FOXBOROUGH -- The NFL hath no fury like a defense scorned. Mark Sanchez and the Jets learned that the hard way yesterday.

All week the Patriots defense had to listen to the fourth and 2 debate following the collapse against the Colts. Every argument that Patriots coach Bill Belichick made the right decision and was truly giving his team its best chance to win by going for it on his own 28 up by six points with 2:08 to play was either a direct or indirect indictment of the defense.

For an entire week a unit that hadn't allowed more than three touchdowns in a game until the 35-34 loss to Indy last week and is allowing 16.4 points per game, second-best in the league -- behind the Colts, of course -- was doubted, dissed, dismissed and dissected. Yesterday, they hit back and evoked another "d'-word -- dominant.

New England's non-Tom Brady unit did everything but chase Sanchez back to the team bus in a 31-14 beatdown of the Jets yesterday at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots defense forced Sanchez (8 of 21 for 136 yards and a score) and the Jets into five turnovers (four interceptions and a strip-sack) that led to 17 points.

They held the Jets to 226 yards of total offense and grounded their passing attack, allowing just 122 net yards of passing. They only surrendered seven points -- the Jets' first touchdown came on a blocked punt before the half. At the half, when the Patriots led 24-7, the Jets net yards passing matched Sanchez's jersey number -- 6.

Cornerback Leigh Bodden, who got the Patriots on the board first with a 53-yard interception return for a score in the first quarter, caught as many of Sanchez's passes (three) as his two leading receivers, Dustin Keller and Jerricho Cotchery. If it weren't for Cotchery's garbage-time 33-yard reception on the game's final possession, the Jets would have been under 100 net yards passing.

The defense's dismantling of the Jets offense led the New York media to pepper Cryin' Rex Ryan with questions about whether he planned to bench the QB he dubbed the "Sanchize" earlier in the season.

After the game, Patriots defenders said all the right things about not being extra motivated by being put on the defensive about their play against the Colts. They talked about how they had moved on from the Indianapolis loss. But how could they not take what happened at Lucas Oil Stadium and its aftermath personally?

They did and it showed.

However, the reality is we're no closer to knowing how good this defense is and whether it's good enough to take the Patriots back to the Super Bowl than we were after Indianapolis.

"I think that's yet to be seen. I think the only way you prove that is you win a championship," said linebacker Adalius Thomas, when asked if the Patriots had a championship-caliber defense. "You can talk about it, and you can do all this other different stuff about it, but until you do it it really doesn't mean anything. So, you can only have one championship defense and that's the person that wins the Super Bowl."

The defense is definitely better than what was forecast at the beginning of the season with the losses of Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and Richard Seymour. There has been the emergence of playmakers in Bodden, who now has five interceptions on the season, safety Brandon Meriweather, and outside linebacker/defensive end Tully Banta-Cain, who had both Patriots' sacks and forced Sanchez's fumble.

But it can't be considered elite until it closes out a contest by making a stop with the game on the line, a chance it never got against the Colts.

Meriweather's fourth-quarter interception of Sanchez at the Jets' 29 with 9:53 left was pivotal, but it doesn't qualify. First, it was an absurdly foolish throw by Sanchez, who was under pressure near his own goal line, and second the Patriots had a 10-point lead (24-14) at the time.

It goes without saying that there is a Grand Canyon-sized difference between flummoxing a lost rookie QB like Sanchez, who prior to yesterday's four-interception effort already had three- and five-intercepton efforts to his name, at home and shutting down an elite quarterback like Peyton Manning on the road.

That's why Meriweather answered in the negative when asked if he felt the defense had proved its point with its suffocating play against the Jets.

"No, we played a rookie quarterback that we had a couple of different schemes in for," said Meriweather. "I think if we step up to the plate this [Monday] and do exactly what we're supposed to this week then I'll say we prove something."

Meriweather is right. We're really going to find out what the Patriots' defense is about a week from today, when they head to New Orleans to face the 10-0 Saints in the Superdome. That's their signature game.

New Orleans is every bit the offensive juggernaut that the Patriots were in 2007 and right now Drew Brees is every bit the quarterback that Brady is. The Saints are averaging 36.9 points per game, which would eclipse the amount of points the Patriots averaged during the record-setting 2007 season, when they scored an NFL-record 589 during their point-a-palooza tour of the NFL. The Saints are also tops in the NFL in total offense at 420.5 yards per game. By comparison the 16-0 Patriots of '07 averaged 411.3.

Stop the Saints and the questioning will stop too.

