Starting this season with a woeful record of 2-5, the Patriots (4-5 overall, 3-2 home) put themselves in a major hole to even dream about a shot at the playoffs. However, on a short week after barely getting by the winless Jets (0-9) on Monday, the Pats won back-to-back games for the first time in 2020 as they held off the overrated Ravens (6-3 overall, 4-1 away) 23-17 tonight at rain-soaked Gillette Stadium. So much for tanking since a victory like this shows what they are capable of doing when they play classic complimentary football against one of the better teams in the AFC. It was not a fluke either because they held Baltimore's superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson (24-of-34 for 249 yards, 2 TDs, INT; 55 yards rushing) somewhat in check while New England's new top running back Damien Harris ran for a career-high 121 yards (his 3rd 100-yard game of the season) on just 22 carries.
Pats quarterback Cam Newton (13-of-17 for 118 yards, TD; 21 yards rushing, TD) couldn't match the numbers that Jackson put up but he didn't need to with so many of his teammates stepping up to help him and most importantly, he had zero turnovers. Pats wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (5 catches for 59 yards on 7 targets; 24-yard touchdown pass!) continues to make plays while running back Rex Burkhead (66 total yards) caught a pair of touchdowns and cornerback J.C. Jackson set a franchise record with an interception in his fifth straight game and he also leads the NFL in picks this season with six. Besides some terrible snaps by Ravens center Matt Skura that caused three fumbles (!!) the terrible weather didn't affect the outcome as much as you would expect. Rain or no rain, throwing the ball still isn't Jackson's main strength and New England's defense at least contained his explosive play capability for the most part.
In a lot of ways, these teams want to do similar things offensively: control the clock and methodically march down the field before scoring. For that reason, neither is really built to play from behind so while Baltimore was up 7-0 in the second quarter then 10-7, New England took a 13-10 halftime lead and never looked back as they did just enough to hang on. Oddly enough, the first quarter and the fourth quarter were both scoreless so all the points came from the middle frames. The Ravens looked like undisciplined front-runners as they clearly let their frustrations get to them to the tune of eight penalties for 64 yards. The Patriots notched six more first downs (25-19) and surprisingly against one of the NFL's top rushing attacks, New England outgained them 173-115 on the ground.
Getting the ball to Harris was key from the start for the home team and he actually took hand-offs on the first five offensive plays. On the first play of the second quarter, Willie Snead (5 catches for 64 yards on 7 targets) took a flip from Jackson-officially credited as a pass-and got to the corner of the end zone first. The NFL's best kicker Justin Tucker added the PAT for a 7-0 Ravens lead. To call that drive impressive for Baltimore was an understatement as they went almost the entire field (94 yards in 13 plays) which took up over half a quarter (8:04). The Patriots answered with a strong drive of their own: 75 yards in seven plays that took 3:08. Burkhead caught a screen pass from Newton and rumbled in from seven yards out. Nick Folk's PAT tied it up at seven.
The next drive for the Ravens stalled in the red zone as Jackson short-hopped a pass to his wide open tight end Mark Andrews (7 catches for 61 yards on 9 targets) in the middle of the end zone so they were forced to settle for a 24-yard field goal by Tucker. The Pats went into halftime with a 13-10 lead thanks to another great drive: 10 plays, 75 yards in 4:30. The go-ahead score came thanks to a moment of brilliance from Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels who called for a pass from Newton to Meyers who then lofted it into the end zone for a diving Burkhead. Folk missed the point after (which I was convinced would come back to bite them later) but that couldn't ruin what otherwise was a great effort in the first 30 minutes by the Patriots. The cherry on top was Lamar forcing a deep pass down the sideline and J.C. (no relation) picking it off which allowed Newton to kneel to end the half.
The Patriots added to their lead in the third quarter as Newton rushed for a four-yard touchdown (his 9th rushing TD of the season) followed by Folk's PAT. Speaking of Nick, he was called on for a chip shot (20 yard field goal) after Newton bounced a pass to Meyers that should have been a touchdown. Still, the Patriots were up by two touchdowns (23-10) which was a bit of a shock considering that they entered as a seven-point underdog. Lamar's best throw of the game was unquestionably his 18-yard dart to Snead with eight seconds left in the quarter. After Tucker's point after kick, that was as close as Baltimore would get as New England sacked Jackson twice (by John Simon and rookie Josh Uche) while rookie safety Kyle Duggar (12 tackles, 7 solo, 1/2 tackle for a loss) had his best game as a pro. Undrafted second-year linebacker Terez Hall (10 tackles, 8 solo) played well-whoever that is-while Chase Winovich (7 tackles, 6 solo) continues to dig himself out of Bill Belichick's dog house.
As I've said before, absolutely nothing is guaranteed for this Patriots team but for once, they will be favored next Sunday (1, CBS) as they visit the awful Texans (2-7 overall, 1-3 home). Quarterback Deshaun Watson is stuck with that loser team while old friend Romeo Crennel is the interim head coach after Bill O'Brien was mercifully fired earlier this season. It is gross to say out loud but simply getting back to .500 (5-5) would be a real nice accomplishment for the Pats after their season looked completely doomed. If nothing else, they are giving us a good reason to watch them while the days get shorter and the weather continues to go downhill toward winter. Thankfully, it looks like we can at least have a football season after all and in 2020, we'll take it!
No comments:
Post a Comment