As expected, the New England Patriots’ offense struggled with Matt Cassel playing in place of the injured Tom Brady.

But the Jets’ offense struggled even more, Cassel played a better game than Brett Favre, and the Patriots left the Meadowlands with a 19-10 win.

Cassel was making his first start since he led Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles, and the Jets’ defense was expected to take an aggressive approach that would rattle him and force him to make mistakes. Instead, they were surprisingly passive, their defensive line was outplayed by the Patriots’ offensive line, and Cassel made it through the game without a single turnover.

It was Favre, not Cassel, who made the game’s biggest mistake: Favre threw a terrible interception in the third quarter, tossing a ball directly into the hands of Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather. It’s hard to figure out what Favre was looking at on the play; he might not know the Jets’ entire playbook yet, but even if he’s still learning the offense, he’s been around long enough to read defenses better than he did on Merriweather’s interception.

That interception set the Patriots up in great field position, and the subsequent six-play, 31-yard drive ended with a New England touchdown to make the score 13-3. The Jets went three-and-out on their next offensive drive, and the defense followed that up by allowing the Patriots to march down the field and kick another field goal. By the start of the fourth quarter, New England had a 16-3 lead.

Aside from that interception, Favre looked too cautious and too tentative, and he threw too many short passes. Of course, when he tried to look downfield, the Jets’ pass protection rarely gave him enough time. Favre was only sacked twice, but he was hurried several times and often looked frustrated by the Patriots’ defense. He finished the day with 18 completions on 26 attempts for 181 yards.

Even when the Jets’ offense could get going, it didn’t get into the end zone. Early in the game, the Jets had two long drives and ended up with just three points to show for them. The Jets received the opening kickoff and marched down the field on an 11-play, 67-yard drive, only to see Jay Feely, the kicker they signed last week to replace an injured Mike Nugent, miss his first field goal attempt in a Jets uniform. Another drive that started in the first quarter spanned 11 plays and 77 yards but stalled when running back Thomas Jones got stuffed three times inside the Patriots’ 3-yard line, and the Jets had to settle for a 21-yard field goal from Feely.

Those three straight stuffs inside the 3-yard line are a major concern for a team that added two expensive free agents, tackle Damien Woody and guard Alan Faneca, to the offensive line. Woody and Faneca were supposed to make the line more physical and more powerful, but yesterday it was the Patriots’ line that won the battle in the trenches.

There was just one drive, in the fourth quarter, when the Jets looked like they were getting their money’s worth from that offensive line. On that drive, the Jets’ offense marched down the field for 80 yards in 10 plays, culminating with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Favre to Chansi Stuckey, and it appeared for a moment that Favre might be able to lead the Jets to a come-from-behind victory.

But it wouldn’t turn out that way. The Jets’ defense responded by allowing the Patriots to go 71 yards, take five minutes off the clock, and get into position for the field goal that would put the game out of reach.

That final drive provided a good example of the difference between the Patriots’ offense with Cassel and the Patriots’ offense with Brady. On a first down near midfield, Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis bit on a play fake and allowed Patriots receiver Randy Moss to break free past the Jets’ secondary. Moss was all alone for what would have been, if Brady had been the quarterback, an easy touchdown. Instead, Cassel badly underthrew Moss, and Revis had enough time to catch up and break up the pass.

Moss caught just two passes for 22 yards, but the Jets failed to capitalize on the inability of Cassel to get the ball in the hands of the game’s best receiver. That doesn’t speak well for the Jets, who went into the game as the betting favorites but came out of it knowing that the Patriots — even without Brady — are the team to beat in the AFC East.

Mr. Smith is a writer for Fanhouse.com