He’s always Grinch to Jets
Bill Belichick shall be known henceforth as the Grinch.
It probably should’ve happened a long time ago, but this week, former Patriots tight end and newly-minted media analyst Rob Gronkowski dropped the sly allusion to his perpetually-scowling former coach on Twitter.
“Always trying to take away the fun,” is how Gronk explained the name. I mean, obviously.
If that’s how his own players feel about him, imagine how it must be for the Jets. Belichick is always sneaking into MetLife Stadium in a hoodie stealing Christmas presents, lunch money, fumbled balls, hope and, heavy sigh, momentum.
The result Monday night was a 33-0 loss that was total and unrelenting.
“I didn’t expect that at all,” Jets coach Adam Gase said. “Just nothing went right early and we couldn’t regroup.”
That’s how it was when the undefeated Patriots came to the Meadowlands on Monday night, carrying quarterback Tom Brady’s career 28-6 lifetime record against the Jets and the reality that, for nearly 20 years, any Jets trip to the playoffs would have to come via the wild card.
Monday Night Football is the game everyone in the league is able to watch. You’re the only show in town, and the Patriots once again completely dismantled the Jets. Was that win over the Cowboys just a week and a day earlier? What strange space-time continuum is at work here?
Brady meanwhile, looked timeless. He moved cleanly to avoid defenders, at one point even moving forward to elude a sack at his back that he couldn’t possibly see.
“He’s older than me,” the 41-year-old Gase said of Brady this week. It’s only a year, but a Brady year usually includes a division title, and being awkwardly dressed up by his fashion-forward wife for the Met Gala.
How could bright-eyed Sam Darnold, fresh off his stirring performance against the Cowboys, stand a chance? How could linebacker C.J. Mosely, back in the lineup after missing four weeks with a groin injury, fortify the defense enough to turn back Brady & Co.? And how could Jets coach Adam Gase, so focused on offense that last week he couldn’t recall the details of that incredible goalline stand against the Cowboys, stay up the 72-hours straight necessary to devise winning plays on the only side of the ball he knows to exist?
The Jets lost Sept. 22 at Gillette, 30-14. At least it wasn’t a shutout.
“It definitely hurts because the first time we played the Patriots, we didn’t have those key components,” Jets DL Leonard Williams said. “We thought that was the big reason why we lost bad and having those guys back, having a full roster coming off a big win last week against the Cowboys, we thought we had some momentum going into this game.”
All that momentum, stolen by the usual culprits.
“It sucks,” Darnold said more concisely.
In the first drive, the Jets’ defense was ineffective against the methodical Patriots, who took 16 plays, 8 minutes and 47 seconds, to score their first touchdown. Mosley jogged gently toward Sony Michel as the Patriots running back took the ball the final three yards, never threatening a tackle.
The offense wasn’t any better. A recovered Darnold threw an interception from the Jet 10 to Patriots safety Devin McCourty, with field position so good that a stalled drive still yielded a field goal for a 10-0 Patriots lead.
By the end of the first quarter, the Patriots were up 17-0. By the end of the blitz-heavy second, a mic’d up Darnold said he was seeing ghosts and New England had a 24-0 edge.
Imagine that, the Grinch made a quarterback see ghosts.
Unlike the Giants, the Jets have a terrible track record of developing quarterbacks. Darnold is one with promise, when he is healthy. Against the Patriots, however, he looked shook. Gase considered pulling him, but kept thinking they’d put a drive together, something to build on for next week against Jacksonville. But there was no joy in Jetsville.
“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on in (Darnold‘s) head,” Gase said.
It’s one thing to have all your new toys stolen as you sleep, it’s another altogether to watch the Grinch ride in and start packing your stuff in front of you. And you can’t do anything about it.
Belichick was just doing what he normally does; exploit a team’s weaknesses and rattle a young quarterback. Halfway through the third quarter, even diehard Jet fans, who lived through the Geno Smith era, who saw the Butt Fumble in person, started to head for the exits.
The Jets are now 1-5, the hoped for momentum springing from the Cowboys win has evaporated. Players need short memories to make it through the season, but the entire Jets fan base might want to forget this one as well.