Patriots vs. Jets: 3 keys to finishing the 2023 season with a win

Key #2: Get Mike Gesicki involved in the offense early and often

The Patriots offense has been so erratic in 2023 that it’s difficult to find any trends. But Gesicki has caught passes in 3 of the four wins this season. In the win in Denver, he caught 2. Gesicki caught touchdown passes in the wins over the Broncos and last time out against the Jets, too.

Only the Broncos have conceded more touchdowns to tight ends than the Jets. Gesicki, Henry, and Brown could all feature heavily this week.

Oddly, Bill O’Brien hasn’t seen fit to use a receiver with such a big catch radius, especially as the tallest wide receivers have all struggled to stay healthy. But here we are. 

Key #3: Don't let Breece Hall win the game for the Jets

Anyone who has seen Breece Hall play football will tell you it’s impossible to stop him. He’s racked up 1,395 yards from scrimmage so far this season; that’s 32.4% of the Jets' yards on offense. He’s averaging 5.4 yards per touch.

But it is possible to stop him from scoring. The Jets have been only slightly better at scoring than the Patriots. The Jets average 15.7 points per game compared to New England’s 14.6! 

Hall has scored 66.6% of the Jets' rushing touchdowns this season, and while Israel Abanikanda has recently become a more significant part of the offense, he hasn’t scored a TD yet. And Hall has scored 36.4% of the Jets receiving touchdowns this season.

The only game the Jets have won when Hall didn’t score a touchdown was the wild Week 1 game against the Bills. Hall was still coming back from his knee injury then and only played 31% of the snaps.

Garrett Wilson was the only player on the Jets offense who scored points in that game. Greg Zuerlein kicked three field goals, and Xavier Gibson scored a walk-off punt return in overtime.  

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