The New England Patriots secured a 27-14 victory over the New York Jets, completing a season sweep of their division rivals and improving their record to 13-2. With this win, the Patriots are in position to clinch the division title if the Buffalo Bills lose or tie against the Philadelphia Eagles later today. If successful, it would mark New England’s 22nd division title since 1970.
The Patriots finished the regular season with an undefeated road record (8-0), joining San Francisco as the only NFL teams to achieve three perfect road seasons since 1970. Previous undefeated road campaigns for New England came in 2007 and 2016.
Head coach Mike Vrabel won his first eight road games with New England, trailing only George Seifert’s streak of 16 consecutive road wins at the start of his tenure with San Francisco. Vrabel also reached his first career 13-win season as a head coach.
Tight end Hunter Henry set a new single-season career high in receiving yards after a 13-yard reception on the opening drive, bringing his total to 712 yards for the year. Quarterback Drake Maye reached several milestones: he surpassed both 4,000 passing yards and threw his 30th touchdown pass of the season. Maye joins Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe as one of only three Patriots quarterbacks to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a single campaign.
Maye also recorded five touchdown passes in this game—a personal best—and tied Tom Brady’s team record by posting twelve games with a quarterback rating above 100 in one season. “Maye is the first player in NFL history to have at least 250 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and a ninety percent completion percentage in a single game,” according to team records.
Wide receiver Stefon Diggs had another strong performance with his fifth game over one hundred receiving yards this year—his forty-first such game in his career—ranking third among active players league-wide. Diggs has now posted back-to-back games with more than one hundred receiving yards.
Running back Rhamondre Stevenson extended his franchise record by surpassing seven hundred scrimmage yards for a fifth straight season after recording both rushing and receiving touchdowns against the Jets. Stevenson also notched his longest run of this campaign at twenty-four yards during this contest.
Other notable contributions included tight end Austin Hooper’s second touchdown catch of the year and wide receiver Efton Chism III scoring both his first NFL reception (a thirty-yard gain) and first career touchdown.
On defense, safety Jaylinn Hawkins registered his third interception of the season—a new personal best—while linebacker Christian Elliss added three special teams tackles, increasing his total for the year to eighteen.
With these achievements, New England has now scored fifty-three total touchdowns this season—the thirteenth time they have surpassed fifty touchdowns as a team—and posted nine individual one-hundred yard receiving performances so far this year.
