It has just been announced that Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather has suffered an ankle injury, and his return is questionable.

Stephen Gostkowski makes it 6-0 with 11:30 left in the first half when he bangs home a 25-yarder. It puts the capper on a nine-play, 53-yard drive that consumes 3:30. New England will take the points, but like last week, the Patriots are moving the ball fairly easily. However, they are having trouble converting great scoring chances into touchdowns.

The Patriots took a 3-0 lead with 6:50 left in the first quarter when Stephen Gostkowski connected on a 45-yarder.

The Patriots offensive starters were:

OL: Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Dan Koppen, Stephen Neal, Nick Kaczur
RB: Laurence Maroney
QB: Tom Brady
TE: Chris Baker
WR: Randy Moss, Joey Galloway, Julian Edelman

The Patriots will be without their best inside linebacker and second best receiver this afternoon, as Jerod Mayo (knee) and Wes Welker (knee) are both listed as inactive for today’s Pats-Jets game. In addition, offensive linemen Rich Ohrnberger, Dan Connolly and Kendall Simmons are out, as well as cornerback Terrence Wheatley, wide receiver/kick returner Matthew Slater tight end Michael Matthews.

The two big ones are Mayo and Welker. The loss of Mayo wasn’t unexpected, but it will force New England — when it goes to a 4-3 scheme — to likely use second-year linebacker Gary Guyton in the middle. The Bills had a lot of success with screen passes when Guyton was in the game last week — wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing this week with the Jets. When it comes to Welker, this likely means Julian Edelman will see time as New England’s slot receiver, and it will also force veteran Joey Galloway to step his game up if the Patriots are to replicate their output in the passing game last week against the Bills.

As for the rest, Wheatley wasn’t expected to start this week against the Jets, but his presence does provide some depth at the cornerback spot. (Rookie Darius Butler will see more time than he did in the season opener last week as a result.) Slater will miss his second straight regular-season game — in the opener, Laurence Maroney returned kicks in place of Slater, and will likely be called upon to do the same this week. No surprises along the inactives along the offensive line (Simmons, Ohrnberger and Connolly), but it will leave them a little thin. And no Matthews leads me to believe he still hasn’t been able to pick up as much of the system as the coaching staff would have liked.

The Jets inactives for this afternoon are as follows: quarterback Kevin O’Connell (third QB), quarterback Erik Ainge, linebacker Ryan Fowler, offensive lineman Matt Slauson, defensive end Mike DeVito, defensive lineman Ropati Pitoitua, tight end Matthew Mulligan and defensive lineman Howard Green.

The Patriots inactives for this afternoon are offensive lineman Rich Ohrnberger, tight end Michael Matthews, offensive lineman Kendall Simmons and wide receiver Wes Welker. They join the four other players who have already been listed as out — linebacker Jerod Mayo, wide receiver Matthew Slater, cornerback Terrence Wheatley and offensive lineman Dan Connolly.