losing sucks. Losing to the Jets sucks more. Losing to a Jets team that yaps sucks the most. But there were plenty of legit football reasons why the Patriots lost.

OFFENSE: D-

Tom Brady and the Patriots offense obviously are out of sync. That is not to take anything away from the effort by the Jets defense. Rex Ryan is an excellent defensive coach. His defense can be very good. That being said, I still expected better play from the offense.

Brady did not mesh with his receivers well at all. This was caused by a combination of bad throws, bad reads by him and the receivers, and pressure from the Jets. Brady looked his best in the two-minute situations. He looked like an average QB the rest of the time.

The receivers as a group were ineffective. Randy Moss was covered up well by Darrelle Revis (often with help). We have seen him work through that tight coverage in the past to be more of a factor. He was held in check on Sunday. Joey Galloway still has not picked up this offense. The receivers in this offense are required to make reads. They have to see the same things as the QB and make the same reads. Galloway is not there yet. Julian Edelman played well for his first real game. He still missed some things. The Pats missed Wes Welker. His ability to make the reads and get open quickly would have helped against that pass rush.

At first look, you might be inclined to dismiss the play of the offensive line. But the linemen did not play as poorly as one might think. Much of the pressure from the Jets came through blitzes, when six or more Jets were coming. The Patriots had reasonable success when they tried to run the ball. The holding and illegal procedure penalties drops their grade.

The running backs were fine. Fred Taylor did a good job running the ball. Blitz pickup was reasonable. Sammy Morris was open a couple of times on pass routes.

Overall, the offense failed to make the big play or to convert in the red zone. The Patriots' drives thus far have been sporadic at best.

DEFENSE: C

The defense let up only 16 points. The Patriots gave up only 254 net yards. The Pats held the Jets to 27 percent success on third down. Good numbers, but what does all this mean? Nothing. They did not do enough. After a good first half, the Patriots could not make the defensive plays they needed in the second half.

The defensive backs were playing a little soft on a group of receivers that did not warrant that amount of respect. The tackling was suspect. Jonathan Wilhite tried a shoulder tackle on receiver Jerricho Cotchery and Brandon Meriweather whiffed on the play, turning a mid-range reception into a long gain. If you can get a shoulder on a guy, odds are you can wrap him up. There were some other instances of mediocre tackling.

Read More

Blogs

• Rating the Roster, Part 2
• Bill Belichick and Nick Saban hanging at Pebble Beach

Audio on Demand

• The Boys Give Their Super Bowl Score on the Final Segment of NFL Sunday For the Year
• The Super Bowl Can Be Emotional Enough, But the Pats Are Doing It for Myra

Columns

• Ten points of emphasis for the Patriots this offseason
• Patriots put the wraps on the season with a farewell in Foxboro

Tickets

03/3/2012

Boston Red Sox vs Northeastern - JetBlue Park, Lee County , FL
[find tickets]

03/3/2012

Boston Red Sox vs Boston College Eagles - JetBlue Park, Lee County , FL
[find tickets]

03/4/2012

Boston Red Sox vs Minnesota Twins - JetBlue Park, Lee County , FL
[find tickets]

The linebackers were active but not great. Gary Guyton was playing too high and too soft. Tully Banta-Cain is showing some ability to rush the passer effectively.

Four of the top five leading tacklers for the Patriots were defensive linemen. The run defense was better than the pass rush. Ty Warren was solid at the point of attack and Vince Wilfork held his own with a couple of very good plays. Mike Wright played well early on. Not enough hits on the rookie QB from the D line.

The defense will face a much better test against the Falcons this Sunday

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

The only reason the grade is this high is because Gostkowski was 3-for-3 on field goals. The rest of the special teams were not only ineffective but detrimental to the team overall. Terrible kick coverage and penalties gave the Jets a huge advantage in the kicking game.

COACHING: D

Offensively, there were few answers from the sidelines for what the Jets defense was bringing. You would assume there would be something in the repertoire that could slow down the pass rush. The wide receiver screens do not seem to slow down the rush as much as the traditional screens to the running backs. The running game warranted more tries.

Defensively, I still believe the coaching staff is somewhat hampered by all the new faces. The scheme has been way less inventive than we have seen in the past. There has to be a way to get more pressure on the QB.

The better halftime adjustments were made by the Jets staff.