The Jets battled to the end Sunday in the rain, making another late charge at home against a division rival. But unlike their week one contest with the Bills, there would be no dramatic come-from-behind win as the Green & White fell to 1-2 after a 15-10 loss to the Patriots. It was the third consecutive matchup these teams have played with the game decided by one possession.

“We just have to keep working,” head coach Robert Saleh said. “Obviously not good enough overall. Third downs, couldn’t run the ball. … Just overall it wasn’t good enough from coaching to players to all of it.”

Trailing by 13-3 in the fourth quarter, QB Zach Wilson got the Jets back in it as he completed 7-of-10 passes on a drive that culminated on FB Nick Bawden’s 1-yard plunge. Wilson, who had just 47 yards on 9-for-17 passing before the scoring drive, passed for 79 yards on the march that ended on Bawden’s first career TD.

With the crowd alive and the Jets defence energised, Jeff Ulbirch’s unit forced a punt on the Patriots ensuing drive. Taking over at his 10-yard line, Wilson couldn’t repeat the magic as two incompletions were followed by a holding call and then a safety by Matthew Judon.

The Jets got another crack at it down 15-10, but Wilson threw incomplete three times before Tyler Conklin was held to 2 yards on fourth-and-10. A Wilson Hail Mary as time expired was knocked around a few times but fell out of the reach of Randall Cobb. The Pats also moved to 1-2, avoiding Bill Belichick’s first 0-3 start since 2000.

The Pats held a 10-3 lead at halftime, outgaining the Jets 216 to 39. The third down issues that plagued the Jets last week in Dallas reappeared as the visitors went 6 of 10 in the opening 30 minutes and the Jets were held to 1 of 8. New England finished 8 of 19 while the Jets ended up 2 of 14 (12.5%), the Green & White’s lowest conversion rate since 2018.

“Even with Aaron [Rodgers] at quarterback, we knew there were going to be some hiccups along the way because of a new offence, new play caller, new o-line, new players all over the offensive side of the ball,” Saleh said. “Now you’ve got this curveball that was sent to us, so they’re acclimating. They’re going to get better, but it’s still very early in the season.”

The only TD in the first half came on a broken coverage as Mac Jones connected with TE Pharoah Brown for a 58-yard score in the second quarter. It was Brown’s first touchdown catch of his career and his first career reception that was longer than 30 yards.

“Mistakes like the 58-yard touchdown can’t happen,” Saleh said. “They can’t happen. Unfortunately it did, but I thought they did a really nice job in the second half locking down and giving us as many opportunities as possible. We had some opportunities there with the football. It was there, it was live. On a couple occasions it felt like we were about that close from flipping the game.”

The Jets’ scoring drive in the second quarter saw Breece Hall (4-17) and Dalvin Cook (4-12) running on 8 of 9 plays before Greg Zeurlein nailed a 52-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 10-3 before the break.

New England won the battle on the ground, churning out 157 yards on 40 carries (3.9 yds/att) while the Jets finished with 38 yards on 22 rushes (1.7 yds/att). Zach Wilson had completions to 8 different receivers, but the Jets had only 128 yards on their 17 completions.

Next Sunday night, the Jets will host the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.