Jakobi Meyers is a big-time player and other leftover Patriots thoughts
BOSTON -- The quartet of Kendrick Bourne, DeVante Parker, Nelson Agholor and Tyquan Thornton combined to catch two passes for 15 yards on Sunday. It's a pretty good thing that Jakobi Meyers rounds out that wide receiving corps.
Though Meyers' final numbers -- nine receptions for 60 yards and a touchdown -- weren't eye-popping and won't move him up any fantasy rankings, the fourth-year wideout played an immense role in the Patriots getting a hard-earned victory on a day when points came at a premium.
It was clear right off the bat, when -- after the Jets had taken a 3-0 lead -- Meyers converted a third-and-10 and a third-and-11 to help the Patriots even the game at 3-3.
The first one was a pretty simple pitch and catch, with Mac Jones just waiting for Meyers to clear the linebacker in the middle of the field before hitting him in stride for an easy gain of 16.
The next one required some blocking help from Hunter Henry and Rhamondre Stevenson (really a well-designed timing play, as their blocks would have been illegal if they were engaged before Meyers caught the ball), but it also showed the poise and calmness of Meyers, who made the catch on a shallow crosser and casually strolled across and up the field for a gain of 13.
Those plays, obviously, stood out. As did his fourth-and-1 catch/spin/dive for the Patriots' lone touchdown of the day.
Meyers had picked up nine yards on first-and-10 from the 14 prior to making that touchdown grab. He later had a 7-yard reception to move the chains on a second-and-5 (on one of many field goal drives). He was also prepped and ready to punch the ball free from cornerback Michael Carter after his interception of Jones -- a subtle play that shows Meyers' head is always in the game.
At this point in his career, Meyers is no longer just a nice story of an undrafted free agent making his way in the NFL. Now, anyone who's watched him closely knows that he's a bona fide NFL receiver, someone who's going to make a fair amount of money as a free agent next offseason. In the present, he's a major reason why the Patriots have four wins. They lost the two games in which he didn't play (at Green Bay, vs. Baltimore), and they're 4-0 when he has at least 60 receiving yards.
He may not be Wes Welker or Julian Edelman, but few are. For these Patriots, he's the go-to guy when chains need to move. And though positive passing offense may not have been the No. 1 story coming out of Sunday's rock fight, Meyers looked like the difference between winning and losing for the Patriots.
Now, to the leftover thoughts from New England's 22-17 win.
--Rhamondre Stevenson also popped on Sunday. On the one hand, his year two ascent is pretty cool. On the other, the fact that it's kind of coming at the expense of Damien Harris in a contract year provides a blunt reminder of how cruel life is in the NFL, especially for running backs.
Nevertheless! The 35-yard run to open the second half was dynamite, but I was particularly tickled by the pair of jukes he threw at the Jets midway through the first quarter:
Not quite ferocious, but very jukey.
Stevenson and Meyers combined for 203 yards from scrimmage. Everybody else combined for 118. Pretty big day for those two.
--To be quite honest, it's difficult to evaluate the game as a whole when the quarterback of the Jets is doing things like this:
It's just, you have this real, live NFL football game playing out ... and then something like that happens. Multiple times. It's like your computer crashing as you try to wrap up your 3,000-word essay, only to find you forgot to hit save along the way. Hard to focus on anything else.
Alas, we must persevere.
--I will say this: The Jets could have made things a lot more interesting at the end of the game, if they knew what they were doing.
While leading 22-10, the Patriots failed to tackle Denzel Mims, allowing the receiver to turn a 17-yard reception into a 66-yard catch-and-run. Cool play. Problem was, Mims -- for whatever reason -- decided to cut back into Myles Bryant instead of continuing up the field and stepping out of bounds to stop the clock.
By not stepping out of bounds, Mims cost the Jets 26 seconds late in a two-score game. He also forced the entire offense to sprint up the field in a semi-panic to run a play, one that resulted in a Zach Wilson throwaway. So it cost them the time and a play, really.
The Jets then completed a pass over the middle that got them down to the goal line, and instead of rushing to the line to spike it on first-and-goal, they tried to hurry to the line and run a play. The result was this:
The Jets then hurried back to the line to try to run another play, when they would have been better served to wait four more seconds and run a much more carefully selected play coming out of the two-minute warning. Instead, they snapped it with 2:04 on the clock, and Wilson had nowhere to go, ultimately throwing toward two Jets receivers in the same spot.
