By Tiffany Williams –
The New England Patriots went into their week ten bye week beating the Colts 26-3 and moved above .500 for the first time in 2022. Two weeks ago, the Patriots were in East Rutherford, NJ where they beat the Jets 22-17 and now, the Jets are coming to Foxborough for the second meeting of the season between these two teams, and The Patriots are 38-25-1 all-time in home games against the Jets, including 18-4 at Gillette Stadium. New England is 43-16 against the Jets since Robert Kraft purchased the team in 1994, and their 72 overall victories over the Jets (including two playoff wins) are the second-most over any single opponent, trailing only the 77 all-time wins over Buffalo.
Overall, the Patriots have 22 series sweeps over the Jets with 13 under Bill Belichick and 15 under Robert Kraft.
Rhamondre Stevenson has averaged 6.0 yards per carry in two games so far in 2022 with a 6.1 average vs. Baltimore and a 6.4 average vs. Detroit. At the podium this week, Rhamondre said “I think we all know what our weaknesses are on the offensive side of the ball and that’s what we’ve been attacking. We just need to attack our weaknesses at this point of the year.” Rhamondre also “We’re just focused on the Jets right now and just trying to get a W on Sunday.”
Bill Belichick, at the podium on Friday how healthy the team is now relative to the past years and said, “Well, you get to the middle of the season, nobody is 100% healthy. Everybody’s kind of banged up and all that. But we’ve got a lot of guys out there, a couple guys dealing with things, but overall not bad.” On Thursday when Belichick was asked about the bye week and how it was beneficial for the team in terms of healing up and resting for the second half of the season, he said “It’s always good to get a break.”
Talking about the Jets at the podium on Thursday, Belichick said “We’re on to the Jets here, Jets week. Always a real competitive situation here. Obviously, a big win for the Jets against Buffalo, the last game we saw. Again, the same things we talked about a couple weeks ago, a really well balanced team. Good in the kicking game, explosive on offense, really good on defense, well coached, good players and they’re playing well. So, a big opportunity for us this week. An opportunity to take a look at some things that hopefully we can improve on and be ready to go Sunday. So, that’s where we’re at.”
When asked what adjustments he has seen the Jets make since the last time the Patriots played against them, Belichick said “Well, they played Buffalo, that’s the only game we’ve seen. They did a good job defensively against a very explosive Buffalo offense. They did a good job in the kicking game. Protected the ball. Protected their quarterback.”
When asked about the added challenges and benefits of playing the Jets this Sunday after just playing them three weeks ago, Belichick said “We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see how things match up this time. It’s the same process and preparation. I’m sure they’ll have a couple new wrinkles for us, and I’m sure we’ll have a couple new wrinkles for them. We’ll see how it goes.”
Kick-off Sunday for the Patriots against the Jets at Gillette Stadium will be at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS. Kevin Harlan will handle play-by-play duties with Trent Green as the color analyst. Melanie Collins will work from the sidelines. The game will be produced by Ken Mack and directed by Jim Cornell.
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