Patriots' depleted defense eliminated 'cute (expletive)' to bounce back in victory

FOXBORO — The Patriots 25-22 win over the Jets was even more impressive when you consider all the variables their defense had to overcome.

Like defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale missed Sunday’s game after suffering an abdominal injury during Thursday’s training. Or safety Kyle Dugger who is inactive after being listed as questionable with his ankle injury on Saturday. Or cornerback Jonathan Jones missed Friday’s practice due to a personal issue and played only half of the defensive snaps. Or that Joshua Uche is a healthy villain amid trade rumors.

Those defensive tackles allow Jeremiah Pharms Jr., who was a healthy scratch a week ago, and Jaquelin Roy, who was signed to the active roster earlier this month, to play key roles, each playing more than 30 snaps. It forced Marte Mapu into Dugger’s role as defensive communicator, brought Dell Pettus and Jaylinn Hawkins off the bench and moved Jones into a safety role. It moved Marcus Jones from the slot to the outside, where he had the unenviable task of slowing Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson, and it pushed Marco Wilson into an expanded role. And Anfernee Jennings played 59 snaps on the season, going almost wire-to-wire in Uche’s absence.

So excuse the defense, which is also missing linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley, safety Jabrill Peppers and defensive tackle Christian Barmore, if it didn’t look perfect. But it was good enough to win.

“J. Jones. We talk about the versatility of our staff. He knows every spot, every location,” head coach Jerod Mayo said Sunday. “I thought Marte did a good job in terms of controlling the group and communicating in general .Those boys played well.

“Again, to get back to the next guy, and not to sound cliché or redundant, that’s the mentality we have to have if we want to build what we want to build.”

Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was 17 of 28 for 233 yards with two touchdowns, and Wilson had a big game against Marcus Jones, catching five passes on eight targets for 113 yards.

But Jones came up big when it mattered, stopping wide receiver Mike Williams on a two-point attempt to prevent the Jets from taking a 24-17 lead with less than three minutes remaining. He also broke up a pass from Rodgers to Wilson as the Jets attempted a final comeback down 25-22 with 21 seconds left.

“Garrett, great player. Rodgers, Hall of Fame player. It’s one of those situations where obviously I didn’t have the best game, but it was just one of those situations where I took it play by play and definitely made a play at the end of the game that helped out. I’m just happy to get the W.”

That was also the response from cornerback Christian Gonzalez when asked how he thought he performed in a tough game against Jets wide receiver Davante Adams.

“We won,” Gonzalez said. “We won.”

Mayo said before the match on 98.5 The Sports Hub that he was challenging Gonzalez after a tough two-match stretch. Gonzalez responded well, allowing just one catch for 17 yards on three targets with a pass breakup and a ticky-tack defensive pass interference penalty.

Mayo called his team “soft” after last week’s loss to the Jaguars in London, before backtracking on the comments and saying they were merely “playing soft.” But one of the reasons Mayo called the team was because of their run defense. On Sunday, the Patriots’ defensive front wasn’t perfect, but they allowed the Jets to run for just 4 yards per carry on 28 attempts for 112 yards.

Defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said it was a matter of eliminating “cute (expletive)” from their Week 3 loss to the Jets and getting back to basics.

“Just throwing the football back, playing our assignment, not making a lot of calls, doing what you do and stopping the run,” Godchaux said. “I know they went over 100 yards today, but I thought it was a pretty good performance in the running game.”

Godchaux expanded on the cute (expletive): “I’m just trying to be pretty. I was often there at five-techniques. … Just really getting back to basics, not trying to give a lot of guys a lot of calls to think about, simple (expletive), about, pile, king, (expletive) that we’ve been doing for years and we have been a successful defense.”

Godchaux said run defense is “all about a mentality.”

“Once you get a mentality, you hit a (expletive) back and you don’t let it run off the ball – I mean, double-team, sometimes they’re going to win, they get paid too – but once you get a mentality that you’re going to disrupting and hitting someone back, throwing away blockages, it’s all in the mind. You can’t really use many techniques for that.’

As for any changes in the secondary, Mapu downplayed them because of how Patriots cornerback and safeties already prepare.

“They always want guys to prepare as if someone is leaving, especially if it’s something that’s nagging,” Mapu said. “So the expectation is that we’ll be ready, whether it’s someone who hasn’t played much who could be the fourth safety.”

Mapu also said the Patriots succeeded Sunday by getting back to basics against the Jets.

After the Patriots dropped 41 points in a Week 6 loss to the Texans and 32 points to the Jaguars in Week 7, their performance against the Jets was enough to get back into the win column. And that was all that mattered to a team that had lost six in a row.

Originally published: October 27, 2024 at 6:32 PM