Jets Q&A: What happened on Patriots' winning punt return?
Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones outruns Jets safety Jordan Whitehead, left, and long snapper Thomas Hennessy to score the winning touchdown during the final seconds of the game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Sunday. Credit: EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/CJ Gunther
Special teams ace Justin Hardee was the most visibly upset player and said he shoulders the blame for the Jets’ 10-3 loss to the Patriots ending the way it did.
Marcus Jones’ 84-yard punt return for a touchdown with five seconds left had Hardee feeling responsible. “Put the blame on me,” he said.
Hardee said he was triple-teamed, but he still got free. He was chasing Jones down when Mack Wilson Sr. blocked Hardee, who felt he was hit in the back and that it should have been a penalty.
“I believe so,” he said. “At the end of the day, he shouldn’t have gotten that far with the return. That’s on me. The penalty, that’s in the refs’ hands. They didn’t think it was a penalty. So I take it on the chin like a man. I’m heartbroke off of it. I feel like I let my team down.”
Braden Mann said he wanted to punt it out of bounds or high enough to give his gunners a chance to get down and cover. His 52-yard punt went to Jones basically in the middle of the field.
“We were trying to go to the sideline with all the wind,” Mann said. “I need a better punt. I need to either get it up in the air or out of bounds in that situation. I need a better punt in that situation.”
Jones ran to the right sideline and cut back to the middle of the field. Mann dived to tackle him at about the Jets’ 40 but couldn’t get to him.
“I thought I had a shot at him,” he said. “He kind of got away from me.”
Saleh said no. Although the offense looked like a mess, Saleh said he’s not thinking about a quarterback change. “No, that’s the furthest thing on my mind,” he said. “I’ve told you guys before, Zach’s our quarterback and we’ve got to find ways to help him get better.”
The offense was putrid. Saleh referred to the second-half performance in which the Jets produced 2 yards of offense as “dog [expletive]” Saleh also said he didn’t feel a spark on offense at any time, which doesn’t reflect well on the quarterback or coordinator Mike LaFleur.
Wilson, who threw for only 77 yards in one of his worst games as a pro, was asked if he let the defense down. He said, “No. No.”
The rookie receiver expressed plenty of frustration after the game. It seemed to be directed at LaFleur and Zach Wilson, which would make sense — one calls the plays, the other throws the ball.
“I’m going to tell it like it is: We have to get better in the passing game if we want to be where we want to be at,’’ said Garrett Wilson, who had only two catches for 12 yards. “We know we can be there. That’s the most frustrating part. They didn’t even score on offense and we lost the game.
“We got our [butts] beat on offense. The result showed.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
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