Jets Fall Apart in Crucial Offensive Drives Against the Patriots

By Daniel Feuerstein | Foxborough, MA | October 18th, 2026

The New York Jets headed up to Foxborough to face a big AFC East Divisional opponent in the New England Patriots. After having a good feeling of earning their second win of the season against the Cleveland Browns, the Jets once again fell apart at the wrong time against the Patriots. Drives were stalled, bad penalties were created and once again the defense who looked strong as usual were overused and coughed up touchdowns with confusion and miscommunication. Even though they fought hard, it just wasn’t enough as the Jets lost in their first AFC Conference game and Divisional game by the final score of 26-19.

Fabulous opening drive stalled on a penalty

The Jets were given the ball to start the game when the Patriots won the coin toss and deferred. When the opening drive began, the Jets were getting yardage with fabulous runs from Braelon Allen and a few strong catches from Mason Taylor and the return of Omar Cooper Jr. They got very close to the end zone, and on a third-down play, Geno Smith was flushed out of the pocket and looked to make a run, but stayed behind the line of scrimmage and threw a fabulous ball to Cooper Jr., who ran into the end zone for the touchdown, but the flag came out to wipe it away.

On the replay, Tim Patrick was near a defender and saw Geno starting to make a run and signaled him to continue, thinking he was going for the first down. Patrick started to block his man for Smith and never saw him stop to make the throw to Cooper as the flag came out once Patrick started his block. An excellent opening drive for the Jets and, sadly, a touchdown taken away that turned into a Jason Sanders 42-yard field goal and an early 3-0 lead when it should’ve been 7-0.

Fourth and one failed twice

The Jets, who were down by four, had multiple chances to cut the deficit and take the lead when they were in New England territory. Unfortunately, their attempts to convert failed them, and they were stopped by the front seven of the Patriots’ defense. Braelon Allen had a big chance to get the first down at the New England 30, but was stuffed at the line. Their second attempt was a 4th & a long yard, and this time on the quarterback sneak, Geno Smith went too low and didn’t execute to get over the line to gain. Two important calls to either earn a first down and keep the drive going, or to play the safe route and earn points, as the defense was doing its job. The Jets could’ve been at the time, behind by 7-6 and or take the lead at 9-7. Instead, they got beat for another touchdown, and the Patriots led 17-3 at the half.

Offensive drives continuing to stall

The Jets continued to have issues in the middle of their drives on offense. When they start, they play like gangbusters, getting through the line of scrimmage and making chunk plays on the ground or in the air. But once they cross the 50-yard line, they stop themselves and either call the wrong plays or the offensive line continues to get overwhelmed by multiple pass rushers. The Jets continued to score the majority of their points with field goals, and that’s not going to cut it against a top team in the NFL.

Omar Cooper Jr. gets his first NFL Touchdown

On their first possession of the second half, the Jets, down by 14 points, needed a spark. They stopped the Pats, and when they began to go down the field, it was Geno Smith who made a huge throw down the field and saw Omar Cooper Jr. wide open as the ball landed in his hands perfectly, and he took it all the way to the end zone for a 48-yard touchdown grab and run. After missing the last four games with an ankle sprain, Cooper Jr. finally got his first NFL touchdown in his rookie career. Hopefully, more from Cooper Jr. this season, and he can continue to help the Jets get into favorable positions.

More bad play calling with miscommunication

Several moments in this game made you scratch your head when the Jets made multiple errors at crucial times, giving the Patriots free touchdown grabs. On the first PAtriots touchdown, the Miscommunication began when the Jets only rushed three at Drake Maye; then the safety left his position to move in closer and allowed Romeo Doubs to earn a big 42-yard catch in the end zone that injured himself when he dived for the catch. Or a wide-open DeMario Douglas with no one around him in the front of the end zone, just behind the goal line. Even on offense, Frank Reich can script an excellent opening drive, then play guessing games on what to call next. There is too much miscommunication out on the field, and it will cost the Jets more games during the season.

It’s not the talent; it’s the coaching

We can see this roster is much better than last season. We can see the level of compete is there, and these players know what to do, but when the coaching staff continues to fail their players, then they can’t get into position to win the game. It’s easy to knock off teams like the Tennessee Titans, the Cleveland Browns, and soon the 0-5 Miami Dolphins who are coming to MetLife Stadium next week, but it’s teams like the Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, and so on that you know will give you a difficult time, but you have the belief that you can win those games. But whether the coaching staff put these players in a position to win those games is the biggest question of all.

“There are several things that I can point to. They gave us some issues in this game, but it really came down to two things: our ability to finish and our detail-oriented defense. So finishing on offense and detailing on defense is something that we’ve got to get better at because I think we gifted two touchdowns that shouldn’t have happened. And I’ve got to do a better job defensively of getting our guys ready to play, and I’ve got to do a better job on offense of making sure we understand exactly what it’s going to take to get ready to finish. And I will say this too: on special teams, we weren’t our normal selves when it comes to special teams, especially in covering kicks and returning kicks. So that’s something that I have to make sure that I look at. Make sure we get on the same page when it comes to that and get better at that. Because that’s one thing that we really pride ourselves on having a really good special teams unit,” said Aaron Glenn