We have an important announcement:

The New England Patriots will not finish last in the AFC East.

We can really say with confidence that honor will be bestowed upon the New York J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!

Sure we know, it’s only after Week 3. But we told you that as long as Zach Wilson is the quarterback for Gang Green, they’ll be Gang Seen, as in rear view mirror. So much for JetLife Stadium, which is what those moronic Jet fans were all set to call the home field where their team will remain second class citizens to the Giants. But that was a month ago.

The Patriots scored only 15 points on Sunday, but heck, 11 points would have been enough. The Jets had only 39 total yards in the first half, and you’re certainly concerned if you’re a Patriots fan that they were only up 10-3. But as Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, “Down here it’s always tough. … 15 is not going to – generally you need more than that. But it was good enough today.”

Definitely when you just have to outscore that putrid Jets offense, which is falling apart at the seams as players were arguing with coaches on the sideline, etc., or trying to urge Wilson to do this or that. Now, granted, the Jets were inches from winning this thing on a Hail Mary and that would have not only put the Patriots in a huge 0-3 hole but it just would have postponed the Jets dealing with their issues another week.

“Right now Zach is the best player – he’s who gives us the best chance to win,” Saleh somehow said with a straight face in his post game press conference. “Basically, that’s the cleanest answer I can give.”

What else can they say? They know the kid stinks. No one wants to admit it, and even at times Jim Nance and Tony Romo were trying to pump up Wilson if he made a rare good play, but Romo also was very good at showing where Wilson simply did not see the field and the receivers who were open on it.

“It starts with me,” said Wilson, who at least learned from that ridiculous stance he took after a similar loss at Gillette last year. “I have to find a way to be better.”

Jet coaches seem at a loss to know what to do, and they better find a veteran QB to come in and put things together on the fly, otherwise they’re looking at a four or five win season – if that – with their Zach Attack. They put every egg they could find into the Aaron Rodgers basket, and now he’s convalescing in California after tearing his Achilles and New York has realized that basket was made of thin straw.

But the Patriots have their own issues. Sure it was a lousy day, a game you know isn’t going to produce a ton of points, etc. But the Patriots will need more. They won’t be facing Zach Wilson every week. And the guess is they probably won’t when they see the Jets on the last day of the regular season in Foxborough.

New England yesterday had success running the ball, despite all the offensive line woes, and got some good use out of Ezekiel Elliott. And off course if you had Pharoah Brown in your prop bet to score the first and only Patriots TD of the day you’re probably headed to the Bahamas to put your dough in an off-shore account. The veteran tight end was scooped up by the Patriots at the end of August.

So we can now view from afar the clown show in the Meadowlands while the Patriots try to have a decent season. They had to start somewhere after waiting three weeks to even have a lead.

“It’s a long season,” linebacker Matthew Judon, whose Zach Sack in the end zone changed the game to give the Patriots a big safety and take any game-tying field goal out of play for the Jets. “But you’re first one, you kind get that under your belt and go from there.”

They go to Dallas, which flopped in Arizona yesterday with sudden problems on its offensive line and injury losses on defense to join the rest of us mortals. Yeah, for next Sunday, we’re saying there’s a chance.

There was a chance the last couple of weeks, but the Patriots didn’t take advantage of it.

“It’s been like this three weeks in a row for us,” Belichick said. “It’s good to come out on the good end of it.”

They could look down the tunnel to the Jets locker room to see the bad end – and a bad quarterback.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK on twitter, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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