The New England Patriots traveled to New Jersey for a Thursday night matchup with the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium and were completely embarrassed in a 24-3 loss.
With the loss, New England has dropped to 1-2 on the season and into last place in the AFC East, and for a team that was feeling pretty good just a couple of weeks ago, things have completely flipped since.
Now, they'll have a mini bye week before their next game, but there's a bit to discuss from this contest. Here are a few things we learned.
Week 1 was more about the Bengals than the Patriots
New England beat out Cincinnati in the season opener by running the ball and playing stellar defense, but when they've tried to win games the same way since, it hasn't worked. They got lucky and caught the Bengals without Tee Higgins, with a limited Ja'Marr Chase and with a rusty Joe Burrow. If that game is played in the middle of the season, Cincinnati would probably win easily.
The offensive line is horrendous no matter who plays
The Patriots were without Cole Strange (reserve/PUP), Sidy Sow and Vederian Lowe for this Thursday night battle, and Michael Jordan left in the second half with an injury.
There was some hope that Caedan Wallace, this year's third-round pick, would look good replacing Lowe, but that wasn't the case. Zachary Thomas and Demontrey Jacobs even got reps at left guard and left tackle respectively, and the result was hard to watch.
This won't be something that gets fixed during the season unless there's a big trade coming.
This team isn't the smartest
It's tough to overstate how many mistakes were made in this game. There were plenty of dumb, unforced penalties, including Jahlani Tavai suplexing Breece Hall early in the game.
Another underrated moment was JaMycal Hasty's decision to return a kick after a penalty that was likely either going out of bounds or through the end zone. Instead of starting their drive with potentially great field position, the Patriots got the ball at the 24-yard line.
The defense already misses Ja'Whaun Bentley
New England's top tackler was needed on Thursday, as his replacements, Tavai and Raekwon McMillan, missed tackles consistently. They were also dropping far in zone and allowing Rodgers to hit easy passes in the middle of the field to pick up short-to-medium gains regularly.
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