Watch Patriots @ Jets live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Action from 1am on Tuesday morning
Tuesday 22 October 2019 05:57, UK
The New England Patriots will be looking to move to 7-0 when they face AFC East rivals New York Jets on Monday Night Football, exclusively live on Sky Sports Action and Main Event. Here's all you need to know about the game...
Not many teams have got the better of the New England Patriots in recent years. That includes the New York Jets.
The Jets have lost their last seven meetings against their AFC East rivals, including a 30-14 defeat in Week Three when they failed to score an offensive touchdown. The last time the Jets finished above the Patriots in their division was 2002 and, considering their contrasting starts to the 2019 season (6-0 vs 1-4), the status quo looks unlikely to be altered this season.
However, despite all that, the Jets face New England on Monday Night Football with some optimism.
That optimism mainly stems from their most recent result - a 24-22 victory over the Dallas Cowboys - and the return of quarterback Sam Darnold.
After starting the first game of the season - a 17-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills - the No 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft missed the next three due to mononucleosis.
The Jets not only lost all three games without Darnold but they were abjectly bad, with third-string quarterback Luke Falk struggling mightily and head coach Adam Gase coming in for criticism.
Falk has since been released and hopes are high that Darnold, who passed for 338 yards and two touchdowns against the Cowboys, can spark a turnaround.
"He's a good quarterback," said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick this week. "We saw him at the end of the year last year. He can make all the throws. Big, strong kid. He can run. Short, intermediate, deep. He's got good weapons."
Jets offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains hopes Darnold's display against the Cowboys is a sign of things to come.
"I think that he could be a really, really good player. He has the skill set, he's got the mental makeup that you look for. It's just how fast can we figure out what he does well, how fast can he take ownership in the offense.
"I hope the Dallas game was just a preview of what's going to come."
Darnold, though, isn't ready to proclaim that the Jets have turned the corner even though they scored more points against the Cowboys than in the three games (23) he missed.
"I think, for us, we have to continue to work out the details," he said."Obviously, we got the win, which was awesome. Our defense played great, we (the offense) played good at times, but there are a lot of things we can clean up.
"I think we left a lot of points on the field. We just have to clean up the details and get back to work."
A big challenge for the Jets will be moving the ball against New England's impressive defense, which leads the NFL in scoring defense (8.0 points per game) and total defense (234.7).
New England limited Jets running back Le'Veon Bell to 35 yards on 18 carries in the first meeting, when the Jets had just six first downs and went 0-for-12 on third-down conversions.
While the Patriots will start as favourites again, running back James White isn't taking the Jets lightly.
"They're an aggressive, physical team. They're going to give you their best shot each and every week, and it's going to be a great challenge for us. Every time we play those guys it's a tough football game, and that's what we expect. We've got to be ready to go from the first play to the last because they'll be fired up."
While Patriots' Josh Gordon (knee, ankle) is out, fellow receiver Julian Edelman has been a force with 38 receptions for 449 yards and two touchdowns.
Demaryius Thomas was part of that wideout mix earlier this season before being traded to the Jets. The four-time Pro Bowler raised a ruckus this week by referring to his short stint with New England as a waste of time and said the team was disrespectful to him by cutting him, re-signing him and then trading him.
"It was insulting, for sure," Thomas told the New York Daily News. "Once I got cut, I could have just come here (to the Jets) and not stayed there and re-sign. When they re-signed me, I was thinking that I was good. Two weeks later, I was gone. So it's like, Why did I waste my time?' Because at the end of the day, it was kind of a waste of time for me."
New York could have linebacker CJ Mosley (groin) on the field for the first time since he was injured during a season-opening loss to the Buffalo Bills. Mosley insisted to reporters that he will play, although the team has yet to make such a declaration.
