3 Takeaways from Patriots' Week 7 Win

The New England Patriots' winning streak against the New York Jets won't end in 2021, but it's also clear that the Pats remain much better than their AFC East rival after a dominant all-around showing on Sunday.

New England cruised to a 54-13 victory over New York at Gillette Stadium, notching its 12th consecutive win over its divisional foe. It still hasn't lost to the Jets since Week 16 of the 2015 season, and it outscored New York 79-19 while sweeping this year's two matchups between the teams.

The Pats did everything well on Sunday. They amassed 551 total yards on offense, forced three turnovers on defense and scored the game's first 17 points, leading for all but the first two minutes, 17 seconds of the contest.

Here are three takeaways from New England's Week 7 win.

Through the first seven games of his NFL career, Mac Jones has already had his ups and downs. However, the rookie quarterback is getting better with experience, and he had his most impressive showing to this point on Sunday.

The 23-year-old went 24-for-36 for 307 yards and two touchdowns, marking the first 300-yard game of his NFL career. He also didn't throw an interception after getting picked off in each of the previous four games, throwing six interceptions during that span.

While Jones gets better, he is also praising his teammates for doing the same.

"I think we got a little flavor of if we do everything right throughout the week and practice well and do our job well it kind of translates over and you just play together as a unit," he said, per Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic.

These are the types of performances that New England expected when it took the Alabama product with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2021 draft. And as he keeps playing more, they could start to become more regular.

It was only the Pats' seventh game of the season, but they debuted their fifth different combination of starters along the offensive line. This week, they went with left tackle Isaiah Wynn, left guard Ted Karras, center David Andrews, right guard Shaq Mason and right tackle Michael Onwenu.

This may also end up being the combination that sticks, because the offense dominated in all facets of the game. Jones was sacked just once and hit only four times, while New England totaled 148 yards on the ground. Damien Harris led the way with 106 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and J.J. Taylor also had a pair of rushing scores.

The Pats' offense is clicking, and it all started with the impressive performance up front.

"I think we're finding out who we are, play by play," New England wide receiver Kendrick Bourne said, per Kyle Hightower of the Associated Press. "The rhythm was right."

Perhaps part of the reason for the Patriots' success was because they were playing the struggling Jets, but there are still plenty of positives to take. And if the offensive line can show up like this against tougher opponents, it will help the rest of the offense keep this momentum.

The Patriots may have lost three of their first four games, but they've been playing better of late. Sunday's victory marked their second in the past three weeks, and their lone loss during that stretch was an overtime defeat against the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys.

There's still plenty of time for New England to make a push for the playoffs, especially if it can start building momentum and go on a run. Although a win over the Jets isn't too impressive, the Pats may have gotten a needed confidence boost that can help them moving forward.

But New England is going to need to play well against much tougher teams if it hopes to return to the postseason after missing out last year. Over the next six weeks, it faces four teams with winning records and another that is at .500. There's also no opponent during that stretch with fewer than three wins.

That difficult stretch begins in Week 8, when the Patriots go on the road to take on the 4-2 Los Angeles Chargers. And if they want to make a statement and show they're trending in the right direction, that game is a great opportunity to do so.