FOXBOROUGH -- It was far from a Super Bowl matchup and didn’t even included Eli Manning facing off with Tom Brady when the Giants hit Gillette Stadium for Thursday Night Football.
Rookie first-round quarterback Daniel Jones led a banged-up New York team to town with limited weapons around him and, not surprisingly, New England’s No. 1 defense gave the young passer and his team problems for most of the night.
But New England’s offense also had its own struggles against a far less impressive Giants defense – the teams swapped first quarter interceptions on consecutive plays – and the home squad needed a special teams boost to take the 7-0 lead.
After New England took a 14-0 advantage midway through the second quarter, the Giants answered with a 64-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Golden Tate, beating Jonathan Jones and then Duron Harmon for the long score that the veteran celebrated before he even got to the goal line.
New York then tied the game with a strip sack for a scoop-and-score 42-yard touchdown return by Markus Golden, only to see Brady lead the Patriots to the 21-14 halftime advantage on drive to a 1-yard QB sneak with 36 seconds to play in the second quarter.
The teams played a scoreless third quarter before New England’s defense got into the scoring fun once again when Jamie Collins forced a fumble on Giants running back Jon Hilliman that was returned 22 yards by Kyle Van Noy for the diving touchdown at the left pylon.
Thanks to the scores from the defense and special teams the heavily favored Patriots pulled away for the 35-14 victory.
Before moving on to the off-weekend and a long week of preparation for a Monday Night Football trip to New York to take on the Jets, here are some of the personnel highs and lows from New England’s latest somewhat ugly win.
Thumbs up
Punt block unit – For the second time is six games the Patriots punt block team not only got to the kick but turned its effort into immediate points. This time Brandon Bolden fought through blocks to deflect Riley Dixon’s punt late in the first quarter, with Chase Winovich catching the ball out of the air and returning it 6 yards for the touchdown. The third phase has made its share of big plays to help New England to victory early this season.
Jakobi Meyers – After being targeted just six times in his first five games in New England, Brady threw to the undrafted rookie receiver three times in the first half against New York. All three were complete picking up 53 yards, including a 23-yarder on a two-minute drive to a touchdown late in the second quarter. Meyers finished the game catching all four balls thrown his way for 54 yards. Despite Brady’s theoretical hesitancy to throw to young targets, Meyers showed he can make plays and probably deserves the chance to continue to build on his role in the offense.
Defense – Aside from the long TD pass to Tate, the Patriots defense was on point against the young passer Jones. The unit took advantage of the fact that New York was without its best player (running back Saquon Barkley) and top two pass catchers (receiver Sterling Shepard and tight end Evan Engram). John Simon, Duron Harmon, Stephon Gilmore all notched interceptions. The front held the Giants to well below 4 yards a carry on the ground and kept New York without a third down conversion in the first half. It may get repetitive, but it never gets old to note how impressive the Patriots defense has been all season, and was once again against New York. They also closed the door on the win with their third defensive touchdown of the season on Van Noy’s fumble return.
Julian Edelman – Though he had at least one ugly drop and a couple plays where he clearly wasn’t on the same page with Brady, Edelman continued to gut through his chest injury to be the Patriots most productive target. His value to the offense only grew when Josh Gordon left with a knee injury. Edelman finished with a game-high 9 catches for 113 yards, including a 36-yard long that set up his team’s final score of the night on Brady’s second 1-yard QB sneak. Edelman remains the only proven, reliable, experienced part of the Patriots receiving corps right now.
Thumbs down
Offensive line – There is no one area or one player that’s struggling on the Patriots offensive line right now. The unit had two chances to get Sony Michel a yard on the opening drive and couldn’t. Marshall Newhouse then gave up an ugly sack on the first play of the next possession. There are multiple layers to some of the struggles on offense these days, but the offensive line is a big part of the problem both in terms of the running game and the passing attack.
Sony Michel – Coming off his best half of the season in which he rushed for nearly 100 yards in Washington, Michel got off to a nice start against the Giants with a quick 4 yard run and 19-yard catch on the first two offensive snaps. It kind of all fell apart from there. He had an ugly drop on a sideline throw. More importantly he just couldn’t get much of anything going on the ground. The blocking hasn’t been great, but Michel shows no burst. He finished the first half with just 28 yards on 11 carries, not even on the field for a number of goal-line rushing plays. His numbers improved a bit thanks to a 26-yard run late -- he finished with 22 carries for 86 yards -- but Michel still has a long way to go before he can be leaned on consistently as a positive factor in the offense. His productive days from last postseason are now long forgotten.
Mike Nugent – The veteran kicker missed a PAT in his first game in a New England uniform. This time around he was good on his five PAT tries – although a couple were precariously close to the left upright. In the third quarter, though, Nugent missed a 40-yard field goal that hit that left upright. Sure it was a windy night and Jake Bailey’s hold may have been a significant part of the problem, but Nugent has done nothing to build early confidence in his abilities in his first couple games as a Patriot. New England also passed up a short field goal attempt early in the game.
