Jets throwing regret aside to face Raiders
Rookie coach says team has to move on following defeat.
NEW YORK — The game film confirmed everything the New York Jets already figured.
A victory was there for the taking against the New England Patriots on Sunday. They just couldn’t seal the deal.
“I think the hardest thing to swallow,” right guard Willie Colon said Monday, “was that we had them right where we wanted.”
New York took a 17-16 lead into the fourth quarter, and Nick Folk’s 30-yard field goal made it 20-16 with just under 13 minutes left. That’s when Tom Brady went to work.
The Patriots quarterback completed 14-of-17 passes while leading New England on two touchdown drives for a 30-23 win at Gillette Stadium.
“We were the more physical team,” Colon said. “I felt like we were able to make a lot of big plays on third down that kept the drives going. We just didn’t score enough touchdowns. When it came late in the game, obviously Brady took over and those guys made the bigger plays that counted. You have to take your hats off to them.”
With the loss, the Jets dropped to 4-2 — two games behind the AFC East-leading Patriots (6-0).
Some fans and media were impressed by how tough the Jets played their rivals, narrowing the gap perhaps in a division that has been won by the Patriots 12 of the last 14 years. All that, though, meant little to the New York Jets first-year coach, Todd Bowles.
“There are no statements when you lose,” Bowles said. “You’ve got to win games. We’re not in this thing to play close games.”
And with that, the Jets were already turning their focus on their next opponent: the Oakland Raiders, who are 3-3 after a 37-29 victory at San Diego.
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was actually reviewing tape of the Raiders — “multitasking,” he called it — while speaking to the media on a conference call.
“We’re on to the next game here and trying to figure out the best way to attack Oakland,” Fitzpatrick said. “In every game, you’re going to learn stuff and there’s some stuff that we learned from, whether it was situations or whether it was different routes or the way that we called certain plays, we’ll get better each and every game. You’ve got to be quick to move on.”
Bowles plans to have the Jets leave for Oakland after practice Friday, making no changes to the itinerary despite the cross-country flight.
“We have to learn from our mistakes and clean up the little things, but if we linger on this game, then we’re going to get beat next week,” Bowles said.