First off, apologies for the late post.  A busy weekend away meant I wasn’t able to review the game tape till yesterday afternoon.  Second, before I start picking on the Patriots, let me acknowledge what the Jets did well on Sunday.  They maintained tempo, continuing to apply pressure all afternoon.  They didn’t ask Mark Sanchez to do too much.  They put the ball in the end zone when they needed six not three.  They controlled the ball in the second half and kept the Patriots' offense on the sidelines.  With that in mind, by no means did they embarrass New England.  New England did enough of that themselves.

No matter what I hear coming out of Foxboro, the eyeball test says Brady is rusty.  He said yesterday it had nothing to do with rust, but rather poor technique.  Well what caused poor technique?  I say rust.  Brady won’t because he won’t make excuses for himself.  In his mind, he can’t blame the injury or the time off that it caused.  I can’t imagine that the poor accuracy he displayed on Sunday was due to some mysterious loss of his throwing motion.  And on top of missing throws he typically made, he was facing pressure from the Jets all day.

A side-effect of Brady’s miscues was the inability to finish off drives.  We saw it in the early goings against Buffalo, and again on Sunday.  You can’t expect to win football games by kicking field goals.  Unless you have a defense like the 2000 Ravens, you’re offense needs to be efficient in the red zone and avoid turnovers.  As long as the Patriots continue to falter deep in opposition territory, then they will need more from their defense to win.

Speaking of the defense, they didn’t play half bad.  They weren’t exactly half good either.  Their first half was a bright spot in this game.  Mike Wright played exceptionally well.  They only allowed 137 net passing yards.  Another bright spot was Julian Edelman.  He did have one costly drop that may have led to a touchdown, but besides that he filled in admirably for Wes Welker.  Fred Taylor also showed flashes.  A more consistent running game (whether it be led by Taylor, Maroney, or Morris) going forward may be what this team needs to keep Brady afloat till he works out the kinks.

The Patriots have a lot to work on this week as Matt Ryan and the Falcons prepare to travel to Foxboro.  Last year, the Falcons relied heavily on Michael Turner while allowing Matt Ryan a chance to develop on the job.  This year, expect them to take the reins off a bit, and allow Ryan more control.  The addition of Tony Gonzalez also changes the nature of the Falcons offense and provides Ryan with another weapon.  The Falcons did allow 440 yards of offense to the Panthers this past weekend.  If the Patriots can put up similar yaradge, and actually put the ball in the end zone, then the defense won’t need to completely shut down Ryan and the Falcons’ offense to win.