New England Patriots Vs. New York Jets Preview: ‘Monday Night Football’ Matchup Sees Pats Look To Go 7-0
The New England Patriots have put together their best start to an NFL season since 2015, when they opened the campaign with 10 straight wins. They meet their AFC East rivals the New York Jets this week on Monday Night Football. The defending Super Bowl champions can extend their undefeated streak to start the 2019 season to 7-0.
The Pats current win streak is 12-0, extending back to the 2018 season, which ended with three straight postseason wins, including a 13-3 Super Bowl win over the Los Angeles Rams. It was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history, as The Inquisitr reported.
The 1-4 Jets expect the return of quarterback Sam Darnold, the team’s 2018 first-round draft pick — third overall — out of the University of Southern California. Darnold missed the first meeting between the Jets and Patriots in Week 3, when the Patriots rolled to a 30-14 win in Foxborough.
With Darnold back under center, as well as linebacker C.J. Mosely and defensive lineman Quinnen Williams also returning to reinforce the Jets defense, the Patriots could face unexpected trouble at MetLife Stadium on Monday night, according to a NESN report.
Nonetheless, the Patriots come in as 9 1/2 point favorites on the road, which, though sizable, is their second-slimmest spread in their seven games in 2019, after they entered the Week 4 contest at the Buffalo Bills as seven-point favorites. The Patriots won that game 16-10, failing to cover that seven-point spread in their closest game of the season.
Darnold, who has missed all but two games so far with mononucleosis, led the Jets to their only win of the season last weekend, a 24-22 win over the visiting Dallas Cowboys. He hit 23 of his 32 passes for 338 yards and a pair of touchdowns, as an Associated Press report recounted.
Darnold will come up against a Patriots defense that, in its first six games, has picked off opposing quarterbacks a stunning 14 times, while permitting only a single touchdown pass. The Patriots’ 48 points allowed through six games is easily the best in the NFL, according to Pro Football Reference. Only the San Francisco 49ers — the NFL’s only other 6-0 team — come close, allowing 64 points to start the season.
Nonetheless, New England Coach Bill Belichick remains impressed by Darnold, and the danger he poses to the Patriots’ league-best defense.
“He’s a big, strong kid that can stand in the pocket and he’s hard to tackle,” Belichick said earlier this week, as quoted by The Associated Press. “He’s not an easy guy to bring down. He’s big, he can see and find guys under pressure.”
