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New Jersey – Time for some Whispers and Notes from the Jets’ huge win over the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium . . .
Brandon Marshall was livid after the Jets’ final drive of regulation. He was yelling at Ryan Fitzpatrick coming off the field, and then a coach on the sideline. Not sure which one.
Clearly he could not believe he wasn’t thrown one pass on this huge drive. There were two passes to Eric Decker – one complete and one incomplete. Two passes to Bilal Powell – one complete and one incomplete. And that pass deep down the left side that Quincy Enunwa could not come down with.
I don’t think Marshall was being selfish here. I think he felt he could help the team. It is surprising that on this huge seven-play possession they didn’t go to Marshall once.
But in defense of Chan Gailey and Fitzpatrick, after Marshall’s 33-yard touchdown early in the third quarter, Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia did a good of taking Marshall out of the game. And there was no way that Fitz was going to “throw him open” on that drive. It wasn’t the right time for a 50-50 ball. A pick there could have given Tom Brady a short field with regulation winding down and the game tied at 20 . . .
Kenbrell Thompkins injury saga today was bizarre and quite the emotional roller-coaster for all involved.
He was carted off with what seemed like very serious leg injury. Jets and Patriots players were praying for him. Bill Belichick shook his hand. It was right in front of the Patriots’ sideline.
He’s still very popular up in Foxboro.
He’s one of the nicest guys you will meet, and he’s also respected because of how much he’s overcome in his life, coming out of Miami’s notorious Liberty City ghetto.
So he was carted off. It looked terrible.
Well it turns out it was just a really bad cramp.
I joked with him in the locker room that I wanted the name of the doctor that got him back so quick, because I want to go to him if I need a doctor, and he gave the credit to trainer John Mellody . . .
The Jets did a great job getting the job done today, but man did they get a break on the Patriots’ injury front.
First of all, the Pats entered the game without both their starting receivers – Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola. They were without both starting safeties – Devin McCourty and Pat Chung. They were without starting guard Josh Kline, so they had to start two rookie guards. Starting left tackle Nate Solder is on IR, so the Patriots recently moved starting right tackle Sabastian Vollmer to left tackle a few games ago, and he suffered a serious leg injury early in the first quarter today. The Pats replaced Vollmer with LaAdrian Waddle, and then he got hurt. Getting back to safety, one of the guys filling in, Jordan Richards, got hurt early in overtime, and that likely aided the Jets game-winning drive.
Like I said, the Jets deserve a great deal of getting the job done in this huge game, but there is no question New England being a MASH unit was helpful to a certain degree.
December 27, 2015
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