FOXBOROUGH - Next.
For all the hype and Shakespearean plot twists, the Patriots much-anticipated rematch/grudge match with the New York Jets yesterday at Gillette Stadium was just another ho-hum victory for a team that has turned winning into a routine ritual.
Like the postgame handshake between Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his former protégé, Eric Mangini, the Patriots' 20-10 victory was anticlimactic.
Scoring a season-low 20 points, the Patriots didn't serve up the revengeful rout the hearty souls who braved the wintry weather had come to see, a point-filled payback for the Jets and their coach, Mangini, turning in the Patriots for illegally filming defensive signals during the teams' first meeting Sept. 9.
The 68,756 alleged to be in attendance simply had to settle for history, as the Patriots (14-0) became only the second team in NFL history to win its first 14 regular-season games, matching the accomplishment of the 1972 Miami Dolphins and securing home field throughout the playoffs in the process.
While the game may not have lived up to the NBA-score expectations of the Foxborough Faithful, it was exactly what the Patriots expected.
"This is the NFL," said cornerback Ellis Hobbs. "The worst thing you're doing [with that] is giving the other team motivation because you're basically calling them chumps.
"These are NFL players, professionals who get paid, that have pride about themselves. We ex pected a tough game. We understood what type of game it was going to be, and we just went out there and executed our game plan."
That game plan featured a heavy dose of running back Laurence Maroney, who finished with 104 yards rushing and a touchdown on a career-high 26 carries, as the Patriots' passing attack was grounded by the wet weather, the wind, and a Jets' game plan that had defenders pacing back in forth at the line of scrimmage like expectant fathers to try to throw off quarterback Tom Brady.
"We knew they were going to do a lot of that, so we just had to be prepared," said Maroney, who had his second 100-yard rushing game of the season and the third of his career. "We knew they were going to do a lot of movement, so it was basically just attack them."
Brady, who completed 14 of 27 passes, was held to a season-low 140 yards passing. He threw one interception and didn't record a touchdown pass for the first time this season, his pursuit of Peyton Manning's NFL record of 49 touchdown passes in a season temporarily frozen at 45.
"We won it. It wasn't the airshow that everybody is accustomed to seeing, but we went out there and showed that we can run the ball," said wide receiver Jabar Gaffney. "The line did a great job of blocking and Maroney did a great job of running the ball and we got it done."
