New England Patriots Links 10/10/11 - Benny and the Jets: A Running Story

BenJarvus Green-Ellis talks about the significance of running the ball on that last drive, forcing the Jets to use their timeouts.

When you get in those situations you have to play situational football and obviously you don't want to give them the ball back and give them a chance to go down and score and we were able to do that tonight so that's always a plus. We had a game where we weren't able to finish with the ball in our hands - I can't remember which game it was this year but we pride ourselves on being able to do that.

It's always a challenge and you always want to be able to step up to the plate and knock it out of the park and we were able to do those things but it's just not an individual effort. There are always 11 guys out there. Nothing happens without those guys up front and I think they did an extremely good job of getting to where we need to get to and allow me to make reads and cuts off those guys.

Vince Wilfork responds to a comment about the defense having a big game Sunday.

I think we stepped up big today. I think every week we've been getting better and better. Today was a good day to get back on track. I think a lot of guys took it upon themselves to go out and make plays and be in the right position without giving up big plays. I am very proud of the defense. Is everything perfect? No. There are a lot of things we could better but I think the penalties are down, [and] we aren't giving up big plays. We have to continue to grow. We definitively have to continue to grow, continue to get better, but I think we definitely did a good job tonight.

...We executed the game plan, we knew it was going to be a tough game. Both teams would want to slug it out, they were going to make plays, we were going to make plays, but we knew we had to hang in their tough and play good solid football and then we knew we'd be ok. I think we did tonight. I think third down was a plus for us tonight. The yardage, no big plays- that's part of the most impressive stat for us. Like I said, we weren't perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.

Tom Brady responds to a question about having Aaron Hernandez back from his knee injury.

It was good. There were a lot of guys that toughed it out. Gronk [Rob Gronkowski] really toughed it out, the linemen were toughing it out. Wes [Welker] was out there, he fights his butt off. It was a good group effort. Everyone who played made plays.

