FOXBOROUGH — After taking two sacks in his first two dropbacks of the game, Jets quarterback Bryce Petty fired his first pass directly into the rain-soaked turf. After an incompletion, his next pass was so underthrown that intended receiver Robby Anderson had to play defense halfway through his route to try to keep the ball out of the hands of cornerback Malcolm Butler, who fought off the coverage for an interception.
Somehow, it only got worse for Petty and the Jets from there.
He didn’t complete a single one of his three passes before exiting the game in the second quarter with an injured left shoulder, which happened as he unsuccessfully tried to secure a ball running back Khiry Robinson had fumbled.Petty’s replacement, Ryan Fitzpatrick, threw two interceptions. At halftime, New York had the same number of completions, three, as turnovers. In an eventual 41-3 loss, the Jets didn’t score until the fourth quarter.
“Obviously all losses are tough, but to come here vs. a team that, if you don’t play well and make mistakes, especially here, they’re going to embarrass you,’’ Fitzpatrick said. “So to get embarrassed the way we did is never fun, not just as a football player, but as a man.’’
It wasn’t just the quarterbacks. One play after allowing Tom Brady to waltz around in the pocket before completing a 28-yard pass to Julian Edelman, the Jets were whistled for having too many men on the field. Patriots tight end Matt Lengel corralled not just the first touchdown of his NFL career, but his first catch.
And with time winding down at the end of the first half, the Jets took a timeout instead of allowing New England to run out the clock. Three plays and a 47-yard pass interference call later, Brady found James White in the end zone to put the Patriots up, 27-0.
“We thought we had it before the year, we thought we did, but that’s on paper,’’ wide receiver Brandon Marshall said when asked if the Jets had the talent to compete with the Patriots. “It’s one thing to have it on paper and another thing to go out there and do it.’’
One season after a surprising 10-6 campaign, the 4-11 Jets have come crashing back to Earth. They have one win in their last seven contests, needing overtime to beat the one-win 49ers, and have lost their last two games by a combined score of 75-16.
“This team is very similar in terms of guys that returned last year that beat the Patriots, so I think some of it just goes to show you how big confidence is in this game,’’ Fitzpatrick said. “I think there’s talent on every team, but confidence goes a long way. We’ve had a hard time this year in general, there’s not one thing you can put it on, but there just wasn’t a whole lot of confidence out there today as we started losing. That goes for everybody.’’
As tough as Fitzpatrick and Petty had it, they were not the only Jets with issues. Instead of traveling with the Jets to Foxborough on Friday, coach Todd Bowles was admitted to a hospital on Friday with an undisclosed illness. He rejoined the team on Saturday and coached from the sideline.
After the game, Bowles said that he’s dealing with kidney stones, gallstones, and a gallbladder issue, all of which won’t be resolved until the offseason. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d be coaching today and is in a lot of pain, a sentiment that was not taken lightly in the locker room.
“There were a lot of guys that were scared,’’ Marshall said. “We thought that . . . we thought it was bad. Really bad. Obviously he’s OK, but it’s scary when you have to go to the hospital. There were a lot of guys who were frightened.’’
Several Jets, including former Patriot Darrelle Revis, appeared miffed at their team’s performance, because there isn’t just one problem to solve. When a team suffers its worse loss since 2013, everyone and everything are to blame.
“The effort was there, just like every other game,’’ Marshall said. “We just didn’t play well. It’s everything. It’s players, coaching, making plays, calling the right plays. That’s sports. It’s everything.’’
Everett Cook can be reached at evcook4@gmail.com.
