No more moral victories: Patriots upset Bills!
The Patriots did it. They won a football game.
Lost in the Sunday morning reporting of Bill Belichick’s ‘lucrative’ offseason contract extension was the fact that his team had a game to play. A game that they somehow came away victorious in.
Thanks to a last-minute, one-yard touchdown pass from Mac Jones to Mike Gesicki, New England beat their division rival Buffalo Bills 29-25 at Gillette Stadium and now sit at 2-5 on the season.
Here are five immediate thoughts from the contest:
5 - Jabrill Peppers keeps proving why he was a first-round pick.
Peppers making plays in the Patriots secondary makes the ‘immediate thoughts’ column again this week after he, once again, turned the game on it’s head this Sunday.
On the Bills’ first offensive play of the game, quarterback Josh Allen stared tight end Dawson Knox down and Peppers read him like a book, intercepting his intended pass and getting the Patriots the football back at the Buffalo 45-yard line.
A 2017 first round pick of the Browns, Peppers was traded to the Giants after just two seasons (in the Odell Beckham Jr. trade), and then tore his ACL in 2021. The Patriots gave him a chance last March with a contract, and he’s taken full advantage of it.
Now in his second year in New England, Peppers has been awesome and is especially shining over the last three weeks. He’s a guy I can see here for the long-term in the back-end of the defense while they rebuild the rest of the roster.
4 - Mike Onwenu needs to stay at tackle.
After being drafted as a guard in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Mike Onwenu started all 16 games for the Patriots as a rookie, but he did so mostly at right tackle. He played well there, and the former Michigan Wolverine looked to have found a spot where he would remain.
Instead, New England had other plans - deciding to move him back to his traditional position on the inside over the past two seasons:
“That’s what we’ve tried to do since we drafted him,” Bill Belichick said last season when broached about the idea of moving Onwenu back outside. “We didn’t really ever anticipate playing him at tackle and then we got into a bind and put him out there and he played pretty good. I think he’s built to play guard, he’s comfortable playing guard, he’s got a really good skillset in there. That’s where we’d like to play him, for sure.”
The Onwenu plan once again changed on Sunday when, after playing him at guard to start his season, they moved him back to right tackle on Sunday and, what do you know, it worked!
The Patriots’ offensive line kept Mac Jones upright for the majority of their win against Buffalo, and it resulted in 29 points. The quarterback was sacked just once for four yards and was able to work the pocket for second (and sometimes third) level throws. New England’s run game had success as well to the tune of 91 yards (four yards per carry), and a touchdown from Ezekiel Elliott.
Onwenu at tackle should be the plan moving forward.
3 - Demario Douglas is the Patriots’ best wide receiver.
While the Patriots are, rightfully so, known for their misses at wide receiver both in the draft and in free agency, they also occasionally hit on one - and they did so in 2023.
Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, and Jakobi Meyers are the names that immediately come to mind. The next potential slam dunk? He’s already here in Demario Douglas.
The rookie out of Liberty missed last weekends game in Las Vegas with a concussion and came out with a vengeance on Sunday. He caught four passes for 54 yards and also ran the ball once for a long, 20 yard gain.
Not only was Douglas a factor in the Patriots’ offense, but the shifty playmaker was also the teams punt returner on Sunday and took his line return 25 yards and set his team up in scoring range.
‘Pop’ needs the ball whenever possible.
2 - Defense (somehow) shutting down Stefon Diggs proved paramount.
All week leading up to Sunday’s game I wrote about how Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs own the Patriots’ defense. The quarterback had shredded them over their last six contests and, especially with J.C. Jackson in coverage, the receiver was the beneficiary.
On Sunday, however, New England’s secondary held Diggs pretty much in check to the tune of just 58 yards on six catches. Aside from one fourth quarter touchdown on a broken tackle, when the receiver caught the ball Jackson and Jack Jones (who returned for the first time this season) were mostly there to stop him from a big gain. It was arguably the difference in the win.
1 - Patriots played like they had nothing to lose on Sunday… and won.
After falling into a 1-5 hole through the first six weeks of the season, Patriots had nothing to lose on Sunday.
So what if you get blown out again? You fall to 1-6. And if you win? You shock the world. That’s how New England played against the Bills on Sunday.
Defenders were flying around, Mac Jones looked like he was having some semblance of fun and was able to lead a come-from-behind scoring drive, and head coach Bill Belichick was able to win career regular season game number 300 in front of the Foxborough fans.
Now sitting at 2-5, I’m not going to say there’s a chance but hey - there’s a chance. The Patriots head to Miami next weekend to try and tack on another ‘W’ here and keep themselves alive ahead of October 31st’s NFL trade deadline.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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