(Photo courtesy of Barry Chin/Boston Globe/Getty Images)
by Dakota Antelman
The Patriots survived their closest finish of the season, grinding out a 17-16 win over their rival New York Jets.
The game featured gritty but at times lacking defense by the Patriots and a flat offense that somehow managed to come through late in the game. All was well in the end though as, through their deficiencies, Brady and his offence ended the afternoon in victory formation having won the game and clenched a first round BYE in next month’s playoffs.
"We made plenty of good (plays) in the fourth quarter to come from behind, so that was great," Patriot QB Tom Brady said. "I'm glad it came out the way it did -- makes for a better Christmas. It's always tough to get a win here."
Brady threw for just 182 yards and one touchdown in this game amounting to just 52 yards in the first half. His offence sputtered with regularity going three and out for much of the first quarter. Many of his favorite receivers dropped passes they should have caught and made cases against his throwing to them.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski caught for just 31 yards on the day with four passes thrown to him going for incompletions. Wide receiver Brandon LaFell, who has been seeing more and more targets each week from Brady, caught 7 passes for 64 yards but tipped a 3rd quarter pass that was picked off by the Jets.
One receiver who excelled vs the Jets though turned in a somewhat unexpected performance. Danny Ammendola caught 8 passes for 63 yards and several key 3rd down conversions. He was only in the game by a twist of fate as well, being inserted Friday after the announcement was made that Julian Edelman had stayed home with a concussion.
Seizing the opportunity though, Ammendola doubled his catches and yardage totals for the season and served as the backbone of the Patriots few positive gains vs. the Jets.
The real all stars in this Week 16 win however, were the players on the Patriots special teams unit.
In one of the plays of the game, Vince Wilfork got up and tipped a late Nick Folk field goal attempt. The tip pushed the ball short of the score and preserved the Patriots one point lead late in the game.
“I just felt a soft A-gap,” Wilfork said. “[I was] making sure I was legal, not covering up the center, but at the same time getting vertical. I felt that I had a good shot of getting some penetration. It worked out well.”
A 365 pound Wilfork got nearly 8 feet above the line of scrimmage to get a fingertip on the ball. His tip also gave the Patriots the ball with decent field position late, eventually helping them secure the win with a long drive into the redzone.
“It came down to one play really to win this ballgame,” Wilfork said of the magnitude of the play. “And that one play happened to be a block and the offense taking over and just getting one first down to seal it for us.”
It was not in any way pretty but the Patriots found a way to beat the Jets Sunday afternoon. With Danny Ammendola afoot, Vince Wilfork nudged the Jets out of the playoffs and the Patriots into a first round BYE. Tom Brady hit receivers when needed and the secondary came up with interceptions and broken up passes as well.
Hopefully with some sort of retention of momentum from the sheer reality of this being a victory, the Patriots will close out the regular season next week at home against the Buffalo Bills.
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