The Jets may not have come close to clinching a playoff berth this season, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t being discussed by the rival Patriots.
Two years ago, the Patriots beat the Jets 45-3 during the regular season before losing to them 28-21 in the Divisional round six weeks later. The Patriots hope to avoid the same scenario this weekend. They crushed the Texans four weeks ago, 42-14, and are preparing to face them again in the Divisional round. In his weekly radio spot on WEEI yesterday, Tom Brady used those Jets games as an example in an effort not to overlook the Texans.
“We haven’t talked about [two years ago] at all. I’m sure Coach [Bill Belichick] will talk about it this week,” Brady said. “I think that’s a great example, the reason why we lost that game [to the Jets] wasn’t because we beat them whatever four weeks before, it’s because we sucked in the game, and we just didn’t play the way we were capable of.”
Even the normally tight-lipped Belichick gave praise to the Jets for that game when talking to the media this weekend.
“I think there is probably a lesson there that the game we play now doesn’t have much to do with the game we played before; it’s another example of that,” the Patriots coach told reporters on Sunday.
“I don’t think it’s anything that wasn’t mentioned until that situation occurred, but it’s an example we can point out. We talked about that many times before, how other games don’t have anything to do with this game. It stands on its own. That is and always will be the case, but it’s an example to point out of how little relevance the previous game with the same team really does have.”
The 2010-11 Patriots were 14-2 in the regular season, and hadn’t lost at home all season before the Jets shocked them. Like this season’s regular season rout of the Texans, that Jets game was a much-hyped affair that New England dominated. But Brady knows in the playoffs anything can happen, as the Jets proved that season.
“As we all know, when you play a team twice during the season, the games are totally different. They never go the same way,” Brady said. “We’ll be able to certainly look at some of the matchups, individually of guys that faced each other in the game, but as far as plays and calls and things like that matching up, I’m sure they’ll have some new wrinkles, and I’m sure we’ll have some, too. It will be totally different.”
When the Patriots played the Texans earlier this season, Houston was 11-1, and the Patriots were 9-3. Both teams finished with identical 12-4 records, and since New England won their head-to-head meeting, Sunday’s game is in Foxborough and not Houston.
“I don’t think that game is going to have any bearing on what happens next week,” Brady said. “It was a big win for our season, it was a big win at that time, but this game is going to be entirely different, and we’ve got to be able to put just as much preparation into this game as we did before.”