It’s bad injury news for the New York Jets, while the New England Patriots may be wondering if they did the right thing at the trade deadline. These division rivals have a Week 11 Thursday Night Football clash, and here are the bold predictions.
The Jets enter with a record of 2-7, having won two straight games. That includes a win over the Browns in Week 10 after a fire sale that sent Sauce Gardner to the Colts and Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys.
Meanwhile, the Patriots are 8-2 and are tied for the best record in the AFC.
Jets QB Justin Fields will top 225 total yards
That may not seem like a bold prediction, but Fields is coming off a game where he didn’t top the 100 mark in total offense. However, there’s a catch to this prediction. A sizable portion of that yardage will come in garbage time as the Jets try to play catch-up from a big deficit.
First, Fields will have to earn the starting quarterback role. That’s something head coach Aaron Glenn wasn’t willing to reveal on Monday, according to the Jets YouTube page via NBC Sports.
“Please don’t ask me anything about the quarterbacks,” Glenn said. “You know I’m not going to tell you, and I don’t want to waste my time when it comes to that, when it comes to who’s starting.”
It appears it will still be Fields, as Glenn noted that he saw “good things” from his signal-caller.
Of course, Fields will have to play the whole game to get to the 225-yard mark. And that could be a challenge if the Patriots burst out to a big lead. However, the Patriots getting ahead is more about the Patriots’ offense than the way Fields will be playing.
Patriots QB Drake Maye will throw 2-plus TD passes
This is the first of two matchups remaining between these teams, so the Patriots will want to establish their dominance. Look for them to be locked in and ready to rock.
NFL experts across the country are penciling in Maye as the top MVP candidate. But slow your roll on this, guys and girls. There’s too much season left, and Maye hasn’t proven he’s the MVP of anything.
However, he did take a step forward against the Buccaneers, according to nbcsportsboston.com.
“In the first half, against Todd Bowles' blitzing scheme, Maye went 4-for-6 for 120 yards and one touchdown, giving him a quarterback rating of 149.3 versus the blitz,” Phil Perry wrote.
Maye made big plays against head coach Todd Bowles’ schemes.
“I think you know with Coach Bowles and what he does, they do a great job defensively,” Maye said when asked about the pressure he faced. “They were playing a little bit more in a spy on third-and-long. We have to do a better job getting to third-and-manageable. We’ve got to do a better job of getting third-and-short and making plays.
“But when we were in third-and-long, I was going to try hanging in there. There were times on first or second down [where] I probably could’ve hung in there more.”
Maye also had to overcome a bad interception he threw in the end zone with a five-point late fourth-quarter lead. That type of play is not MVP worthy.
“You’ve got to be mad at yourself, but you know that you have a chance either to go into a two-minute drill to win the game or go in a five-minute scenario to win the game,” Maye said. “That’s this league, just bouncing back from it, flipping the page. You want to throw things on the sideline, but guys are watching me, and I think the biggest thing is just to get back out there and to show these guys we’re ready to go for the next play.”
RB TreVeyon Henderson will score and get 80-plus total yards
Fantasy managers and Patriots fans have waited all season for Henderson to cut loose. He finally did against a good Buccaneers defense. His 69-yard touchdown run, the second 50-plus-yard scoring run of the game for him, sealed the outcome.
“With Rhamondre [Stevenson] being out, led [to] more opportunities for TreVeyon,” head coach Mike Vrabel said. “He battled through on that. I got worn out running out there to see how our guys were doing as many times as I did. But I’m proud of the guys that battled and competed and laid it on the line.”
The Jets will have a hard time keeping the Patriots in check, and Henderson should be able to cut loose for at least one long run. More opportunities along the way should help him build a nice overall performance.
