East Rutherford, N.J. – The Patriots trip to the Meadowlands did not go as planned as the Jets outclassed New England in a 24-3 loss at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night.

Statistically, this AFC East matchup was about as one-sided as it gets. The Jets outgained the Patriots 400 to 139 yards, New York had 27 first downs to New England's 11, and Jets QB Aaron Rodgers made a primetime statement that he has arrived as a formidable division foe.

There were schematic elements that led to Thursday night's loss, but this felt like one team that was fired up for their home opener and another that was coming off a deflating overtime loss four days earlier. The Patriots came out flat compared to the Jets, who controlled play on both sides of the ball and looked like the faster, more explosive football team.

On this night, the Jets were the team with a playoff-caliber roster rounding into form around their star quarterback. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Jets crowd that only saw Rodgers play four snaps before tearing his Achilles in his Jets debut over a year ago was chanting the four-time MVP's name as he drove the Jets offense down the field. The Patriots, on the other hand, are a long way away from their upset victory over the Bengals in Week 1.

With a trip to San Francisco to face a Super Bowl contender in 10 days, the Pats face their first buy-in test under new head coach Jerod Mayo. Mayo's coaching staff needs to take the mini-bye week to regroup while the players physically and mentally reset. Playing twice in five days is difficult, and the Patriots lost control of their winning formula.

From an Xs and Os perspective, New England isn't going to win many games this season if their pass defense doesn't improve. Rodgers was dealing throughout this one, killing the Patriots coverages on in-breaking routes and extended plays. For this team to be competitive, the defense needs to drive the bus, and they haven't over the last two games.

Offensively, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt altered the run-heavy plan that kept the Patriots in their first two games (355 rushing yards). Since Sunday's loss to Seattle, the chatter was about the Patriots lack of production in the passing game, with Coach Mayo emphasizing the need to push the ball downfield. On Thursday night, Van Pelt's play-calling seemed to overcorrect to get a group of frustrated receivers more involved, and it backfired. Lead-back Rhamondre Stevenson only had two carries on the Patriots first two possessions, with QB Jacoby Brissett dropping back to pass seven times, which played into the Jets defense's strength. Brissett was sacked five times and pressured on 56.5% of his drop-backs.

The Pats got into a track meet in the Meadowlands, which was not a recipe for success. To get back to playing competitive football, the Patriots must reestablish their identity as a team with a run-first offense to supplement a great defense.

Here are eight takeaways as the Patriots drop to 1-2 on the season with a loss to the Jets on Thursday night:

1. SERVPRO Spotlight: Jets QB Aaron Rodgers Shows Why He's a Future Hall of Famer

Look, we hate making the spotlight about an opposing player. It's not the goal, but Rodgers deserves it after delivering a stellar performance for the Jets on Thursday night. Plus, the defense needs to take this one on the chin, regroup, and get back to playing Patriots football next week.

There were two areas where Rodgers was at his MVP-caliber self that hurt the Pats defense the most. First, the Jets QB was 5-5 for 62 yards and a touchdown on extended plays. Rodgers broke contain several times, a growing concern for the Patriots defense, and averaged 12.4 yards per pass attempt when he was on the move.

The second area where Rodgers killed the Patriots pass defense was on in-breaking routes, where he was 8-8 for 112 yards for a whopping 14 yards per pass attempt. Rodgers had the answers against two-high zone coverages or man coverages on in-breakers. When the Patriots played man, it was crossing routes that hurt New England, while it was high-lowing the middle hook player in the Pats cover-two zones that led to big plays for the Jets offense.

As mentioned, the Patriots defense is going to carry them to wins this season. On Thursday night, they weren't able to do so, and Coach Mayo spoke about his disappointment. Mayo said the coaches emphasized keeping Rodgers in the pocket, so it was disappointing that the players didn't execute that part of the game plan for the second-straight game.

To get back to playing Patriots-caliber defense, New England needs to do a better job of containing quarterbacks in the pocket and taking away the middle of the field.

2. Patriots Pass Protection Continues to Sink the Passing Offense

To put it bluntly, the Patriots pass protection through three games is making it impossible for them to be a productive passing offense. Are there instances where the quarterback is holding the ball? Yes. But very few quarterbacks would survive in these pockets, if any.

As mentioned, Brissett was under pressure on 13 of his 23 drop-backs (56.5%). Four of those were quick pressures in under 2.5 seconds, and there were several plays where multiple Jets were credited with causing pressure on a single drop-back. Even when there were open receivers downfield, Brissett didn't have the time to find them consistently.

