A successful two-minute drill from Tom Brady allowed the New England Patriots to wrench momentum away from the Jets heading into the half.
Both offenses came up short time and again to start the quarter, with the Patriots slowly losing the field position battle as the teams traded punt after punt. Eventually, it proved too much, and the Jets defense managed to pick up their offense by putting points on the board. After an early snap left the Patriots lucky to maintain possession, Brady was forced to throw the ball away from the end zone on 3rd-and-13. Intentional grounding was called, and the Jets found themselves with two points.
Meanwhile, DB Sterling Moore managed to help the Jets more than the Patriots, making a hard helmet-to-helmet hit...on Devin McCourty. The Jets got an unnecessary roughness call for their trouble, while the Patriots' sophomore cornerback left the field and entered the locker room seemingly unable to move his arm. His return is questionable.
The Jets were not content with just two points, unfortunately. Cutting up the middle of the field both through the air and on the ground, Mark Sanchez and the Jets found themselves two yards from pay dirt on a third down. Mark Sanchez called a timeout much to the chagrin of Rex Ryan, but the team came back out and ran the right play. Mark Sanchez fell back seemingly to pass, and then rushed forward on a quarterback draw as Vince Wilfork was held just out of reach.
The touchdown gave the Jets a 9-6 lead, but it wouldn't last long. The timeout had given Tom Brady just enough time to work with. Finding Rob Gronkowski twice for 37 yards and Welker once for 12, the Pats found themselves in the Red Zone with a little help from an Eric Smith facemask. On 3rd-and-12, it was again Eric Smith who came up short, with Tom Brady finding Gronkowski for a third time on the drive, connecting for an 18-yard touchdown pass and going ahead 13-9 as the first half came to an end.