Tom Rock: Jets need good showing against Patriots before they can be taken seriously
Jets WR Tim Patrick runs with the ball after a reception during the second half against the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 11, 2026 in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: Jim McIsaac
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – One win over the Browns sure did a lot to change the way the Jets think about themselves.
In the warm glow of victory from Sunday’s 17-12 triumph, veteran linebacker Demario Davis said it was a “historic” moment for the franchise. A day later, veteran wide receiver Tim Patrick said he had never been around so much offensive talent as this Jets' roster boasts. He said they could be “the best” offense. In the league? In Jets history? In Morris County? He didn’t say. But he did note that there are “just so many different ways we can win” and called the level of skill players “insane.”
Reminder: They needed a high snap to slip through the rain-soaked hands of Cleveland’s punter in the fourth quarter to pull off this latest conquest.
Yep, there is definitely some craziness going around.
But the Jets do have a chance this weekend to make all of that hyperbole sound at least a little less looney.
If they can somehow manage to play well against the Patriots in Foxborough on Sunday it would go a long way toward backing up the bravado. If they can pull out a win, it might even open the door for the rest of us to starting entertaining bonkers thoughts about them too.
As Garrett Wilson said on Wednesday when asked about Patrick’s comments: “He went out on a limb for us… We gotta go play like it.”
Following up on these rare blips of optimism has been one of the biggest struggles for the Jets in recent years. They haven’t won many games in the last three years, but when they did, they couldn’t maintain the momentum. Last year two of their three wins came in a three-week span in which they beat the Bengals, had a bye, then beat the Browns. Because of that scheduling quirk you have to go back to September 2024 for the last time the Jets won games in back-to-back weeks.
If they can fix that on Sunday, the Jets would be back to .500 - at 3-3 with a chance to stake a winning record the following week against the winless Dolphins. They would be 1-0 in the division with a chance to improve to 2-0 against Miami.
If they win on Sunday, the time to start taking these Jets seriously will be at hand.
Imagine all of that may have started with one seemingly forgettable win over the Browns.
“Anytime you win in the NFL it’s important,” quarterback Geno Smith said on Wednesday. “It was important for us to get a win and kind of get things going… We’re a team that is going to continue to build and we get another great opportunity [on Sunday] to showcase who are.”
That this pivotal game is against a rival that has tormented the Jets for the past quarter of a century seems oddly inconsequential. Wilson did refer to it as a “big [expletive] game,” and he is right, but this one isn’t about trying to dethrone New England, get past New England, send a statement to New England. This one is about the Jets. It’s about reinforcing the feelings they have about themselves while boosting their outside perceptions and standing. It’s the first time in a while that a game at Gillette has felt this way.
Honestly, it may be the most psychologically healthy approach the Jets have carried into a Patriots game in years. Pair that with the stingy Jets defense and the numerous injuries New England is dealing with and who knows what might happen?
“Having a good week of practice and traveling to New England with a lot of confidence and then stacking a couple of Sundays in a row where you get the result that you want,” Wilson said of building off the most recent win. “It’s simple.”
Maybe it is because head coach Aaron Glenn made it sound just as elementary.
“You want to take some of that same mentality of what you did to win, and try to double up on those things,” he said on Wednesday.
That doesn’t always happen, though. Certainly it hasn’t for the Jets of late. In the eight games after their most recent nine wins prior to this one (one of which came in the last game of the season in 2024 and thus had no opportunity for a follow-up) the Jets are 2-6 and have been outscored 141-65 in the losses.
But Glenn also indicated that there are bigger gains to be made than the ones in the record and in the standings.
“If you see those things, as far as the improvement part of it, man, that's what you can bank on,” he said. “Sometimes you don't get the results that you want, but as you continue to do that, eventually those results are going to come.”
Maybe we are right here on the eve of eventually for the Jets and barely noticed it. Maybe we will look back on those pull-quotes from Davis and Patrick one day soon and find them to be more prescient than amusingly naïve.
Sunday’s performance will tell us.
The Jets already seem to think the world of themselves even if nobody else does. A win against the Patriots – or even a quality showing in a loss -- would allow the world to start thinking about them in a far different light.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
