3 Worst Patriots From Embarrassing Week 3 Loss to Jets

The New England Patriots had their one-and-only primetime game on Thursday night against the New York Jets. After a Week 1 upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals and a competitive overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, it was an opportunity for the Patriots to step up on the national stage and prove that they had been underestimated in preseason predictions.

Instead, Thursday's Patriots looked exactly like what many anticipated and New England fans feared prior to the season beginning in a 24-3 drubbing in the Meadowlands.

Aaron Rodgers sliced and diced through New England's secondary, looking like the four-time MVP that he is. Rodgers found eight different receivers for 281 yards passing, while Patriots starter Jacoby Brissett only threw for 98 yards behind a porous offensive line.

The Patriots' running game has been a calling card for the team through two weeks, but they were never able to get that element of the game going either as lead back Rhamondre Stevenson only ran for 23 yards.

New England was dominated in yards – New York accumulated 400 yards of offense to New England's 139 yards. The Patriots were also out possessed by a wide margin, as the Jets held the ball for 40:04 compared to New England's 19:56.

The Patriots' response after an embarrassing primetime loss will be telling – and they don't exactly get a cupcake opponent when they head to the West Coast to face the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers in Week 4.

After a dreadful, dreadful performance on Thursday night that will leave fans heavily disappointed, here are the three worst Patriots from the first New England away loss to the Jets since 2015.

3. Alex Austin

When the dust settles, you could probably put the entire Patriots offensive line at this spot, but Austin had one of the more embarrassing plays on an embarrassing night for New England.

On first-and-goal for the Jets from the Patriots 10-yard line in the first quarter, Rodgers threw a screen pass to Allen Lazard on the left side. Austin overpursued Lazard and got juked out of his shoes before pulling a desperate attempt at stopping the Jets receiver by holding onto Lazard's undershirt for dear life, stretching it for nearly five yards. Ironically, five yards felt like New England's longest offensive play at that point too. The attempt was futile as Lazard found the end zone, giving the Jets their first touchdown of the night on the way to a blowout win.

One commenter on X asked the Jets' social media team to elongate the jersey pull for every 500 likes on the original post The Jets obliged, bringing us these edits:

The image of Austin's shirt pull has even been installed as the team account's new profile banner. For Austin, he caught two L's on Thursday night – one on the field and one at the hands of social media.