At a few junctures in the Jets' Thursday night road battle with their old friends the Patriots, it seemed reasonable, conceivable, possible that the Jets just might be able to end New England's win streak before it got to eight in a row rather than end their own more modest two-game win streak with a loss.

After the opening drive of the game, for instance, when the Jets surged to a 7-0 lead. After the third-quarter touchdown pass from Justin Fields to newly arrived wideout John Metchie III to cut the Patriots' advantage to 21-14.

Yet it was not to be as the Jets fell to the Patriots, 27-14. And head coach Aaron Glenn felt strongly both ways.

"Give those guys a lot of credit," Glenn said of the Patriots and Mike Vrabel, their first-year head coach but not a rookie NFL head coach like Glenn. "That is a well-coached team, it has a quarterback playing really, really well, which we all knew, and their defense did a good job."

But the kudos only flowed so far because the Jets, despite showing a bit of the grit they displayed in the wins over the Bengals and Browns, didn't have enough to turn the tide in Foxboro under the NFL's Thursday night lights.

"One thing that really sticks out are details and discipline — that was one box we didn't check off today," AG said. "I am not just talking about the players, I am talking about us as coaches too. We have to make sure we're on the same page and we're doing the things we have to do to help those guys."

Glenn wasn't just referring to penalties, although the Jets, who had cut way back the past three games in the yellow-flag area, got hit with seven flags for 62 yards, compared to New England's two for 20.

He also didn't get into turnovers, although the defense once again wasn't able to turn the opponents over once. And the Jets, while suffering just one giveaway, paid for it when Fields couldn't find the handle on C Josh Myers' low shotgun snap and the Patriots recovered at the Jets' 11 with 7:29 to play. The defense kept Drake Maye and his offense out of the end zone, but Andy Borregales' second field goal turned a two-score deficit at 24-14 into a two-TD hole at 27-14.

One thing that did catch the coach's eye was the Jets' pass defense — only one sack of Maye that counted, by Jermaine Johnson, and four QB hits, and coverage that allowed the Patriots signal-caller to complete his first 11 passes on the night and 25 of 34 overall for 281 yards, a TD, no personal giveaways, and a 107.6 passer rating.

"I really have to watch the tape to give you a true answer, but that did happen. And that bothers me," Glenn said of the Pats' often wide-open targets. "You can't let any quarterback have that wide-open receivers, especially him. That's not who we are. That's unacceptable."

And as for the pressure, AG said: "It was very obvious they were worried about Will [McDonald]. You see he got chipped a number of times, and when that happens, you've got to have other players step up. A number of times we should've had the quarterback corralled but we didn't get him on the ground."

The shame was that the Jets, with as many comings and goings from trades and injuries over the past two weeks as they endured, did at least give a few hints that beating the Patriots was not out of the question.

The magic of their opening drive — 14 plays, 72 yards and 8:04 off the first-quarter game clock, ended by Fields running a naked boot for 5 yards and the Jets' first game-opening TD drive in the rivalry's last 16 meetings — seemed real, then a mirage after four punt drives, three of them 3-and-outs.

But then when Fields found Metchie wide open inside the 5 for a 22-yard score that cut the home team's lead to 21-14 late in the third quarter, two developments gave new hope. The Jets' ground game led by Breece Hall and Fields was in the process of a 140-yard rushing game, the most by any opponent this season against the NFL's No. 1 run defense. And Fields at the moment of that pass, had a passer rating of 101.3. That was built on a modest line (10-of-15, 77 yards, 1 TD, no INTs) but still the game was within reach.

And then it wasn't. Glenn cast a coach's gaze on Fields' game but his remarks weren't all directed at the QB. The offense was also missing Garrett Wilson, placed on Injured Reserve earlier in the day, and WR Adonai Mitchell, making his Jets debut, had chances for two big downfield receptions that he couldn't latch onto.

But all Glenn and the Jets can do now is take advantage of their "mini-break" that comes with the next week and half until the next game, and then chop some more wood.

"Details and discipline. ... This is not a one-way street," Glenn said. "We have to look at those things as coaches and players and do a better job. So we're looking forward to getting back on Monday and going back to work and get ready to move to our next game."

That next game is against a possibly rejuvenated Baltimore team, with Lamar Jackson back at QB, at the Ravens' home. Another tough road game for Glenn's building program. But perhaps in 10 days, the conceivable will enter the realm of the doable.