EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Tom Brady's record-setting victory was hardly smooth and easy. It also wasn't the prettiest of his 187 regular-season victories.
Brady, who broke a tie with Peyton Manning and Brett Favre, had to rally the New England Patriots from a two-touchdown deficit in the first half before holding on for a 24-17 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday to claim first place in the AFC East.
"I wish we had done better, but we won," said Brady, who was limited early in the week with a sore left shoulder. "Probably a lot to learn from it. I wish we could have played better offensively. We got down early and came back. A good series before the half. We hung in there at the end."
The Patriots (4-2) were playing their first game in 10 days after beating Tampa Bay 19-14 on Oct. 5, and appeared a bit rusty early as they fell behind 14-0 in the second quarter against the surprising Jets (3-3).
New York had a chance to tie the game after getting the ball back with 1:53 remaining, but the Patriots' 32nd-ranked overall defense held on -- forcing Josh McCown to throw incomplete on a desperation heave on fourth and 16 from the Patriots 49, and ending the Jets' three-game winning streak.
Brady, who already had the NFL mark for total victories, was visibly frustrated early, but got going in this one just before halftime as the Patriots tied it at 14-14 with nine seconds left in the second quarter on a 2-yard TD catch by Rob Gronkowski.
Brady then marched the Patriots down the field on their opening drive of the second half, going eight plays and 75 yards to give New England its first lead at 21-14 with a 33-yard pass to Gronkowski.
Brady finished 20 of 38 for 257 yards with 2 touchdowns to Gronkowski and an interception. Dion Lewis also had a 1-yard TD run.
After Stephen Gostkowski's 28-yard field goal made it 24-14 50 seconds into the fourth quarter, New York appeared to make it a one-score game again on its next possession as Austin Seferian-Jenkins took a short pass from McCown and reached over the goal line for a 4-yard touchdown.
But officials reviewed the score and said the video replay showed that Seferian-Jenkins slightly lost control of the ball when Malcolm Butler nudged it loose as the tight end was crossing the plane of the goal line. Seferian-Jenkins didn't regain control until after he had stepped out of bounds, resulting in a touchback -- despite the ball never hitting the ground. That gave the Patriots back the ball, with the Jets' sideline irate.
"I feel like I scored," Seferian-Jenkins said. "But at the end of the day, that's what the refs called. I'm going to go with what the refs said. But I've got to have better ball security."
Jets wide receiver Jermaine Kearse was less diplomatic: "I'm pretty sure everybody's going to look back and say that was a B.S. call."
Added Jets Coach Todd Bowles: "From my angle on the replay, I didn't see the ball fumbled. I saw it bobbled and I saw him gain control of it."
The Patriots were adamant that it wasn't a touchdown, with Butler yelling at the officials and waving his arms to say it shouldn't count.
Referee Tony Corrente explained the decision to a pool reporter after the game, saying Seferian-Jenkins lost control of the football before he got to the goal line and didn't re-establish control until he was out of bounds.
"It came out of his control as he was almost to the ground," Corrente said. "Now, he re-grasps the ball and, by rule, now he has to complete the process of a recovery, which means he has to survive the ground again. So, in recovering it, he recovered, hit the knee, started to roll and the ball came out a second time.
"So, the ball started to move in his hands this way and he's now out of bounds in the end zone, which now created a touchback. So, he didn't survive the recovery and didn't survive the ground during the recovery, which is what happened here."
Sports on 10/16/2017