Jets Embarrass Patriots: Rhodes' Prediction Comes True with Pats Poor Showing

In the run up to the 100th all-time meeting between the Patriots and Jets, the AFC East rivalry contained all the hallmarks of a hard fought battle.  For instance, in the preceding 99 games, both teams had 49 wins (one game ending in a tie). The last time the two foes met, the game went into overtime; as in past closely fought games where New England’s taken part, trash talk was levied against the Pats by a member of the opposing team’s secondary (e.g. Kerry Rhodes of the Jets last week, Anthony Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007, Freddie Mitchell of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005). And if you only saw the score of yesterday’s game—the Jets winning 16-9—you’d think yesterday was yet another hard fought battle.  Those who watched, though, saw something quite different. They saw a Patriots team that was outplayed, outmatched, and to paraphrase Rhodes comments from last week, “embarrassed” by their poor performance. That&...