New York Jets: Top 3 takeaways following Week 3 loss to the New England Patriots

The New York Jets solidified the outcome that most saw coming from the get-go falling 30-14 to the New England Patriots. Here are three takeaways from the Week 3 matchup.

The New York Jets entered their Week 3 meeting with the New England Patriots with very few expectations. Needless to say, after 60 minutes, their expectations were essentially met.

The Jets fell by a final score of just 30-14 which is far from indicative of how the game actually progressed. Gang Green managed just 105 yards of offense and averaged a meager 2.2 yards per play.

It was an embarrassing showing from the Jets offense hidden behind a 14-point fourth-quarter that saw the team recover a muffed punt for a touchdown and return an interception from backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham for a score.

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The team didn’t look like they belonged in the same stratosphere as the Patriots as their opponents handled them soundly from the very first drive.

Still, it wasn’t as if any of this was unexpected. In essence, this was the outcome that everyone had predicted — if anything, the point spread was narrower than anticipated.

There isn’t really any positivity to speak of, but let’s take a look at the top three takeaways from yet another Jets defeat.

Next: 3. Cornerbacks regress after promising Week 2

3. Cornerbacks regress after promising Week 2

While the offense was once again the primary culprit, the Jets defense regressed in Week 3 — albeit without some of their top defensive standouts.

C.J. Mosley, Quinnen Williams, and Jordan Jenkins were all inactive which significantly limited the effectiveness of the Jets’ front-seven. But a position group that doesn’t receive the same excuses is the team’s cornerbacks.

After taking over for a benched Trumaine Johnson last week, Nate Hairston once again received the starting nod on the boundary. And as expected, the converted wide receiver struggled throughout the majority of the game.

The same goes for Darryl Roberts who was abused by the likes of Josh Gordon and Phillip Dorsett.

The corners regularly gave Gordon and Dorsett 10 or more yards of cushion at the line of scrimmage — perhaps a testament to the speed of their opposition. And you could even blame part of this on the lackluster pass rush paired against a beat-up Patriots offensive line.

But at the end of the day, the same issues that have plagued the Jets since Week 1 came back to bite them here.

The Jets lack talent at the cornerback position — that much is a given. Nothing has changed on that front, and it’s unlikely that it will as the season progresses.

It sure looks like we’ll have to sit through another 13 weeks of poor cornerback play before the Jets get a real crack at fixing things in the offseason. And at this point, it should be a top priority for the team.

Next: 2. Nothing changes with the offensive gameplan

2. Nothing changes with the offensive gameplan

Another week of Adam Gase’s play-calling and yet we’ve arrived at the same outcome.

Let’s get all of the excuses out of the way first. Gase is dealing with a bottom-five offensive line in the NFL (if not worse), he’s down two of his top offensive playmakers in Chris Herndon and Quincy Enunwa, and the Jets trotted out a third-string quarterback making his first career NFL start.

No one should be expecting perfection or even competitiveness from that. Squaring off against an uber-talented New England defense, it was always going to be difficult for the Jets to move the ball on offense.

But no one is asking for perfection or competitiveness.

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We just want competence.

And through three weeks, the Jets offense has been anything but. The defense has more points scored (14) this season than the offense does (12). In this game, the Jets went 0-for-12 on third-down and failed to move the ball past New England’s 35-yard-line.

That is sheer incompetence from an NFL offense and it doesn’t matter whether it’s Luke Falk or Sam Darnold under center, no quarterback is going to succeed in this current system.

Gase was handicapped, sure. But that’s no excuse for a lack of creativity and originality. That’s no excuse for third-and-long wide receiver screen passes. And that’s certainly no excuse for questionable late-game clock management.

It’s too early to make any rash decisions yet, but the first three weeks of Gase’s tenure in New York have been anything but encouraging. Excuses or no excuses.

Next: 1. More struggles with the offensive line

1. More struggles with the offensive line

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Another week has gone by and the struggles of the Jets offensive line only continued against a stout Patriots front-seven. New England managed five sacks on Falk while their QB-hit total reached the double-digits.

It didn’t matter if it was Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Michael Bennett, or any of the six Patriots who came away with at least a half-sack, the Jets offensive line once again failed to protect their quarterback.

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The communication issues haven’t been cleaned up and a lack of chemistry can only be blamed for so long. And you could blame the coaching staff all you want, but at the end of the day, the responsibility falls on the players.

Ryan Kalil has been a massive disappointment since coming out of retirement and signing with the Jets in August. Brian Winters is a shell of his former self. Kelvin Beachum is playing worse than he ever has in a Jets uniform.

Nothing is clicking.

Changes are going to have to be made, and that could start when the team returns from their bye week in Week 5 to take on the Philadelphia Eagles. We could see Jonotthan Harrison get the call at center as we already saw that change momentarily take place at the end of Week 2.

And don’t be surprised if Winters is replaced with either Alex Lewis or Tom Compton at some point as the Kent State product’s time with the Jets could be nearing an end. Ditto for Beachum who could find himself on the bench in favor of third-round rookie Chuma Edoga.

The offensive line is the biggest problem affecting this team right now. And nothing will change if that remains true.