NFL
NFL Week 11
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The New England Patriots have swept aside the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium on “Thursday Night Football,” winning 27-14 for their eighth straight victory.
TreVeyon Henderson had the best game of his rookie season, rushing for two touchdowns and catching a third. Drake Maye threw for 281 yards and a touchdown, while Stefon Diggs had nine catches for 105 yards.
Justin Fields had a tough night, throwing for just 116 yards and a touchdown on 15-of-26 passing. He also ran for 67 yards and a score but accounted for the game's lone turnover with a fumble.
The Patriots improved to 9-2, the best record in the NFL, while the Jets fell to 2-8, ending their two-game winning streak.
Share your reaction with us at live@theathletic.com and be sure to check out this week's live coverage schedule on The Athletic.
GO FURTHER
Patriots-Jets takeaways: Maye boosts MVP case, Henderson scores 3 TDs in New England’s win
Above are the latest AFC standings. With the Patriots' win over the Jets, New England sits atop the AFC with a 9-2 record. New England is the first AFC team to reach nine wins.
New England is 1/2 game ahead of the 8-2 Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos. The Colts have a bye week while the Broncos face the Chiefs on Sunday. It looks like it will be a battle between the Patriots, Colts and Broncos for the top seed in the AFC and getting a first-round bye in the playoffs.
As for the basement of the conference, the Jets are 1/2 game ahead of the Tennessee Titans. Tennessee plays Houston this week.
Aaron Glenn had this to say postgame on Justin Fields’ performance: “There are some good things. There are some really good things.”
He added that there were some plays “our guys gotta make for him out there.”
Meanwhile, Fields summarized his performance as, “Not good enough.”
Mike Vrabel on his team’s eight-game winning streak to be the first team to reach nine wins this season:
💬 “I appreciate the identity. It’s ours, and it’s theirs, and they protect it, and we have to practice it every day, whether that’s Wednesday or Thursday. The last six weeks, we have gotten better because we practice speed on Thursdays, and guys are going after it. That’s why we’ve gotten better because guys come out the games and understand there’s a lot of things that go our way some things that don’t, and we have to overcome those, and we have.”
The Patriots’ defense got off to another slow start, allowing a touchdown on the Jets’ opening drive, before once again settling in after that.
The Jets went three-and-out on their only three remaining drives in the first half following their initial score. Then the Patriots’ defense put up an impressive performance in the second half.
A fumble recovery by Anfernee Jennings helped seal this game on a night the Jets managed just 245 yards.
Still, three areas of concern for the Pats’ defense. The first is that the Jets converted eight of their 14 third-down attempts, which is something to keep an eye going forward from the Patriots’ defense.
Secondly, Justin Fields was able to scramble much more than you’d like, even from a mobile quarterback like Fields. He ran for 67 yards on 11 attempts with a touchdown.
Finally, it’s concerning that the Patriots lost Milton Williams, their highest-paid player, to an ankle injury. The defensive tackle played only eight snaps in the game. That’ll be an injury to monitor when the Patriots return to practice next week. The good news is that Mike Vrabel said after the game that Williams wanted to go back in the game but the coaching staff decided it was best for the team to hold him out.
The Jets took a flier on John Metchie III, and at least for tonight, this deal appears somewhat fruitful.
The former second-round pick out of Alabama led the Jets in receiving tonight, catching three passes for 45 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown from Justin Fields in the third quarter.
With Garrett Wilson sidelined for at least four weeks, Metchie and Adonai Mitchell will have ample opportunity to make an impression on New York's coaching staff and front office.
Wide receiver Adonai Mitchell made his Jets debut and didn’t go especially well. His first catch was a good one, a third down conversion on a slant that helped set up Fields’ touchdown run on the opening drive.
But after that, he dropped a perfect deep ball from Fields that would’ve went for a big gain, Fields missed him badly later in the second quarter on what would’ve been a big gain, and then Mitchell dropped another ball in the fourth quarter. The upside is that Mitchell clearly has the athleticism and upside to get open and beat the man covering him, he just needs to fix the focus issues that led to the drops and mistakes.
On the flip side, the other receiver the Jets acquired recently acquitted himself well: John Metchie started for the Jets and caught a 22-yard touchdown when he was left wide open in the third quarter.
Here are the latest AFC East standings. With New England’s victory tonight over New York, the Patriots have a two-game lead over the Buffalo Bills.
A reminder that the Patriots and Bills square off on Dec. 14. New England is 1-0 against Buffalo this year after a 23-20 victory on Oct. 5.
The Patriots lead the AFC East in point differential with 86.
Mike Vrabel on the Patriots’ 9-2 start in his first season.
💬 “I feel great. That’s what I just told them in the locker room, ‘Nine-and-two, that’s good news. I have better news for you. They don’t have to see me until Monday.’ They were excited.”
The Patriots have already virtually clinched their return to the postseason, according to our Playoff Simulator, which gives New England a greater than 99-percent chance at a playoff spot.
