New England Patriots: Studs and duds vs. Jets in Week 7

Stud: Phillip Dorsett

Phillip Dorsett played a large role within the Patriots passing attack, which was somewhat limited without the presence of wideout Josh Gordon, who suffered a knee injury in New England’s Week 6 win over the New York Giants.

In the victory on national television against a struggling Jets squad, Dorsett paced the Patriots with three catches for a total of 46 yards, hauling in the lone touchdown through the air in the game. Dorsett was able to average a team-best 15.3 yards per reception while being targeted four times and recording a game-long catch of 26 yards.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has looked at Dorsett often this season, and it will be interesting to see if we continue to see these types of performances from Dorsett moving forward, especially with not knowing the status of Gordon at the current moment.

Dud: Balance in running game

Outside of Sony Michel, who tallied 42 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries for New England, the Patriots balance within their running game wasn’t terribly spread evenly within their personnel on the offensive end of the field.

Overall as a unit, New England’s running game combined for a total of 74 yards on 34 rushing attempts. This means that, outside of Michel, no other Patriots players were able to gain much traction on the ground in the blowout victory.

In the past, and to some extent at the beginning of the season this year, we have seen New England being able to carry a balance within its running game while providing opponents with a few different players that they have to worry about in the Patriots running game. But recently, and such was the case on Monday night against the Jets, that hasn’t really been the case for the defending champions.