This was arguably the greatest Thursday night game in NFL history. It was fairly well played, there were zero turnovers, zero reviews (that I caught - I got pulled away for five minutes watching my daughter) and only a normal amount of penalties. The game-winning FG attempt block was disappointing (I'd like to have seen whether Nick Folk could have delivered), but even that wasn't a random bounce because longer field goals need lower trajectories and are more susceptible to being blocked. All told, it was a game largely decided on the merits and competitive until the very end.

• When Tom Brady was struggling early in the year, there were whispers about his arm strength, but it looked to me like he had a lot of zip on his throws, and the deep balls weren't underthrown, either.

• Chris Ivory reminds me of Marion "the Barbarian" Barber, only with more long speed. He's an injury risk, but one of the more solid early-down options around. Chris Johnson didn't look bad, either.

• So much for picking up Brandon Bolden. We didn't find out much because the Patriots ran the ball only 15 times, and one of those was to Julian Edelman. If they're going to run 15 times per game, then they really only need Shane Vereen who can manage 11 of those carries and some catches. But this was an odd game with the Pats scoring so quickly, and the Jets driving so slowly. When the Pats do run it 30 times, they'll need more than Vereen, and I don't think Jonas Gray's three carries necessarily mean he'd get the call ahead of Bolden (or James White who was inactive) going forward.

• Geno Smith needs to be more decisive. When the ball's out of his hands quickly, he throws a nice (if drilled) ball, but when his first or second read is covered, he freezes and takes sacks. I'd rather see him take off and run sooner in that case. At times it looked like he had lanes, but hesitated and looked downfield again before going down or throwing it away. I don't think he's necessarily hopeless, though; he just lacks poise.

• It was crazy the play where a New England defender hit Geno Smith low and briefly knocked him out of the game was unflagged. Had that been Tom Brady lying on the turf, it would have been a penalty, fine, suspension and possibly a prison sentence.

• The Jets got called for a hold on a punt return where the punt wasn't even returned - they just let it roll. The NFL needs to change this rule, make it like pass interference on an uncatchable ball and pick up the flag. Same thing if a player makes a fair catch.

• Even after the Jets scored (and failed on the 2pt) to go down two, I was paranoid the Pats would impossibly cover the 9.5-point spread.

• It's too bad that Folk FG got blocked. Nothing like 32 percent of your survivor pool being out on Thursday.