The game changed when the Patriots' injury report started growing during play. Wide receiver Romeo Doubs (shoulder), right tackle Morgan Moses (ankle), guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring) and center Ben Brown (knee) were all ruled out before the final whistle. That's 3 starting linemen in front of Maye, on a day that started with Will Campbell playing through a knee sprain at left tackle. New England already had Carlton Davis III and Karon Prunty inactive at corner, so the Patriots finished the game short-handed on both lines of scrimmage and in the secondary.
With all of that going on, the 3rd quarter went to New York. The Jets outscored New England 10-0 to make it 17-13, and the Patriots went a full quarter without points for the first time all day. It was the kind of game the preview said the Jets needed: low-scoring and close going into the 4th, with the defense holding on until the offense found something. They got it to a one-score game. They never got in front.
New England put 9 points on the board in the 4th quarter. With the line the Patriots had out there by then, that answer is what decided the game. The Jets scored 6 of their own in the quarter and stayed within a touchdown to the end, but they never had the ball with a chance to take the lead. NESN's headline summed it up: the Patriots held on. The box score we had didn't give us full lines for Braelon Allen, A.J. Brown in his first game back from IR, or Minkah Fitzpatrick and David Bailey, so we're not going to make up their days. What the line score does show is a Jets defense that gave up 17 in the first half, then allowed only 9 points over the final 2 quarters against a reshuffled offensive line.
For the Jets, it's the same story as the rest of the season. They're 2-4 now, and 1-4 in their last 5. This was the 4th one-score game in that stretch, and in most of them the defense kept them close while the offense was missing too many skill players to finish. Without Hall, Allen got the lead-back job again. With Mitchell out, Isaiah Williams stayed in the slot behind Garrett Wilson and Tim Patrick. Scoring 16 points after halftime was the most life this offense has shown in a while. Spotting a good team 14 points first doesn't work.
New England moves to 4-2 with 3 straight wins and a much bigger problem than the scoreboard. The Patriots' depth got them through this one. Which of Moses, Vera-Tucker and Brown are back next week will decide whether Maye gets the clean pocket he had against Las Vegas or the scramble drill he finished this game in. The 35-6 loss in Jacksonville is the low point of their season. This one goes in the column of wins they had to grind out.