Inside look at Sunday's Week 18 Jets vs. Patriots game in Foxborough, Massachusetts:
marquee matchup
Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett vs. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick
Now, this is like Pauly Shore going up against Tom Hanks for Best Actor, but there aren't a lot of individual show-stopping matchups in this match.
This season has been bad for the Patriots, but their defense has played well.
They rank sixth in the NFL in total yards and second in rushing yards. He has held seven of his past eight opponents to under 300 yards.
The Jets' offense ranks 31st in the league in Hackett's first year.
They've been playing a little better lately, going over 300 yards in three of the last four games.
It seems very possible that Hackett will outsmart Belichick.
“We all know he's a great coach in this league,” Hackett said this week. “One of the best coaches, if not the best of all time. I have a lot of respect for him and everything he's accomplished. Now we're just preparing for what he's going to present us this week. He introduces a lot of things.
“Like I said, he did a great job of doing the same thing with the players, but just created a lot of confusion with different personnel groups. They put different guys in different places and… Shape things. Players sometimes play DB, sometimes they play linebacker, sometimes they play defensive line, so we all have to make sure we're communicating well throughout this game. I think it’s just something you have to take.”
costello's call
Bill Belichick can't afford to lose to the Jets in his final game as Patriots coach. I don't think that's correct.
It will be a low-scoring, sloppy game in inclement weather at Gillette Stadium. New England won the game and did enough to send Belichick out as the winner.
Patriots 13, Jets 10
4 down
Maine guy: Jermaine Johnson had two great seasons with the Jets.
As a rookie, he was overshadowed by fellow 2022 top picks Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall, but he joins them this year as a key piece of their core.
Last week against the Browns, Johnson returned an interception for a touchdown and a fumble recovery.
He is the only player in the NFL this season to have a pick-six and a fumble recovery in the same game.
Johnson is one of four players this season with at least six sacks, 15 pressures, seven passes defensed, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
“He's a righteous man, a rare guy,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said. “The fact that a lot of times he ends up with a great pass rush, he has great speed and turns and versatility and that's his superpower. We've got tough, rough run defenders who are devastating in the run game. He's the guy who developed the whole game.”
Zappe era: The Jets will welcome a new quarterback to the Patriots' center on Sunday in Bailey Zappe.
Zappe has started the past five games in place of Mac Jones, leading the Patriots to two wins.
He had three interceptions against the Bills last week, so the Jets might have a chance to take something away.
“He disposes of the ball very quickly,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “You can see him working on his progressions and doing a great job of stepping up in the pocket and finding checkdowns and outlets and keeping the ball alive as a passer and not just a runner when he scrambles. But he's a good young quarterback and definitely a challenger.”
snow day: A winter storm is hitting the Northeast this weekend, with as much as 8 inches of snow expected to accumulate at Gillette Stadium between Saturday and Sunday night.
Depending on the path of the storm, this game could be played in heavy snow or a mix of snow and rain.
This weather won't help these teams' two struggling offenses and could result in a sloppy season finale.
Return to the return scene. The last time the Jets played here, the game ended in the worst way imaginable. With the game tied at 3-3, Patriots punt returner Marcus Jones returned Braden Mann's punt 84 yards for the winning touchdown with five seconds left.
Mann was fired at the end of the season and replaced by Thomas Morstead. For many Jets fans, the memory of that loss remains painful.
“I was trying to forget about it,” special teams coordinator Brant Boyer said. “I'm just kidding. I'll never forget that game and the feeling after that game, because I felt like I let the team down, especially me.”