But what about the No. 1 seed in the AFC?
Per the Playoff Simulator, the Patriots have a 44-percent chance at the top seed and a bye to the divisional round, as well as a 44-percent chance to host a game in the wild-card round.
Get used to it, NFL fans — New England has returned to its perch atop the AFC.
It is clear that Justin Fields is not the Jets' quarterback of the future, but New York's offense was more functional tonight than it has been in recent weeks, and his legs were a big part of the reason why.
In the first half, his ability as a rusher put strain on the Patriots' defense and extended plays throughout the night. He was the team's leading rusher, totaling 67 yards and a touchdown.
He still missed several throws and showed indecisiveness when throwing the ball downfield, but without his go-to wideout in Garrett Wilson and on the road against a division rival on a short week, Fields helped keep the Jets in the game while their defense faltered.
At the same time, it is impossible to run a functioning offense in the NFL with a starting quarterback who has only eclipsed 100-plus yards passing twice in his last five games.
As it turns out, Justin Fields is still not the solution at quarterback for the Jets. And yet, for some reason, Aaron Glenn keeps running him out there. Week after week, it’s clear that Fields doesn’t belong out there anymore — and that was especially true on Thursday night, even if there were a few drops from his wide receivers.
A low moment came when a third-down pass late in the fourth quarter deflected off the back of left tackle Olu Fashanu’s head — and then Fields followed that up by simply dropping the ball on a snap and fumbling it away to the Patriots, who turned around and made a field goal a few plays later to pretty much put the game away.
Fields put together an impressive first drive as the Jets leaned on his running ability — but it was mostly a disaster after that, and he still had fewer than 100 passing yards late in the fourth quarter. At some point, perhaps Glenn will switch to Tyrod Taylor or undrafted rookie Brady Cook.
TreVeyon Henderson on his three-touchdown performance:
💬 “Really, them first two touchdowns, all my offensive linemen, I gotta give those guys credit. They make my job easier. Those guys put in the dirty work.”
Drake Maye received plenty of MVP chants from a fired-up crowd watching the Patriots play their first home night game in two years.
They started when Maye took the field as the last Patriots player introduced, then continued as Maye played well in an impressive performance.
This wasn’t Maye’s best game, but it might have been one of the most important in validating Maye’s status as a legit MVP candidate, given the national audience and remarkable throws. He completed his first 11 passes and didn’t throw an incompletion until three minutes remained in the first half.
Maye is one of the MVP frontrunners along with Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold, and will need some impressive games down the stretch to earn the award. But Thursday night was a chance for the nation to see how well he runs this offense.
His strong night came even with some rare drops from Stefon Diggs (who still put up 105 receiving yards) and with rookie Kyle Williams appearing to run a couple of wrong routes.
TreVeyon Henderson on Patriots quarterback Drake Maye:
💬 “He’s a baller, and he’s a great leader. But the biggest thing is he’s humble. He comes in to work each and every day, and he pushes everyone around him. I’m thankful to be playing alongside him.”
TreVeyon Henderson has arrived.
After a slow start to the season for the second-round rookie, Henderson put up five touchdowns in five days while filling in for the injured Rhamondre Stevenson.
Henderson has been so good that he may have overtaken the starting job from Stevenson, who has missed the last three games.
After he ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns last week in a win over the Buccaneers, Henderson totaled __ yards on __ touches Thursday night for three touchdowns (two of them rushing, one of them receiving).
Henderson this season has been the outside, big-play threat for the Patriots’ running game, but he showed he’s plenty capable running between the tackles on Thursday night.
It’s unclear if Stevenson will be healthy enough to play in the Patriots’ Week 12 games in Cincinnati, but Henderson has given the coaching staff plenty to think about as they manage the depth chart.
TreVeyon Henderson on the Patriots’ approach:
💬 “We just want to stay humble and just continue to put the work in. We want to enjoy a couple of days off and get back to work. And yeah, we just want to stay humble and keep going.”
Did you know our Playoff Simulator at The Athletic also gives you teams’ odds of securing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft? So yes, Jets fans, there is something for you in there!
With tonight’s loss, New York’s odds of getting the top pick move from 27 percent to 31 percent.
Check out how those odds shift with the rest of New York’s games here.
The Jets clearly wanted to see what they had in Adonai Mitchell, as Justin Fields targeted him a team-high six times tonight.
Yet Mitchell recorded multiple drops and finished with just one 10-yard catch on New York’s opening drive.
Not a great start to hits Jets tenure. Yes, Fields struggled, but Mitchell has to help his quarterback as well.
Stefon Diggs continues to assert himself as a reliable target for Drake Maye, even if the veteran isn’t the perennial Pro Bowl-caliber player he was in his prime for division rival Buffalo.
Diggs picked a good night for his first 100-plus-yard receiving game since the Patriots’ last prime-time game (a win over the Bills on Oct. 5). He had nine catches for 105 yards in tonight’s victory.