But Meriweather said it doesn't matter whether the Patriots' defense makes believers out of the fans and media. They believe in themselves.

"It's always like that. You're only going to have 53 players who believe in each other, so it's always us against the world," said Meriweather. "Even in '07, when we went undefeated we had people out there saying we couldn't do it. It's always us against the world. That's how we like it though."

One battle the Jets did win today: Randy Moss vs. Darrelle Revis.

Moss was held to five catches for 34 yards -- the only one of any consequence being a 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter in which the receiver did a nice job of getting separation through deception. That brings Moss' two-game total this year against Revis to nine catches for 58 yards, with a long catch of 13, the only one over 10.

"I did the best I could," Revis said after the game. "I knew I going to be matched up on him like I was the first game, and he did score a touchdown, but that a play right there, where it was a timing pattern. ... Things happen quick down there, they got one on us. But I did the best I could against Randy, whatever the stats say."

The Patriots took three shots deep to Moss with Revis singled up on him in the first quarter, and came up empty each time with the corner right there, step-for-step. Early in the fourth quarter, Moss got flagged for interference on another deep shot, preventing what could've been a pick. Later, Revis was right there again as Moss went deep with (ahem) 30 seconds left in the game.

"Randy's a great receiver, and I give him a lot of respect," said Revis. "And when me and him battle, it's great."

FOXBOROUGH -- The total of 15 catches may be a little high for Wes Welker, but isn't totally out of whack. It is, after all, the fourth time he's been in double-digits in catches this year.

What did catch the Jets off-guard was how the Patriots were employing him in certain spots. With Darrell Revis erasing Randy Moss from the game, New England went downfield with Welker more to fill the void and, in the process, got one past the Jets.

On a third-and-7 in the second quarter, Welker raced down the seam and Brady hit him deep on the right side for a 43-yard gain, getting the ball to the Jets 3 against a cover-3 look from the Jets defense.

"That broke his tendency," Jets linebacker Bart Scott said. "He’s a horizontal runner. If you scout the Patriots, Wes Welker doesn’t run deep routes. It’s very rare. So they broke a tendency. You gotta play the odds sometimes. You got two great receivers next to each other, who would you check vertically? (Randy) Moss or Welker?"

When posed with the idea that, maybe, the Jets should've moved Revis over to cover Moss, Scott scoffed. "So take Revis off of Randy Moss and go to Wes Welker?" he asked.

Safety Jim Leonhard, courageously playing with a broken thumb that had three screws inserted earlier in the week, explained how Welker's presence killed the Jets rush, which had been so effective in Week 2 with the slot receiver shelved.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady spoke after New England exacted a bit of revenge on the Jets on Sunday at Gillette Stadium. The Jets defeated the Patriots 16-9 in Week 2 of the season in East Rutherford, N.J.

Video by Alan Miller.

Some quotes from the Jets after they lost to the Patriots 31-14 Sunday at Gillette Stadium:

Coach Rex Ryan: "We got outplayed and outcoached by a better football team, today, not doubt about that. New England came out of the gates, they did a lot of good things offensively, they gave us a few problems early, especially. Welker had a phenomenal game. You just have to give them credit. they obviously did a great job, clearly they were the better team today, no question about it."

Safety Kerry Rhodes, on Patriots WR Wes Welker: "Wes is a great player. ... We got some calls to go to him, but he does a good job of finding the open spot and Brady puts it right to him. It was pretty tough. They both played well today. You have to give [Brady] credit, he did a good job, but we had some big mistakes. Every time we made a mistake, he capitalized on it."

Patriots cornerback Leigh Bodden said he knew he had a touchdown when he made the first of his three interceptions of Jets QB Mark Sanchez.

"I knew I had 6. I just had to beat [No.] '6'," Bodden quipped, referring to Sanchez's diving attempt to force him out of bounds.

Sanchez didn't come very close.

Meanwhile, receiver Wes Welker knew he'd have a lot of passes come his way because the Jets assigned Darrelle Revis to shut down Randy Moss, which he mostly did.

"The guys did a good job around me. The blocking up front, guys doing their jobs. That's what it comes down to. That's why we have the the success that we do," Welker said.

Quarterback Tom Brady had his fifth straight 300-yard passing game and was pleased to put the sting of last week's loss to the Colts behind him.

"It was a long week for all of us," Brady said. "We put a lot into it, and Wednesday was tough coming back to work."

"We beat the Jets, a divisional opponent, and they got us pretty good the first time. This feels pretty good."

Leigh Bodden has three interceptions for the Patriots, tying a team record set by Asante Samuel in November of 2006.

