The Morning After (Week 2 Edition)

They got dirt shoveled on them all week and don't think they weren't aware of the chatter.

"I’m just happy to get things going," WR Braylon Edwards said in a corner of the Jets' spacious locker room following their impressive 28-14 victory over the Patriots at the New Meadowlands Stadium yesterday. "This is a team that is deserving of being a winning organization, a team that is deserving of being among those mentioned as a contender, not a pretender.

"A lot of that pissed us off, just to be honest about it. That pissed us off. So we came out here today and [said], 'Let’s show them what we really are.' So it felt good to get rolling."

No one was rolling more than QB Mark Sanchez.

Sanchez completed 21 of 30 passes for 220 yards, tossing three touchdowns and finishing with a 124.3 passer rating. The completions and touchdowns are career highs, and QB rating is a regular-season best.

Sanchez, whose record when he doesn't throw an interception is 7-3, was a perfect 11 of 11 on the Jets' three touchdown drives. His passer rating on the three scoring drives was 145.3.

Still, he wasn't ready to proclaim this as his best game as a pro when I asked him if that was the case.

"I don’t know," Sanchez said. "I’ll have to look at the film. There were a ton of plays and some things I missed. I missed J-Co down the middle right after I got that big hit. We have to make sure that nothing is affecting us on a bad play, a big hit, on an interception or whatever. It can’t affect the next play. I think that’s why I missed J-Co.

"But who’s to say? It doesn’t matter as long as we win. As long as we’re taking care of the football, that’s all that matters."

Sanchez wasn't the lone offensive star, though.

RB LaDainian Tomlinson continues to show that he's got a lot left, finishing as the game’s leading rusher for a second straight contest. He ran the ball 11 times for 76 yards, averaging 6.9 yards per carry. And did you see his burst on his 31-yarder?

Tomlinson's season numbers: 22 rushes for 138 yards.

“I thought he was washed up,” Rex Ryan said. “He only averaged like seven yards a carry today. Maybe we ought to give it to be him more, I don’t know."

Same thing should be said with TE Dustin Keller, who has to be more involved in the offense like he was yesterday. Keller reeled in seven passes for a career-high 115 yards, and the seven receptions were the most since he caught eight in last season's Nov. 1 loss to the Dolphins.

It's just the second time in his career and first since his rookie season that Keller has topped the century mark in receiving yardage.

"Well, they were playing a lot of cover two, split safety, with a linebacker on me," Keller said. "So I felt really good with that matchup, me running with a linebacker and Mark saw me and he made good throws there. Whatever they made adjustments to, we made adjustments to counteract them."

Defensively, the Jets really put the clamps down in the second half, holding the Patriots to 80 total yards, eight first downs and a time of possession of 9:58. They also held New England scoreless, no small feat since they did it without their top defender, CB Darrelle Revis, sidelined with a tight hamstring that will probably keep him out for a week or two until it's completely healed.

"That was more like Jet football in the second half," LB Bart Scott said. "We showed we can get off the field on third down and give our offense an opportunity to wear the opposing defense down and the opportunity to make plays."

QB Tom Brady completed 7 of 16 second-half passes for 69 yards. WR Wes Welker managed two catches for five yards in the final 30 minutes and Randy Moss was shut out.

The Patriots, who came in with the best third-down conversion rate, managed to move the sticks on only one of four third downs in the second half.

"We couldn't do anything in the second half," Brady said. "We had a hard time gaining yards there. We didn't do anything on third down and couldn’t gain anything on first or second down. We couldn’t run it. We couldn’t throw it, we just sucked.

"That's what it comes down to."

Other nuggets from the game:

-- * LB Jason Taylor, who'll surely be a popular guy this week with the Jets playing the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday night, collected his first sack and forced fumble as a Jet. He leveled Brady for a 9-yard loss and jarred the ball loose. LB Bryan Thomas picked the ball up and returned it 16 yards.

"I was getting chipped, I spun back off the chip,” Taylor said. “Obviously, the coverage did a good job because Tom clutched the ball, had the double pump and I had a chance to hit him. I didn’t realize at the time that BT picked it up and secured the game for us, but it was a big play for us."

-- * CB Kyle Wilson opened the second half with a 15-yard kickoff return, his first time returning the ball as a Jet.

"It was a lot of fun," Wilson said. "I wish I could’ve taken it to the house, though."

-- * K Nick Folk booted field goals of 49 and 36 yards, making him 5-for-5 so far this season. Dude has been steady and hasn't had any hiccups.

-- * Sanchez on the big hit he took from DE Gerard Warren: "Whoa. He readjusted my back. That was terrible. He made a pretty good hit on me. That was a big boy. It was too bad."

-- * After collecting three turnovers against the Patriots, the Jets are now +5 in the turnover differential department. They've picked off four passes and recovered two fumbles while losing only one (that Shonn Greene fumble in the season opener).