With about six minutes to go in the first half of Thursday’s New York Jets–New England Patriots game, Jacoby Brissett rushed into a play-action drop that became frantic almost instantaneously. The Jets’ surge off the line immediately knocked the Patriots’ front five backward. Defensive back Michael Carter II was brought in as an extra rusher and was in the backfield so quickly that Patriots running back Antonio Gibson had to abandon the idea of faking a handoff and moving toward Carter to prevent the blitzing defensive back from crushing Brissett.
It was the third sack of the half, one of five Brissett took on the night, during a game that began with an obvious disadvantage for the Patriots (it got so bad that five Patriots defenders could not stop a two-man Jets pass rush on a pre-halftime Hail Mary attempt). Even without Jermaine Johnson (Achilles injury) and Haason Reddick (contract dispute), the Jets’ deep stable of talented pass rushers was always going to heavily impact a Patriots offensive line that has seen both injury and bizarre departures perforate an already talent-starved front. (For good measure, one more stat describing the Patriots’ offensive futility: Their four first downs in the first half were the fewest any Patriots team has had in an opening half since 2000.)
