Tom Brady

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – For all of the hype it has received, the New England Patriots offense has not yet been as impressive as it would appear to be.

Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Joey Galloway, Fred Taylor, Laurence Maroney, Kevin Faulk, Chris Baker and a healthy Tom Brady? It looked like the fireworks of the 2007 season would be at a minimum duplicated, and potentially surpassed.

Through two games, however, there have been some sparklers but very few full-scale pyrotechnics.

During their AFC East matchup against the New York Jets on Sunday, the Patriots were held to just three field goals, going 0-for-3 in red-zone opportunities, converting just a third of their third-down tries and never seemed able to light the spark that would propel them to touchdowns.

As a result, New England found itself on the losing end of a 16-9 score, as the new-attitude Jets claimed their first home win against their rivals in nine years.

"They talked their smack and they backed it up," Pats running back Fred Taylor said in a coffin-quiet post-game locker room. "They played great team ball."

Brady returning to his rightful spot as New England's starting quarterback was supposed to make all the difference this season. Welker and Moss each said during the offseason that with the receivers now more experienced in the team's offensive system, the Patriots may be even more prolific than they were in 2007, when they scored an NFL-record 589 points.

On Sunday, New England was held without a touchdown for the first time since a December 2006 shutout against the Jets. In their opener against Buffalo the Patriots had difficulty scoring as well, getting two of their three touchdowns in the final two-plus minutes of the game.

Randy Moss, who was held to four catches for just 24 yards, acknowledged that something is amiss.

"With the firepower that we've got, and we prepare every week, it is a little frustrating; I'm not going to sit here and lie," Moss said. "But at the same time, when things go bad, you've got to find ways to win. Toward the end of the game, we kept going backwards as a whole offensive unit. We just didn't make things happen. So you've got to give credit. You've got to tip your hats to (the Jets). They played a hell of a game."

New York's defensive players seemed to be in Tom Brady's face all afternoon, though in a statistical anomaly, did not record a single sack. The Jets were credited with seven hits on Brady, however, and their constant pressure threw off the timing of New England's timing-based offense.

"We put as much pressure on the quarterback as we could," New York defensive end Shaun Ellis said. "[Brady] looked frustrated. You could see it in his eyes. His eyes were wide open. I looked in his eyes a few times; he was trying to figure out where everyone was coming from."

Though it was likely a combination of the Jets' pressure, Brady being timid because of his surgically-repaired left knee, and his receivers, particularly Joey Galloway, not helping his cause very often, Brady was just 23-for-47 (48.9 percent) for 216 yards.

In his last 26 starts including the postseason, Brady has been held under 50 percent passing just twice: yesterday and Dec. 3, 2007 against Baltimore. The common thread in both of those games? The defenses were coached by Rex Ryan.

"We didn't do much," Brady said. "It was poor execution a lot of the time and we all have to do a better job. I have to do a better job throwing the ball, being more accurate, making better reads. A lot of the things are correctable that were not so good today."

Despite their struggles, the Patriots still had a chance to force overtime late in the game.

They had 90 yards to cover and 108 seconds to do it in when their final possession began. After an 18-yard gain on a play-action pass to rookie Julian Edelman, who started in place of the injured Wes Welker (knee), it seemed they were off to a good start.

But Brady was hit as he let go of the next pass attempt, this one for Joey Galloway, and it went high. A second-down lob for Edelman fell to the turf, and on third down Brady looked over the middle to Watson, but the pass was broken up by Eric Smith.

Going for it on fourth down, Brady tried to complete a pass to Galloway again, but Dwight Lowery had good coverage and Galloway couldn't pull in the ball.

"We had our chances there, we just didn't execute well in that two-minute possession," Brady said. "That's something we've been good at, but the Jets were better at it today. It's frustrating because I think we had high expectations for this game. We just didn't pull it together very well and we'll learn from it and get back to work this week.

"I think we're not really firing on all cylinders right now."

Given Galloway's performance on Sunday, the questions about the clear disconnect between he and Brady will continue. The receiver, now in his 15th year, saw passes come his way 12 times during the game and recorded just five catches for 53 yards. Most egregious was a first-down play in the third quarter in which he was all alone and dropped the pass; the drive ended three plays later with a Chris Hanson punt.

Galloway did not have a catch against the Bills in Week one.

As he is wont to do, Brady shouldered much of the blame for the offense's struggles, though it certainly cannot be placed all on his shoulders. The offensive line could have protected and blocked better, the receivers could have hauled in a couple more attempts.

But with an Atlanta offense capable of putting points on the board headed to Foxboro next week and a tough Baltimore defense in town the game after that, the Patriots need to find their offensive spark.

There's usually only so many duds in a pack of fireworks.

smanza@projo.com