With 67 seconds remaining in the first half Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Stephen Gostkowski missed wide right on a 47-yard field goal attempt.
It was the first missed field goal of the season for Gostkowski, who has returned to his old form after a rough 2016. And it actually ended up benefiting the New England Patriots.
Had Gostkowski made the kick, the Patriots would have cut the New York Jets’ lead to four points in the waning moments of the second quarter. His miss, however, allowed New England to pull even just before halftime in a game they wound up winning 24-17.
Here’s how it went down:
After Gostkowski’s kick missed its mark, the Jets got the ball back on their own 37-yard line with 1:07 left to play in the second. Two passes to Austin Seferian-Jenkins gave them a first down near midfield, but an illegal hands to the face penalty on tackle Brandon Shell backed them up 10 yards and set up a first-and-20.
Josh McCown regained 8 of those yards with a pass to Matt Forte, but on the next play, the quarterback who entered Sunday with the NFL’s second-highest completion percentage committed a costly error.
Facing a second-and-12 with 40 seconds remaining, McCown tried to thread the needle to wide receiver Robby Anderson, who’d broken toward the sideline on a 15-yard out. The ball never reached its target.
Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler, whom McCown targeted 10 times in the game, perfectly read the play and stepped in front of Anderson for an easy interception.
“He ended up inside the receiver and then undercut the route and got his head around, made a great play on the ball,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Monday in a conference call. “Really, it was a pretty well-executed route and throw. I mean, the ball was right there. It really wasn’t behind the receiver. It was right on him, but Malcolm just made a great play there. … That was an outstanding play by Malcolm.”
Following Butler’s pick, Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense took over and began a determined march down the field. A James White rush on second down gained 9 yards. A pass to Danny Amendola on third-and-1 gained 10.
Then, with 22 seconds remaining in the half, came the hammer. Brady received a shotgun snap, stepped up to avoid the Jets’ two-man pass rush and uncorked a 42-yard bomb down the left sideline to receiver Brandin Cooks, who’d beaten cornerback Morris Claiborne in man-to-man coverage.
The pass landed squarely in the outstretched hands of Cooks, who completed a remarkable over-the-shoulder catch before falling out of bounds at the Jets’ 2-yard line.
“He does a good job of that,” Belichick said. “He’s got explosive speed and tracks the ball well and has great awareness of where he is on the field and how to get his feet down. It was a good throw and a good catch — a very good catch and good job of tracking the ball. That was a big play for us.”
Two plays later, Brady connected with tight end Rob Gronkowski for a 2-yard touchdown. And just like that, the Patriots’ 14-0 deficit was gone. They never trailed again en route to their fourth win of the season.
Thumbnail photo via Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports Images