Bodden's first interception put the Patriots' first points on the board, a 53-yard interception return in the first quarter.

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has thrown four interceptions in the game. Midway through the fourth, he was picked off by safety Brandon Meriweather.

FINAL, Patriots 31, Jets 14: The Patriots remain undefeated at home, improving to 6-0 at Gillette Stadium this season.

4th quarter, 4:58, Patriots 31, Jets 14: Maroney gets his second touchdown on the night, rushing 1 yard into the end zone with 5:09 left.

4th quarter, 7:28, Patriots 24, Jets 14: Tom Brady has thrown for more than 300 yards for the fifth consecutive game.

4th quarter, 9:49, Patriots 24, Jets 14: Brandon Meriweather gets the Patriots' fourth interception of the night. Patriots ball on the Jets 25.

4th quarter, 14:42, Patriots 24, Jets 14: Bodden just picked up his third interception of the game, a career high. It also matches the most interceptions by a Patriot since Asante Samuel grabbed three against Chicago in 2006.

3rd quarter,2:49, Patriots 24, Jets 14: Patriots rookie safety Patrick Chung is out with a head injury and his return is questionable.

3rd quarter, 4:40, Patriots 24, Jets 14: Welker caught his 10th pass of the night for 151 yards, a career high.

3rd quarter, 9:40, Patriots 24, Jets 14: Kaczur is back on the field for the Patriots, as is Vollmer.

3rd quarter, 9:45, Patriots 24, Jets 14: The Jets put together a nice offensive drive, going 80 yards on 11 plays, capped by Mark Sanchez's 29-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery. The drive burned 5 minutes and 15 seconds.

Halftime, Patriots 24, Jets 7: Highlights from the first half include, Wes Welker catching eight passes for 139 yards, reaching 100 yards receiving for the 10th time in his career. ... Randy Moss has four catches for 21 yards and one touchdown. ... The Jets have two first downs, 34 total offensive yards on 22 plays.

End 2nd quarter, Patriots 24, Jets 7: Gostkowski missed a 40-yard field goal in the final seconds of the second quarter. But a bigger concern for the Patriots is the health of right tackle Nick Kaczur. Kaczur appeared to be injured when Brady was sacked and collapsed onto Kaczur's leg.

2nd quarter, .50, Patriots 24, Jets 7: Special teams gets the Jets on the board as Eric Smith blocked Chris Hanson's punt, allowing Brad Smith to recover the ball and carry it 4 yards into the end zone.

2nd quarter, 4:14, Patriots 24, Jets 0: The Patriots leave the red zone with 3 points as Stephen Gostkowski booted the 26-yard field goal. It capped a 10-play drive for 44 yards.

2nd quarter, Patriots 21, Jets 0: Bodden gets his second interception of the night, giving the Patriots the ball on their 48.

2nd quarter, Patriots 21, Jets 0: Patriots offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer is out of the game with a head injury and his return is questionable. Big loss for the Patriots, who have been able to rely on the rookie at left tackle since Matt Light was injured against Denver.

2nd quarter, Patriots 21, Jets 0:: Maroney scores a touchdown in his fifth consecutive game, running 2 yards into the end zone to complete a seven-play, 59-yard drive. The highlight of the drive was Brady's 43-yard pass to Wes Welker, who made a two-handed grab in the middle of the field and carried it to the Jets 3.

End 1st quarter, Patriots 14-0: Brady to Moss for a 4-yard touchdown pass. Brady passes to Welker for 17, 15, and 19 yards, plus a Welker 11-yard run on a reverse brought the Patriots into the red zone, and Moss' fsirst catch increases the lead.

The drive was 9 plays, 76 yards, and covered 4:16.

1st quarter, 4:16, Patriots 7-0: The Patriots take over after Jets forced to punt. A holding penalty sets the Patriots back and they'll start from their own 24.

1st quarter, 5:47, Patriots 7, Jets 0: Patriots cornerback Leigh Bodden stepped in front of Jets receiver Jerricho Cotchery to intercept a Mark Sanchez pass and return it 53 yards for the touchdown. Bodden has an interception for the second straight game.

1st quarter, 7:24, Patriots 0, Jets 0: Ruling on the field stands and Jets get the ball on their own 34. Two fumbles lost in back-to-back games for Maroney. He had one fumble in 508 touches but now has two in his last eight.

1st quarter, 7:24, Patriots 0, Jets 0: Patriots challenging if Laurence Maroney fumbled on 2-yard run that Jets recovered.

