Patriots' Stephon Gilmore Ruled Out vs. Jets; What it Means For New York
Monday night may the first Jets game against New England without Tom Brady on the Patriots in decades, but another familiar face also won't be playing in New York.
Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the reigning NFL defensive player of the year, was ruled out for the second straight week with a knee injury.
What does that mean for the Jets? For starters, New York finally benefits from injury news.
With starting quarterback Sam Darnold doubtful to play Monday night, his replacement Joe Flacco won't have to deal with New England's best defender wreaking havoc in the secondary.
Further, with the Jets trio of starting wideouts—Jamison Crowder, Breshad Perriman and rookie Denzel Mims—trending to play in the same game for the first time this season, they'll be going up against a vulnerable unit of defensive backs.
Let's also not forget that Gilmore has had plenty of success against the Jets in his career.
Jets fans will recall Gilmore's contributions to last season's 33-0 Monday Night Football thrashing in Foxborough. The three-time Pro Bowler had one of New England's four interceptions thrown by Darnold that night.
Over the 30-year-old's career, including five seasons with the Bills, Gilmore has three picks and 11 pass deflections in 12 games against the Jets. In that span, his teams are 10-2.
READ: Jets' Final Injury Report For Week 9 vs. Patriots
This season, New England has been one of the best in the league when it comes to forcing turnovers. In fact, when asked about this new-look Patriots team, carrying a 2-5 record into Week 9, Jets head coach Adam Gase instantly brought up their ability to force takeaways.
"The one thing I noticed defensively is the turnovers," Gase said in a Zoom on Thursday. "Them creating turnovers is definitely still there. They're second in the league right now with 13 turnovers."
Flacco, asked about the opportunity to face New England's defense, said it's important for the Jets to be physical and not to hesitate at the line of scrimmage.
"They're gonna come up and put pressure on you, they're gonna make it hard on receivers, they're going to be in your face, they're going to press, they're going to be physical with their hands and do all kinds of things that make it hard to get off the ball and create separation," he told reporters on Saturday.
Without Gilmore locking up New York's best receivers, perhaps Flacco and the Jets can find a groove offensively. For a team that's scored one touchdown in the last three games combined, and scored more than 17 points in a single game just once this season, any advantage is key.
After all, if New York can't secure the victory against the Patriots depleted defense on Monday night, the Jets will start 0-9 for the first time in franchise history.
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