TEAM TALK

• Game Notes: Patriots vs. Jets. Team and player records set, milestones reached and trends continued.
• Erik Scalavino analyzes the win and highlights New England's four-minute offense taking care of business in the final seven.
• Post Game Pressers: Bill Belichick (5 min. video plus Transcript) - Tom Brady (5 min. video plus Transcript) - Vince Wilfork (5 min. video plus Transcript) - Wes Welker (5 min. video plus Transcript) and BenJarvus Green-Ellis (5 min. video plus Transcript)
• Post Game Quotes: Patriots and Jets.
• Patriots Today - Pats hand Jets 3rd straight loss. (3.32 min. video)
• Locker Room Uncut - Reaction after beating the Jets. (3.43 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Shalise Manza Young thinks Sunday's showdown was a bit more personal to Tom Brady, even though he'd deny it if asked.
• Karen Guregian says Tom Brady got the better of Rex Ryan yesterday.
• Mike Reiss gives us his first impression of the Patriots win over the Jets and what it means.
• Michael Hurley shares some leftover thoughts from the Patriots win.
• Greg A. Bedard shares his post-game report: A fairly impressive win with a few hairy moments.
• Greg A. Bedard notes the Patriots commitment to the ground game made all the difference in Sunday's win.
• Shalise Manza Young focuses on the Patriots' ability to hand the game off to BenJarvus Green-Ellis to run out the clock and seal the victory.
• Ron Borges reports the Patriots grounded the Jets with a bloody taste of their own medicine.
• Chad Finn says the Pats defense is still ranked 32nd in the NFL in yardage allowed, but stats fall short of telling the whole story.
• Bob Ryan explains the poor game plan by Rex Ryan's Jets and how the Patriots kept it closer than it needed to be.
• Jeff Howe highlights BenJarvus Green-Ellis as the difference between this year and the team that lost to the Jets in 2010.
• Mark Farinella reports the Patriots can run the football effectively and that's bad news for the rest of the NFL.
• Tom E. Curran sees the Patriots getting better and the Jets getting worse.
• ESPNBoston's New England Patriots Gamecenter: Jets vs. Patriots.
• Mike Reiss looks at the snaps played by Patriots skill position players Sunday and analyzes what they might mean.
• Mike Reiss takes a look at snaps played by Patriots defenders and analyzes what it means.
• Mike Reiss looks at the players who showed up on multiple special teams units Sunday.
• Mike Reiss says the importance of TEs Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez was reflected in this week's positional groupings.
• Mike Rodak sums up the good and bad from the offensive line after a very physical game.
• Dan Shaughnessy notes Bill Belichick 'dropped the summa cum laude of coachspeak' yesterday: "Everybody did their job."
• Chris Forsberg reports Aaron Hernandez makes an impact in his return.
• Julian Benbow details Wes Welker's 73-yard run and how it fooled Darrelle Revis.
• Chris Forsberg charts Revis vs. Welker and how it played out.
• Steve Buckley points out these Patriots didn't dance after their big win.
• Christopher Price tells us ten things we learned Sunday: BenJarvus Green-Ellis is Bill Belichick's perfect running back.
• Mark Farinella says games don't have to be pretty to be satisfying.
• Kirk Minihane wonders what happened to Rex Ryan: Humble pie isn't his snack of choice.
• WEEI posts the clever video put together by talented DJ Steve Porter, "Can't Wait" about the Pats-Jets rivalry. (2.04 min.) Worth a watch.
• ESPN Stats & Information: Streaks and stats from Sunday's win.
• Chris Forsberg details the play of the game: Wes Welker's deep ball.
• Dan Duggan gives us the Best and Worst of yesterday's game.
• Kirk Minihane looks at what went right and what went wrong in the Pats' win.
• Mike Reiss gives us his 3 up and 3 down for the Patriots.
• Mary Paoletti offers the Best & Worst from Patriots 30, Jets 21 including the best opening event that had nothing to do with football.
• Mark Farinella hands out his Hots and Nots from a satisfying, if imperfect, 30-21 win over the Jets.
• Ian Rapoport Patriots Notebook: Aaron Hernandez put in the work to play yesterday and the result was impressive; Rob Gronkowski had an illness but played through it; The last-ranked defense bounced back; Albert Haynesworth felt inconsistent but thought it was a good step forward; James Ihedigbo was excited to get his first start with the Pats against his former team; Belichick had two successful challenges; Bruins champions brought the Stanley Cup onto the field before the game and revealed their Pats jerseys underneath their own.
• Boston Globe Patriots Notebook: James Ihedigbo learned he was starting against his former team just hours before gametime and his play was singled out by Belichick; Shaun Ellis thought the game was fun and he just tried to fucus on helping his team win; Haynesworth liked it that the Jets tried to run on him; Mark Anderson and Rob Ninkovich combined on a sack and Anderson finished with 1and a half; Special teams didn't have as good a day, allowing Joe McKnight's 88-yard kickoff return.

NATIONAL NEWS

• NFL Game Center - New England Patriots vs. New York Jets.  Recap, stats, analysis and those nifty highlight videos.
• Peter King (SI) MMQB: Raiders' emotional rally, 49ers' rout show sun is rising in the West.
• Don Banks (SI) Jets are losing their much-needed bluster, not just important games.
• Ben Shpigel (NY Times) Jets stagger against Patriots, losing 3rd straight.
• Michael David Smith (ProFootballTalk) Patriots prove tougher than Jets.
• Alex Marvez (Fox Sports) Sanchez dragging Jets down with him.
• Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) Week 5 Sunday rewind.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Week five Monday 10-pack.

VIEW FROM NEW YORK

• Gary Myers (NY Daily News) Jets making weak excuses after loss to Patriots; Rex Ryan needs to keep locker room together.
• Brian Costello (NY Post) Jets fall to Patriots for third straight loss.
• Manish Mehta (NY Daily News) Tom Brady & Patriots beat NY Jets 30-21, Mark Sanchez & Co. fall to third place in AFC East.
• Bart Hubbuch (NY Post) Brady shows Gang he's in charge.
• Kevin Armstrong (NY Daily News) Patriots' Wes Welker shows NY Jets, Darrelle Revis why he's NFL's leading receiver this season.
• Steve Serby (NY Post) Brash talkers brushed aside.
• Mark Cannizzaro (NY Post) Jets' Pace seething over refs' reversal.
• Jets Post Game Pressers. (3.54 min. video)