1st quarter, 10:45, Patriots 0, Jets 0: The Randy Moss vs. Darrelle Revis watch has begun. On the Patriots' opening drive, Revis was matched up with Moss and swatted away the only pass thrown toward Moss.

I thought this one would be tight. I thought wrong. And if the Jets are going to have any chance of making this even remotely interesting, Rex Ryan's gonna have to yank a positively spooked Mark Sanchez.

Since the only way to analyze this half is that one team looks a lot better than the other, here are a few quick hits from the first half ...

* Vince Wilfork has been absolutely dominant in the middle of the defense, and is the key to the Patriots' shutdown of the Jets' running, which has put the ball in Sanchez's hands, which is a decidedly good thing for the home team. While Wilfork's most impressive play has come at the nose, his best single play may have been at left end.

On the play, Brad Smith lined up in the pistol and ran a speed option right with Shonn Greene as his pitchman. Wilfork's assignment was to take out the pitchman, and that he did. A pretty impressive play in space by a 325-pound monster.

* If you have two eyes, and no bias, you'd say that Darrelle Revis has gotten the better of Randy Moss. Again. And it's not that close. On many snaps, Revis stood over the ball pre-snap, and followed Moss out of the huddle. Moss has four catches for 21 yards.

The one you have to give him credit for -- good work with his hands to get just enough separation for a 4-yard touchdown. But outside of that, it's been all Revis, who's proving once again to be among the very elite at his position.

Patriots WR Randy Moss's touchdown catch on the last play of the first quarter was the 143d of his career. He's second in NFL history in TD catches, and his 144 total touchdowns puts him fifth all-time.

Patriots WR Wes Welker went over 100 yards receiving in the first half, marking the 10th 100-yard game of his career.

New York's Kevin O'Connell will be the Jets' designated third quarterback today, meaning he can only enter the game before the quarter if the starter's done for the day. So you wouldn't think he'd have a huge impact on the game ...

Only the Jets made him a game captain for the second time this season. The other occasion? Yup, the first meeting between these two teams.

O'Connell was released by the Patriots after a shaky performance in the club's third preseason game, in Washington.

It was suspected that O'Connell helped prep the Jets defense to beat the Patriots' protection in September by giving insight into how they call the game. And that was corroborated by his captainship.

Showing you this picture of Jim Leonhard, from his Ravens days, to explain why he's so important to the Jets defense. Rex Ryan trusts him to run the show in the secondary, and really -- since he's got the radio in his helmet -- the whole defense, because of his experience in the scheme.

And as my buddy Rich Cimini explained in the New York Daily News last week, Leonhard's presence in the first New England game was immense for the Jets. Eric Smith, the club's third safety, came in and blitzed a lot, and part of that was the team feeling so comfortable with Kerry Rhodes and Leonhard on the back end.

Leonhard underwent surgery on a broken thumb this week, prompting coach Rex Ryan to doubt, in midweek, that he'd play, but also say that "I've been with this guy. He's one tough kid. If there's anyway possible of him playing, I wouldn't be shocked. But right now, with him in a sling or a cast or three screws in his thumb or whatever, it wouldn't look good for the common person."

So Leonhard's obviously uncommon. On the Patriots' side, not having Sammy Morris hurts, because if the Jets are susceptible anywhere defensively, it's been in the running game with Kris Jenkins out. It's essential to win the early-down battle with the Jets and stay out of the long-yardage situations that open the door for Ryan to play a tactical game with an offense's protection.

Matt Light's out, which eliminates any argument regarding he and Sebastian Vollmer. So is Stephen Neal, and his replacement, Dan Connolly, struggled some in late action last week against Raheem Brock of the Colts. And Rob Ninkovich's and Jarvis Green's absences could hurt a defensive front seven that will need to be stout in the middle against the vaunted Jets running game.

A league source confirmed a report earlier today by ESPN that the league chastised, but did not fine, Patriots security director Mark Briggs for throwing an NBC cameraman to the ground following the Patriots' loss to the Colts last week.

Briggs "received a letter of reprimand," and the NFL "reminded our network partners to make sure their personnel follow the proper procedures," the source said.

The second part of that statement makes it clear the NFL places part of the blame for the incident on the cameraman.

Here's a look at what went down:

FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots like it at Gillette Stadium and their record shows it. The Patriots enter today's game 5-0 at Gillette Stadium. After back-to-back weeks at New Orleans and Miami, the Patriots return home Dec. 13 to face Carolina and then play their last regular-season game at home against Jacksonville Dec. 27.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has won 20 consecutive home games, including the postseason. The last time the Patriots were undefeated at home was in 2007. Before that it was 2004, when the Patriots ended the season 14-2 and Super Bowl champs.

