Pats Blank The Hapless Falcons 25-0 On Thursday Night Football For Their Fifth Straight Win

 

    It is going to take much more than a short week and an overmatched opponent to slow down the red hot Patriots (7-4 overall, 5-0 away) at the moment. Tonight they went to the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA and they picked up the 13th shutout in head coach Bill Belichick's tenure in New England with a pretty easy 25-0 victory over the falling apart Falcons (4-6 overall, 1-4 home). This was a very dominant performance by the Pats defense as they held shorthanded Atlanta to 165 total yards and just 11 first downs while they picked off Matt Ryan (19-of-28 for 153 yards, 2 INT), Josh Rosen (remember him!?) and the immortal Feleipe Franks a total of four times and they also sacked Ryan four times. Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon added another sack and he has already reached double-digits and a new career-high (10-5) with six games left to go in the regular season. New England's reward for a job well done is an extended break before Thanksgiving and then their schedule gets way harder down the stretch.

    Aside from linebacker Kyle Van Noy (8 tackles, 5 solo, 2 sacks, pick-6), the best player for the Patriots this evening was kicker Nick Folk (minus that missed PAT in garbage time). Folk started the scoring with his easiest kick of the night-a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter. New England took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter as rookie quarterback Mac Jones (22-of-26 for 207 yards, TD, INT) hit wide receiver Nelson Agholor for a 19-yard catch and run touchdown where he was never even touched by a Falcons defender. Folk's point after made it 10-0 and he added a 44-yard field goal as time ran out in the first half. With no Falcons No. 1 wide receiver Calvin Ridley nor former Patriots great Cordarrelle Patterson in the lineup, the 13-0 advantage by the road team felt like twice that much if not more. 

    This being Thursday Night Football, the second half was a complete bore featuring no points in the third quarter and two additional field goals by Folk to start the final frame (from a season-long 53 yards and 33 yards). Lastly, Van Noy added the laugh track with a 35-yard interception return for a score against Rosen who will probably be out of the league any minute now. Safety Devin McCourty and cornerback J.C. Jackson had earlier picked off Ryan and safety Adrian Phillips made a sweet diving interception on rookie Feleipe Franks who had only one pass attempt. Yeesh. That marked the first time in the NFL since the Chargers way back in 2000 when three QBs on the same team threw INTs in the same game. 

    The next two matchups on the schedule should be the hardest for the Pats in the 2021 regular season: they host the Titans (8-2) a week from Sunday (1, CBS) at Gillette Stadium before going to Buffalo (6-3) for Monday Night Football (8:15, ESPN) on Dec. 6 and their first meeting with the Bills in this campaign. Most would say that those are the two best teams in the AFC so facing them in back-to-back weeks should be a daunting task. Still, after they started this year 2-4, who would have believed that the Patriots could even be in this position? They are clearly a playoff team that should be fighting for an AFC East division title and homefield advantage. How they do in the next few contests will tell us what we can reasonably expect in the postseason this winter.

Only the Jets Could Lose A Game That They Dominated So Much With No Turnovers Either

It took seven weeks but we were finally treated to a competitive Thursday Night Football game. Unfortunately it had to involve the Patriots as they held on for a bizarre 27-25 victory over the Jets at Gillette Stadium. New York (1-6 overall, 0-3 road) actually had a chance to win it on the final play but Nick Folk's 58-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Chris Jones. That was ironic since his shady penalty last year cost New England (5-2 overall, 3-0 home) a win at Metlife Stadium.

The Pats won their third straight game while the Jets dropped their sixth in a row, leaving head bobo I mean coach Rex Ryan destined for the unemployment line sometime soon. In a short week, anything can happen-hence why the Thursday Night games are usually trash (plus NFL players can't recover that quickly between contests). The Jets deserved to win this as they amassed 12 more first downs (28-16), 100 more total yards (423-323) including 155 more on the ground (218-63) and over 20 minutes more time of possession (40:54-19:06) than the Patriots. Neither team had a turnover so you can't point to that for the reason that they lost.