There were also instances where the blitz protection plans didn't make much sense. The Jets blitzed at the highest rate they have in a game since 2021, with HC Robert Saleh bucking a trend. One example RT Mike Onwenu took responsibility for, telling Patriots.com he should've pinched down on a first-half blitz with the rest of the line sliding left, allowing LB Quincy Williams to come through the middle of the line unblocked.

According to NextGen Stats, here were the allowed pressures: RG Layden Robinson (2.5 sacks, five pressures), C David Andrews (1.5 sacks, four pressures), LT Caedan Wallace (0.5 sack, three pressures), RT Mike Onwenu (0.5 sack, three pressures), and LG Mike Jordan (two pressures).

If the Patriots want to make their offense viable, they have to improve in pass protection. There are way too many "no chance" plays on tape.

3. How Much Blame Goes to QB Jacoby Brissett?

There's always a debate when it comes to a passing offense's struggles: is it the quarterback, receivers, or the offensive line?

Although it's not a sexy answer, the bottom line is it's a combination of everything. Still, the quarterback has the ball in his hands every play, and there are plays that Brissett is leaving out there. Granted, any passer would struggle and start developing bad habits under this kind of pressure.

There were two plays Brissett would likely want back. First, a missed throw to TE Austin Hooper on a "sail" route where Hooper was open breaking into the sideline. There was also an instance where Brissett got stuck on his initial read and didn't progress to Pop Douglas matched up on a linebacker, leading to a sack. Brissett was doing well avoiding sacks while under pressure. But the dam broke with five sacks on 13 pressured drop-backs on Thursday night, which wasn't only on Brissett.

After a game like this, the outside noise will grow louder for the Patriots to make the switch to rookie QB Drake Maye. However, the organization must assess whether this is an environment they want to put the third-overall pick into right now. From this perspective, it doesn't seem wise.

4. Patriots Defense Misses 14 Tackles in Uncharacteristically Sloppy Performance

During his post-game press conference, Coach Mayo said he was most disappointed in the defense missing 14 tackles in Thursday night's loss. Over the years, the Patriots defense has been one of the best tackling units in the league, but that wasn't the case on Thursday night.

Two notable misses were when LB Raekwon McMillan had rookie RB Braelon Allen in the hole for a run stuff, but couldn't bring the Jets back down. The other was CB Alex Austin missing a tackle on WR Allen Lazard, which led to a touchdown. One troubling remark was captain Jabrill Peppers saying there was a "lack of hustle" in certain instances. Those things need to be cleaned up, and the tackling must improve.

6. Patriots Abandon the Run Game, But Why?

Whenever you get down multiple scores, teams have to throw to get back into the game; that's just math. However, the Pats came out throwing the ball against a dominant Jets pass defense, which was surprising.

Speaking to several players and Coach Mayo post-game, the Jets defense did some things to get the Patriots out of certain runs. Mayo noted that some run calls in the huddle were changed to passes at the line of scrimmage due to the structures the Jets were running. The other thing some players pointed to was the Jets having an overhang defender outside the tackle. The overhang was responsible for eliminating cutback lanes on outside zone and defending against bootlegs. With that player sitting there, that's why the Pats bootleg concepts were met with immediate pressure.

We'll have to review the tape to see what exactly the Jets did to take away the run, but it sounded like the Jets built some things into their game plan to eliminate the outside zone/bootleg plays.

7. Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez Shadows Jets Star WR Garrett Wilson on 30 Routes

Although it wasn't perfect, the Patriots trusted second-year CB Christian Gonzalez to shadow Wilson on Thursday night. Gonzo lined up over Wilson on 30 routes, allowing four catches for 25 yards and a touchdown into his coverage. Gonzalez was in man coverage on Wilson for 16 plays, with 50% of those coverage snaps being press-man coverage.

Wilson caught a third-down pass on Gonzalez and a low red zone touchdown, but the Pats CB limited the explosive plays to the Jets wideout. The only nitpick was one play where Gonzo fell down on a vertical route, but the pass was off-target, and Wilson was called for an illegal motion on the play. Overall, Gonzalez's coverage on Wilson was the least of the Patriots concerns.

8. Other Silver Linings for the Patriots in Disappointing Loss

- Patriots rookie QB Drake Maye got his first regular-season game action in garbage time on Thursday night. Maye took two sacks but also drove the offense into scoring territory with a nice fourth-down completion to DeMario Douglas. We'll see what the film looks like for Maye.

- Patriots WR DeMario Douglas got going a little bit. Douglas had a nine-yard rush on a nifty play design by AVP and caught seven catches for 69 yards. Douglas got the offense moving with a 22-yard completion on a crossing route off play-action. More of that, please,

- Patriots EDGE Keion White had a team-high four quarterback pressures, adding to his terrific start to the season. Joshua Uche also logged his first sack of 2024 and another QB pressure.

DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer