FOXBOROUGH – Juicy, sexy subplots filled the chilly New England air like the snow and freezing rain that pelted those fans brave enough to sit through the elements yesterday at Gillette Stadium.
* There was Bill Belichick’s supposed contempt for his former apprentice, Eric Mangini, based on several incidents – not the least of which was his role in “Spygate.”
* There was the Patriots’ dogged pursuit of a perfect 16-0 regular season.
* Then there was the bloated point spread, which opened at 27 and slowly crept down to 21 by kickoff because of the adverse weather conditions.
The locals, fanatical in their fury toward Mangini because of his role in turning their beloved Belichick in for his part in the Patriots’ illegal videotaping of a September game, had come begging for blood to be spilled at midfield – Jets’ blood.
In the end, though, it didn’t turn out to be the slaughter so many had anticipated. The Jets didn’t quite turn out to be the sacrificial lambs they were supposed to be.
Though in a losing effort, the Jets made the Patriots sweat – at least a little bit – en route to a 20-10 loss.
The game ended, for now, the latest volatile chapter to this contentious rivalry.
The Patriots, who became only the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to go 14-0, clinched the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and now they move as they chase history.
The Jets, now 3-11, limped back to New York knowing they squandered a chance to become at least a footnote in history as the team to break up the Patriots’ perfection, will prepare for their final two games before the beginning of what’s sure to be a busy offseason of changes.
“With this whole ‘Spygate’ and all the [off-the-field] stuff going on, we were tired of hearing about it … on Monday,” Jets safety Kerry Rhodes said after the game. “It was just getting old. It was irritating and we just wanted to come out here and prove ourselves on the field.
“We’re grown men. We don’t want to hear that we’re going to come out here and get beat 70-0. We’re an NFL team, not a college or high school team. We took it personally and we came out and fought. We knew coming into the game that we were not going to let anyone push us around.”
The Jets indeed weren’t pushed around, but – as losing teams do – they did enough negative things to cost them the chance to record one of the biggest upsets in recent NFL history:
* Their offense made four trips inside the red zone and scored only three points thanks to a Chris Baker fumble, a failed fourth-down try, a scoring pass bobbled out of bounds by Justin McCareins and a missed field goal by Mike Nugent.
* About to go into halftime trailing only 10-7, they had a Ben Graham punt blocked when Kelley Washington flipped Jets safety Abram Elam like a subway turnstile. That led to a Laurence Maroney touchdown and a 17-7 lead at the intermission.
* On the Jets’ second offensive play, Kellen Clemens was picked off deep in his own territory by Eugene Wilson, who walked into the end zone from five yards out for a 7-0 lead. Clemens, hit by Richard Seymour, was knocked out of the game on the play, replaced by Chad Pennington.
* While Pennington, who played Tom Brady all week in practice on the scout team, played admirably for having so few reps, the Jets’ offense still managed to go only 3-of-14 third-down conversions.
“That’s not good football,” Jets guard Brandon Moore said flatly.
Teams with three wins in 14 games cannot commit these kinds of gaffes and beat a 13-0 team.
Baker said “there’s no satisfaction” in playing the Patriots tough. “Satisfaction is coming away with a victory,” he said.
Pointing to the effective job the defense did in holding the Patriots to their lowest point and yardage total of the season, Baker said he felt the Jets “definitely let on get away.”
“We came here to win. We didn’t come here to have a good showing,” Moore said with disgust in his voice.
“We’ve let 11 of them get away this year.”