BY NICK ST. DENIS
The New York Jets were tied 0-0 with the New England Patriots through the first quarter. They were losing 35-3 by halftime.
The Patriots scored four touchdowns off of four straight turnovers in the second quarter, including 21 points in a 52-second span, to destroy the Jets 49-12. They totaled five touchdowns in the stanza.
"Obviously that was a nightmare of a game," Jets coach Rex Ryan said, according to Kimberly A. Martin of Newsday.
Five minutes after scoring the game's opening touchdown on a drive that followed a Mark Sanchez interception, the Patriots recovered a fumble by Jets running back Shonn Greene and took all but one play -- an 83-yard strike from Tom Brady to Shane Vereen -- to score.
On the ensuing drive, Sanchez fumbled after getting run into by guard Brandon Moore, and Patriots defensive back Steve Gregory, who recovered the earlier fumble, picked up this one and ran it back for a touchdown. Julian Edelman then scored by recovering Joe McKnight's fumble on the ensuing kick return.
Got all that?
"I thought it was almost impossible to do," Ryan said regarding the 35 points, according to Manish Mehta of the NY Daily News. "But they found a way to do it."
The Jets showed a bit of heart in the third quarter with, get this, 12 consecutive points. But the Patriots kept the heat on and rolled through the fourth quarter with two more touchdowns.
Brady finished the game with three passing touchdowns and another on the ground, including scoring tosses to Wes Welker and Edelman. Sanchez connected with tight end Dustin Keller on a meaningless score in the fourth quarter, and running back Bilal Powell scored the Jets' other touchdown.
New York fell to 4-7 with the loss, while New England improved to 8-3.
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