Callahan: Patriots kill ‘soft’ label with throwback win over Jets

FOXBORO — The football gods being the football gods, devious deities that they are, of course Sunday came down to the goal line.

The soft Patriots facing fourth-and-goal, down by five with less than 30 seconds left.

Tough out a yard and win. Or, get stopped and lose, with the game, your identity and professional pride all at stake.

No pressure.

So Jacoby Brissett took the snap, wheeled left and handed the ball off to Rhamondre Stevenson, who burrowed into a heap of helmets and humanity. It was a play —  Blast — the Patriots have been drilling from the moment their new coaches arrived last winter.

“That’s a play that we really hang our hat on,” Pats left tackle Vederian Lowe told me. “It’s a tough play, a physical play.”

Stevenson stopped, and a second passed. No signal. Two seconds passed. No signal. Then …

Touchdown.

It even survived a review; a time and place where the Patriots were neither approaching 1-7 nor 2-6, but stuck in an anxious purgatory. A moment when football yet again revealed itself as a game of inches, and how landing on one side or the other can flip the perception of a game, team and season.

If that call had been overturned, the Patriots would now be cast as a soft team unmoved by their coach and unable to overcome the loss of their quarterback. Gutless. Losers of seven straight.

But Stevenson scored. They won. The Patriots are who they say they are, not who we thought they were. At least for another week.

Because this season remains a bridge to the next, a time when the rebuilding Pats, by their own admission, will really begin to compete again. Sunday was a short, sweet detour because it doubled as a bridge to the past. This was a throwback win.

Ugly, to be sure. But also gutsy, physical and clutch. There was no quit, a credit to coaching and leadership. The Patriots kept a steady hand, while the all-gas-no-brakes Jets spun themselves out of control with eight penalties and right before the biggest moments.

Before their game-winning drive, Brissett and other offensive starters noticed Jets defenders jumping around during the commercial break. Yelling. Trying to bark a win into existence.

“We saw the Jets defense and how they were trying to get themselves riled up and say they need to get a stop, or whatever. But we were like, No, f— that,” Lowe told me. “We need to do our job, and if we do our job better than they do theirs, we will get the outcome that we want.

“So we all just made sure we’re on the same page and ready to execute.”

Patriots veteran defender gives brutally honest assessment of Aaron Rodgers

Do your job.

How about that?

As the Jets turned the heat up on Brissett with four straight blitzes, he burned them on consecutive third downs with a 14-yard scramble, and a 34-yard strike to Kayhson Boutte. Brissett later admitted he underthrew Boutte, who like most Patriots receivers had dropped a pass earlier in the game. This time, Boutte kept his focus and slid under the ball for a catch the Patriots needed like oxygen.

A year ago, Boutte's lack of awareness had him stepping out of bounds and killing a two-minute drill. This season, he's saving them.

That type of growth and resilience has been building in practice, according to Mayo and veterans. Players are asking more questions in meetings, and working longer and harder at practice.

"In practice and our preparation, we have all decided to dedicate more of ourselves to the game each week," Lowe said. "And we know, if we just put more in than we did the week before, then we'll be more likely to have the outcome that we want. That's just what it's been."

Defensively, the Patriots climbed into Aaron Rodgers' head this week during meetings. Coaches rolled out film of his days in Green Bay to show how Rodgers is an old dog with the same tricks that can be turned against him with enough luck.

By playing a heavy dose of single-high, man-to-man coverage, the Pats knew they would invite Rodgers to seek and hunt his best matchup. That turned out to be Garrett Wilson, who had undersized Patriots defensive back Marcus Jones shadowing him most of the game. But Rodgers wouldn't target Wilson over the middle on high-percentage throws, rather downfield shots more likely to fall incomplete.

Meanwhile, Christian Gonzalez shadowed Davante Adams much the same way Stephon Gilmore did the last time the Patriots executed this plan during Rodgers' last visit to Foxboro with Adams and the Packers in 2018. On Sunday, Rodgers completed enough passes to Wilson (113 receiving yards), but overall completed just 60% of his attempts, and most of the Jets' drives went scoreless.

What's old is new again.

"When (Rodgers) scans the field, he's looking at matchups. And we knew that he was going to try to attack with Garrett Wilson," Pats linebacker Raekwon McMillan told me. "Once he figured out we were in man-to-man on (Wilson), we knew that he was going to try to attack those spaces. (Jones) and our safeties, they did a great job protecting the deep part of the field.

"(Rodgers) got his, but at the end of the day, man, we did a good job of getting off the field."

Let's fast forward.

History would suggest Drake Maye will miss next weekend's game at Tennessee with his concussion. Hopefully, Maye returns the following Sunday against the Bears. Between those kickoffs, the NFL's trade deadline will pass, and it feels highly likely the Patriots will sell off at least one or two veterans.

Kendrick Bourne, Jonathan Jones, Joshua Uche, maybe more.

Which means once Maye returns, the rookie should step into an even worse situation than he originally entered three weeks ago. But that's no guarantee.

If the Patriots can build on Sunday, Maye has a chance to rejoin one of the better versions of this team yet.

One that punches back, allows four yards per carry and asserts itself in clutch moments.

The Patriots as we once knew them, and as they hope to be known once again.