Last night, Jets RT Damien Woody, a guy known well around here, fell ill and was added to the team's injury report.

Looks like he'll start today. That's not a surprise. But this is -- S Jim Leonhard, who was expected to be out, will play. Here's the rest of the inactives for New York ...

3QB Kevin O'Connell
QB Erik Ainge
KR Justin Miller
LB Vernon Gholston
LB Ryan Folwer
LB Kenwin Cummings
G Matt Slauson
DE Ropati Pitoitua

FOXBOROUGH -- Inactives for today's game include WR Sam Aiken, RB Sammy Morris, T Matt Light, DL Jarvis Green, OL Stephen Neal, LB Rob Ninkovich, CB Shawn Springs, and RB Fred Taylor.

Springs is inactive for the second week in a row. LB Tully Banta-Cain (groin) and DL Ty Warren (ankle) are among the notables who were limited at practice this week but active today.

FOXBOROUGH -- Since another attempt at taking iPhone pictures went bad, I'll get you started with this picture of Gillette Stadium from 2006.

I like it for a few reasons. First, it's got the New York and New England end zones, appropriate here for obvious reasons. Second, it comes from the filming of that movie The Rock did (can't remember the name of it off-hand) a few years ago, and this rivalry starting to get a pro wrestling feel to it. And finally, you can see the beat-up natural grass there, which removed soon after the Patriots endured their only losing streak since 2002, with, yup, the Colts on the front end and the Jets (in some serious slop with the field coming apart) on the back end.

Alright, so we'll be getting through the pregame here with myself, Adam and Monique.

It's 48 degrees here (feels like 44), and while the sky's are eerily dark, it looks like we'll avoid any kind of precipitation. The Jets already have a slew of players on the field, while a few Patriots have made their way out there.

When these two meet, paranoia can run high. And so when Jets safety Kerry Rhodes and tight end Dustin Keller reported via Twitter that the alarm got pulled at their Providence hotel last night, it was hard to rule out some sort of hijinx.

Well, you can now. The Jets just gave me the explanation of how it all went down.

Far out of earshot of the club's hotel block, maintenance workers were doing some sanding in a stairwell. As might be expected, dust kicked up and that, somehow, was enough to set off the alarm. And from there, an entire pro football team found itself out in the cold, waiting for fire trucks to show up before heading back to bed.

So there you have it.

While the early games progress, we'll take a look at an important and overlooked part of the Patriots that coach Bill Belichick raved about this week. If the Patriots win today, an important group of players who will never show up in a box score will deserve some of the credit. Most of the names, you’re almost certainly not aware of.

Ryan Wendell. Titus Adams. Bruce Davis. Rob Myers. Adrian Grady. Terrence Nunn. Thomas Williams. Darryl Richard.

Those eight players currently form the Patriots practice squad, which has been a revolving cast this year. Several former members have graduated to the active roster and made gameday contributions.

“I would say [this is] probably the best practice squad group we’ve had since I’ve been here, as a total group,” Belichick said. “I think our personnel department this year has done an outstanding job of finding guys and bringing guys in that are good football players that were available.”

The Patriots have already received contributions from places they never expected. Kyle Arrington has become a terror on kick off coverage. Isaiah Stanback was cut by the Dallas Cowboys Sept. 5, and he was the third wide receiver against the Colts last Sunday. Brian Hoyer went undrafted and came off the street to become the Patriots’ backup quarterback. Rob Ninkovich wasn’t with the Patriots at the beginning of training camp, and he’s become an important special teams player and defensive reserve.

“Guys like that, you have that player on your team and you say, ‘I can’t believe this guy wasn’t on somebody’s team,’ ” Belichick said. “And he comes in and he makes your team and he’s contributed. It’s not like players didn’t have competition at that position where it was kind of a default thing. They did a good job and they earned their spots. They have legitimately come in and beat other people out for those spots. It’s a good job of finding them.”

Belichick said the credit goes to director of player personnel Nick Caserio and his staff. Belichick mentioned Jason Licht and Jon Robinson by name.

The Jets and Patriots have a late, 4:15 p.m. start today, but the gamesmanship may have started early. Outspoken Jets safety Kerry Rhodes posted the following on his Twitter account this morning, about one hour ago:

you know we are playing new england when in the middle of the night when u r sleep somebody pulls a fire alarm to wake u up!! wow!!