6 Frustrations from Patriots loss to Jets

Jim O’Connor-USA TODAY Sports

2. Third down play

It’s not surprising that the Patriots lost in Week 16. They simply weren’t good enough on the most important sector of the game, third down.

The Patriots converted only one of their ten attempts on third down, good for a success rate of just 10 percent. Meanwhile, the Jets were successful on 38 percent of their third down tries. That’s still not a great success rate, but significantly better than the Patriots.

How did Patriots react to Week 16 loss?

In total, the Patriots moved the sticks just 16 times, and the Jets registered 24 first downs. The Patriots just weren’t clicking in short-yardage situations on offense like the normally do. Without Danny Amendola and/or Julian Edelman in the lineup Brady, didn’t have a trusted slant route receiver at his disposal.

Further evidence of the Patriots’ struggles on third down was their time possession of just 28 minutes and 33 seconds. This was due to…

Next: 1. Lack of explosion on offense