Some thoughts following Sunday’s win over Houston:<\/p>\n
1) One of the things that’s becoming frustrating is the fact that this year’s New England Patriots<\/strong><\/a> team has yet to take on the traits of past clubs, and it’s been one of the key reasons behind their early struggles.<\/p>\n In the past, they’ve been a team that has done a terrific job of not making mistakes and coming up with the plays they’ve needed to in order to win football games.\u00a0 Instead, so far this season, they’ve been a group that has been either committing turnovers or not executing when it matters, and the results have obviously been what they’ve been to this point.<\/p>\n Sunday’s game in Houston was a prime example.\u00a0 Damien Harris’ fumble just before he crossed the goal line is obviously the one that sticks out the most, as it completely changed the momentum of the game.\u00a0 Instead of allowing them to answer the Texans’ second touchdown and either tie or put them ahead, that mistake instead cost them and it forced them to spend much of the afternoon playing from behind.<\/p>\n Another key example came in the closing seconds of the first half.\u00a0 With under a minute remaining and facing 2nd-and-10 from their own 36, wide receiver Jakobi Myers got behind his man deep up the left sideline, with quarterback Mac Jones lofting a long throw in-between the defensive backs and right into the hands of Meyers.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the normally sure-handed receiver dropped the pass, which cost them potentially a big play.\u00a0 Had he made the reception, Meyers had one man to beat and had teammate Nelson Agholor nearby.\u00a0 Agholor could have potentially thrown a block and freed Meyers up for either a big gain or even potentially a touchdown.<\/p>\n Instead, Jones held things together enough to allow New England to eventually settle for a field goal.<\/p>\n That moment was just yet another reminder that not even players like Meyers were immune to these types of issues.\u00a0 We saw similar issues a week ago against the Buccaneers where a couple of mistakes ended up being the difference in the game, which is why they’re not in a better position.<\/p>\n For a team that’s in transition with a young quarterback, they don’t have the luxury of being able to make mistakes or squander opportunities.\u00a0 Yet, that’s been the story so far early in the 2021 season, and it’s something they’re going to need to fix if they hope to get back into the fray in the AFC.<\/p>\n 2) Jones put together another strong performance on Sunday, gutting out another tough one while helping New England get back into the win column.<\/p>\n The rookie quarterback was bloodied and battered but showed his toughness, keeping the offense in the game while also making some nice throws.<\/p>\n He missed on just seven attempts during the contest, finishing the afternoon 23-of-30 (76.7%) for 231-yards along with a touchdown, and one interception.<\/p>\n His lone turnover came on the second play of the third quarter.\u00a0 Jones dropped back on a 2nd-and-10 and had a defender coming in hard.\u00a0 The rookie got hit but managed to fire off a pass to Agholor, who ran down the field into the defender and, instead of breaking in, he ran straight into defensive back Lonnie Johnson and was briefly held up.<\/p>\n With his back to the football, Agholor didn’t realize the throw was coming and Johnson broke away from him and instead picked off the pass and came away with the turnover.\u00a0 Agholor tried to dive back over, but it was too late, Houston had the football.<\/p>\n It was costly as two plays later, the Texans threw a flea-flicker for a 37-yard touchdown, and Houston was up 22-9.<\/p>\n But Jones did come up with a big play early in the fourth quarter.\u00a0 After Houston missed a 56-yard field goal, Jones and the offense got the ball at the New England 46-yard line, and from there, he managed to lead them all the way down to the Texans’ 13-yard line.<\/p>\n Facing a 3rd-down play with an opportunity to tie things up, Jones came through with a perfect throw to Hunter Henry for a touchdown, which knotted the score at 22-22.<\/p>\n New England’s defense then came up with a 3-and-out and Jones closed things out from there.\u00a0 He engineered a 7-minute drive as the Patriots went 84-yards on 15 plays before kicking the go-ahead field goal with 0:17 left to go.<\/p>\n But it wasn’t all perfect.\u00a0 The rookie still had a couple of passes that could have easily been turnovers but, as we’ve even seen from former Patriots QB Tom Brady, he seemed like he had a little luck on his side on Sunday.\u00a0 Instead, he kept fighting and was able to do enough to help get the Patriots their second win of the 2021 season.<\/p>\n 3) For a group that was supposed to potentially be a massive problem on Sunday, the Patriots’ offensive line managed to put together a fairly good performance under the circumstances.<\/p>\n In the passing game, they did a fairly good job of keeping Houston’s defense off of Jones, giving him enough room on most plays to operate.\u00a0 The same couldn’t exactly be said for the running game, which saw several plays where they broke into New England’s backfield and absolutely blew up the play and put quite a beating on Harris, who ended up leaving the game with a rib injury and didn’t return.<\/p>\n Overall, out of 30 attempts, they stopped the Patriots on seven plays for either no gain (4) or a loss (3), while also holding them to two yards or less on four others.<\/p>\n However, on a day where they seemed like they might have been in trouble, Yodny Cajuste, Ted Karras, Justin Herron and James Ferentz all played 100% of the snaps on Sunday and it was a fairly respectable effort on a day when they certainly needed it.\u00a0 In fact, it’s going to be interesting looking at the film to see if this might have opened the door for potential changes after what has been a somewhat rocky start to the season upfront.<\/p>\n 4) Looking at the defense, it was fun seeing newcomer Matt Judon step up and have a big day.<\/p>\n Judon finished the afternoon with two sacks and three quarterback hits, but he also did a good job of flushing the Texans Davis Mills from the pocket and making things tough on him.\u00a0 Mills had quite a few plays where the play clock ticked down to one second and Judon spotted that, watching the clock and then working off of that instead of the snap count.<\/p>\n That enabled him to time things up where he was on the move as the ball was snapped, allowing him to get into the backfield and be disruptive.<\/p>\n He’s been a solid addition to the defense and his efforts also put him into the Patriots record books.\u00a0 Early in the game, he tied both former Patriots Andre Tippett and Chandler Jones for the most sacks by a defender through five games with 5 1\/2 before notching one more and finishing Sunday’s contest with 6.5 sacks.<\/p>\n Matt Judon is tied with Andre Tippett and Chandler Jones for the most sacks by a Patriots defender though five games, per the CBS broadcast. He's up to 5 1\/2 on the season.<\/p>\n — Zack Cox (@zm_cox) October 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n