TGIBW (Thank God It’s Bye Week).
The Patriots at least made Sunday’s hilariously ugly game worth their fans’ while, easily dispatching the anemic Indianapolis Colts by a final score of 26-3.
New England’s offense still doesn’t look like it’s anywhere near clicking on all cylinders, but it didn’t matter the way the defense harassed Sam Ehlinger, sacking the second-year quarterback nine times, holding the Colts to 116 yards of total offense and blanking Indianapolis on third down (0-14).
Another grind-it-out win now has the Patriots going into the bye week 5-4 and firmly alive in the AFC playoff picture with another winnable game against the Jets coming when play resumes in two weeks.
Here’s how it went down.
Matthew Judon builds his DPOY case.
If you thought Matthew Judon was good last year, you apparently hadn’t seen anything yet.
The Man in the Red Sleeves got his 10th sack before the first quarter of his nine game of the season closed. But wait: there was more!
The seventh-year pro finished the game with three sacks and keeps getting better and better somehow.
He also drew a penalty for illegal use of hands to the face to wipe out a third-down conversion by Ehlinger, which eventually lead to a punt. The attention he drew also allowed Josh Uche to break through for two sacks of his own.
Judon and Rhamondre Stevenson keep duking it out to see who the best player on the team is, and it seems to be pushing them both to greater heights each week.
At this point, thinking of Judon as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate is not far-fetched at all. He just has to keep up the strong performance on the other side of the bye this time.
Oh yeah, and the rest of the defense played well, too.
Mac Jones breaks turnover streak, dinks and dunks to victory.
For the second week in a row, Jones didn’t do much that impressed anyone on the surface. He had a few missed throws and ran himself into an early sack as well.
But given what the offensive line looks like right now, you’ll take it.
Mac Jones to Hunter Henry for 30 yards! #Patriots pic.twitter.com/SSyDIJbmuo
— 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 @𝗙𝗧𝗕𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱𝟳 (@FTBeard7) November 6, 2022
Jones was under duress all game but didn’t put the ball in harm’s way much. The Patriots’ lone turnover of the game — a fumble by Jakobi Meyers — had nothing to do with Jones. (He did have a questionable throw to Meyers that could’ve been picked off, but Meyers bailed Jones out by tipping it away from the defender and nearly catching it himself on the sideline.)
Moreover, the Patriots did show some more diversity in their under-center versus shotgun game if for no other reason than to mix things up, which is a good change of pace at least for the heavily shotgun-oriented offense. They also got more into the quick passing attack as the game went on, which seemed to help Jones get more comfortable with time and serves as yet another sign Matt Patricia is slowly but surely figuring things out with his young quarterback.
Jones has faced two tough defenses in his two starts since the Zappe benching a few weeks back, which likely has something to do with the lack of numerical production. There haven’t been many clearly open receivers down the field against the Jets and Colts, who like to force things underneath and make offenses work.
Eventually, the raw numbers are going to have to come if the Patriots want to do more
Special teams changes the game for second week in a row.
As much as it felt like the Patriots would probably beat the Colts once they got the score to 6-0, you never know what can happen in this league.
That’s why Jonathan Jones’ punt block was arguably the game’s defining play.
Jonathan Jones late off the edge.
— Ian Steele (@IanSteeleABC6) November 6, 2022
Brenden Schooler recovers.
Rhamondre Stevenson scores.
Patriots up 13-0. @abc6 #foreverne #nevsind pic.twitter.com/RFoVhmWHiL
The Patriots’ kick-blocking game has seemingly turned a corner in recent weeks with Jack Jones, who might have affected another field goal miss by Chase McLaughlin in this one, and now Jonathan Jones using their speed off the edge to get into kicking lanes. Quite a day for Jones, who had the block and the previously shown pick-six to cap the scoring, by the way.
Also, can we talk about Brenden Schooler seemingly ALWAYS being around the football? Seriously, any time a football is on the ground in the kicking game, it feels like Schooler is the one scooping it up — he now has three fumble recoveries on the year.
As long as the offense keeps having to grind and struggle through games, they’re going to need their defense and special teams to step up the way they have been.
Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess. It’s been enough to keep them in the playoff hunt, anyway.
