Patriots Beat Jets 26-19 Behind Drake Maye’s Three Touchdown Passes

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Patriots did not run away with this one, and for about twenty minutes in the second half they looked determined to give it back. But when a division game needed closing, Drake Maye and a third-string running back closed it. New England beat the New York Jets 26-19 at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, extending its winning streak to three games and improving to 4-2, The Providence Journal reported.

Drake Maye threw touchdown passes to three different receivers as New England grounded the Jets, 26-19, on an ideal fall afternoon at Gillette Stadium, according to The Providence Journal. NBC Sports reported Maye finished the day 18-of-32 for 235 yards and three touchdowns. The Jets scored first and last, dominated time of possession for long stretches in the first half, and still lost the way teams so often lose in Foxborough: by failing to finish drives. New York settled for four Jason Sanders field goals, failed on a pair of fourth downs in the first half, and, according to NBC Sports, Geno Smith threw his first interception of the season in the fourth quarter.

A fast start, with a scare attached

The Jets’ opening drive told the whole afternoon in miniature. According to NBC Sports, the Jets opened the game with a strong drive that appeared to end with rookie wide receiver Omar Cooper’s first career touchdown catch, but Tim Patrick was flagged for offensive pass interference while Geno Smith was scrambling ahead of the throw. The Jets had to settle for a field goal, and their second drive went up in smoke thanks to sacks by Milton Williams and Christian Barmore, NBC Sports reported.

Given that short field, Maye needed one play. Drake Maye got plenty of time to throw on a second down and eventually found wide receiver Romeo Doubs in the end zone for a 42-yard touchdown, NBC Sports reported, a score that made it 7-3 Patriots with 4:10 to play in the opening quarter. It was the longest scoring reception for Doubs in his career, The Providence Journal reported, but it came at a cost: he went to the blue medical tent and then the locker room with what the Patriots announced was a shoulder injury, and he was later downgraded to out for the game.

New England’s defense kept handing its offense chances. The Patriots converted a second stop on fourth down into points at the other end, The Providence Journal reported, as Andy Borregales was good from 32 yards to give New England a 10-3 lead with 1:46 left in the first half. Then Maye hit DeMario Douglas for a 9-yard touchdown with 14 seconds left, a touchdown pass that capped a 7-play, 71-yard drive in just 1:09 to give New England a 17-3 lead at the break, according to The Providence Journal.

The Jets make it a game

It was not over. After a 17-3 halftime lead got whittled down to four points late in the third quarter, Drake Maye connected with tight end Hunter Henry for his third touchdown pass of the game early in the fourth quarter, NBC Sports reported. In between, the Jets had their moment: Geno Smith found Omar Cooper Jr. over the top from 48 yards to make it a 17-10 game in the third quarter, according to The Providence Journal, and when TreVeyon Henderson fumbled, New York used the short field to add a 36-yard field goal to make it 17-13, The Providence Journal reported. An Elijah Ponder sack on third down kept the Jets from tying the game on that drive.

Maye’s answer was a 12-play, 68-yard drive finished by the 7-yard touchdown to Henry less than a minute into the fourth quarter, though Borregales was no good on the PAT, according to The Providence Journal. Henry converted some key third downs, Douglas had seven catches and running back Corey Kiner helped close out the game by running 11 times for 57 yards, NBC Sports reported. One of Douglas’s catches went for 40 yards, but he lost a fumble at the end of that play, and the Jets turned that turnover into another Sanders field goal — 23-16 with 7:20 left, per The Providence Journal — and Gillette Stadium got quiet.

The drive that ended it

What followed was the most grown-up sequence of New England’s season. Andy Borregales iced the result on a 27-yard field goal with 1:12 left, a kick that capped an extended drive by the Patriots from their own half, The Providence Journal reported. New York exhausted its three timeouts and New England chewed up more than six minutes of clock before making it a two-score game. Kiner had eight straight carries to put the Jets to rest on that final drive, taking the winning-time snaps with the top two backs’ snaps being managed in the second half, according to The Providence Journal.

The Jets kicked a field goal with 32 seconds left to open the door for an onside kick, but the Patriots recovered it to seal a 26-19 win, NBC Sports reported. It looked for a moment like the Jets would recover when the kick went off wide receiver A.J. Brown’s hands, but Pop Douglas bailed out his teammate by falling on the ball. Brown, back from injured reserve after a four-game absence with a high ankle sprain, had a rough return: NBC Sports noted he had a couple of drops and a couple of other passes he should have caught go incomplete in his return from the ankle injury.

The bill: three linemen

The win came at a price. The Patriots suffered a host of injuries in this one: Morgan Moses (ankle), Ben Brown (right knee) and Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring) all were hurt and didn’t return, stripping New England of its depth along the offensive line, The Providence Journal reported. Their status will be something to watch with the Patriots on a short week heading into Thursday’s game against the Bears, NBC Sports added. The Patriots have won three straight while improving to 4-2 on the season, including division victories over New York and Buffalo, and they’ll have a short week to prepare for a Thursday night trip to Chicago, according to The Providence Journal. The Jets dropped to 2-4 and are two games behind New England in the loss column; they will host the Dolphins next Sunday. For more from a busy Sunday, see our sports front and the rest of the day’s coverage in the newsroom.