The only explanation for why New England came out on top is because New York settled for four field goals (22, 47, 46, 27) by Folk in the first half. If just one of those, particularly the red zone opportunities, had been a touchdown then it would have been a different outcome. Life without Jerod Mayo and Stevan Ridley was rough for the Patriots, especially with so little time to readjust. They made the Jets look like a competent offense, led by Geno Smith (20 of 34 for 226 yards, 1 TD; 37 yards rushing) and Chris Ivory (21 carries, 107 yards, TD), which is pretty hard to do.

All that talk of Tom Brady being washed up that dominated our lives just a few short weeks ago seems silly now. He's played very well the last three weeks since all the Patriots/TB12 haters circled Foxborough. Tonight, he was 20 of 37 for 261 yards and three touchdowns. New England didn't muster much of a running game (63 total yards) but four guys had four or more catches: Shane Vereen (5 catches, 71 yards, 2 TDs), Rob Gronkowski (5 catches, 68 yards), Brandon LaFell (4 catches, 55 yards) and Julian Edelman (4 catches, 44 yards). Stephen Gostkowski made two field goals, a 39-yard kick at the end of the first half and a 36-yarder in the third quarter.

I guess with Chris Jones making the play of the game on defense for the Pats, it was only fitting that another nobody-Danny Amendola-had his biggest contribution in 1.5 years with New England. His one catch was huge-a 19-yard touchdown when Brady was scrambling in the pocket and it put the Patriots up 27-19 with 7:49 left in the fourth quarter. The Jets went right down the field and scored, Jeff Cumberland caught a 10-yard pass across the middle by Smith but they couldn't convert the two-point conversion as his fade intended for Jace Amaro went too far. Sweet play call.

It's been a busy stretch for New England with three primetime games in four weeks: Monday, Sunday night, Sunday afternoon and Thursday night. They earned the extra break and they'll need it since their opponents get way tougher starting with Chicago a week from Sunday (1, Fox) at Gillette. After not playing an above average quarterback in their first seven games, you could make the case that New England gets six elite quarterbacks in a row (Cutler, Peyton, Luck, Stafford, Rodgers and Rivers) sandwiched around a bye in three weeks.

The AFC East is still a dumpster fire and the NFC remains far superior so at least their non-division matchups look like they'll be a challenge. That should only help them as they go into the postseason.

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Week 7 Injury Report: Patriots vs. Jets

Thursday Night Football is a disgrace; the games are terrible with one team usually blowing out the other that doesn't bother to show up. Having NFL teams play twice in five days is insane. Into this fray steps the Patriots (4-2) who host the Jets (1-5) tomorrow night (8:25, CBS) at Gillette Stadium. Did I mention that just like last year when they played on a Thursday night (possibly the worst football game in history), it is supposed to be pouring all night?

I'm not going to mention Jerod Mayo or Stevan Ridley (oops, I did) because they are clearly out for the rest of the season (although they haven't gone on IR, yet)after suffering injuries last Sunday in New Orleans. Other than them, offensive lineman Cameron Fleming and safety Nate Ebner remain sidelined with their finger issues (maybe they were all cut off?).

Seven Patriots are questionable: Brandon Browner (ankle), Jamie Collins (thigh), Dan Connolly (concussion), Dominique Easley (shoulder/knee), Dont'a Hightower (knee), Matthew Slater (shoulder) and Bryan Stork (concussion). Browner is looking to make his Patriots debut and he hinted the last few days that he'll play. Connolly and Stork are vital since New England had just started to sort out their horrible offensive line.

It is much more cut and dry with the Jets who have only one guy that is doubtful-safety Josh Bush (quadriceps). They don't list anyone as questionable while linebacker Trevor Reilly (knee) and former Patriots great-wide receiver Greg Salas (wrist/ankle) are out.

If I get a chance, or more likely if I remember, I'll be sure to update this tomorrow night before the opening kickoff.

UPDATE 10/16: Mayo and Ridley went on IR today while RB Jonas Gray and OL Chris Barker were activated from the practice squad. The Pats inactives are Ebner, Fleming, Stork, Connolly, RB James White, WR Aaron Dobson and CB Malcolm Butler. The Jets inactives are Reilly, Salas, DL T.J. Barnes, OG Dakota Dozier, OL Wesley Johnson, WR Chris Owusu and DB Josh Thomas.

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