Ultimately, they did score coming out of the two-minute warning, and they failed to recover their extremely cool onside kick:
So maybe that rundown was unnecessary. Still, can't help but feel like if the Jets' head coach had not spent his Sunday losing his mind on the sideline for most of the game, the team would have been better served.
--OK, yes, we won't just do Zach Wilson interception content but are you kidding me with this?
I still can't believe that happened.
--Speaking of second-year, first-round QBs ... everyone in New England spent the week talking about Mac Jones. We didn't really get any solid answers on him.
Jones was by and large OK, running a bit and completing a ton of short passes. With David Andrews out and with Cole Strange having a shaky game, only to be replaced by Isaiah Wynn, who himself had been replaced by Marcus Cannon at right tackle, it made sense to not ask the quarterback to stand in the pocket for a long time against an aggressive front. Doing so led to one interception, and it almost led to a back-breaking pick-six, too.
We could easily sit here and play the "what if" game regarding that play. If John Franklin-Myers hadn't shoved Mac in the nameplate, it would have been 17-3 before halftime. Then there's a Mac Jones-Bailey Zappe conversation, and a potential loss to the Jets, and all of that. But the "what if" game is imaginary.
In real life, we do know this: After dodging a bullet on the pick-six that never was, the Patriots did not trust Mac to do a single thing for the rest of that gifted drive. On first-and-10 at the 12, Jones handed off to Stevenson. Strange was penalized for a hold, but it was still a ground game for New England. Handoff to Stevenson on first-and-20, handoff to Stevenson on second-and-20, and Jones centering the ball for Nick Folk on third-and-21.
There were questions about the length of the leash on Jones for this game. I feel as though that sequence right there answered those questions as much as possible. The Patriots didn't even try to get into the end zone.
Overall, though, Jones was ... eh?
Like most of the 2021 QB class, he still has a long way to go.
--Good to see him fight back, though.
Six sacks. Two more hits. Tough day to be a quarterback.
--And on the pick, it goes down in the stat sheet as Mac Jones' interception, but there's obviously more to it than that. Nelson Agholor was tasked with slowing down Bryce Huff at the line of scrimmage. That went poorly.
Jones occasionally fails to step up when facing pressure from the outside, but this wasn't one of those times. Just kind of an unfortunate break for the quarterback that balances out the fortunate break he caught on the pick-six.
--Coming out of halftime, CBS' Evan Washburn recapped his brief interview with Bill Belichick by saying this: "As for Bill Belichick, the only clear comment he made to me was, 'We have to block better.' Way too much pressure on Mac Jones in that first half."
I'd love to know all the unclear comments he made. I bet those were better.
--I got a kick out of Garrett Wilson expecting the officials to somehow notice his little mini-baseball slide during play?
Even on replay it's hard to see, because generally receivers don't slide in between defenders when they're 20 yards downfield. Probably worth ditching that strategy.
--OK, OK, OK, I know: STOP with the Zach Wilson interceptions.
I get it. But come on!
Incredible.
Donnnnnkaaayyyyy!!!!!
--Call me a negative Nancy if you'd like, but I still think the Patriots commit too many penalties to be taken seriously. One play ater one of Meyers' third-down conversions in the first quarter, the Patriots were penalized for an illegal formation. On a Jets punt that went for a touchback, Pierre Strong was penalized for an illegal block. Cole Strange took two holding penalties in the second quarter. The offense had 12 men in the huddle at one point. Josh Uche got an insane head start trying to rush the quarterback on a fourth-and-10. Though not a penalty, DaMarcus Mitchell unnecessarily slid into the end zone when downing a punt inside the 5-yard line, giving the Jets about 15 free yards of field position.
Those are the things that Patriots opponents always did, yet more and more, it's become what the Patriots do. For as long as they keep happening, it will remain difficult to see them winning an actual big game.
--I would have gotten a haircut at halftime after this.
But that's just me.
--I don't know that the positive impact of Sunday's win is overly significant. But I know the greatest positive comes from avoiding the negative. That is to say, not losing was almost more important than winning. If that makes sense. (It doesn't. Shut up. These are MY leftover thoughts.)
With the win, the Patriots are 4-4, still in last place in the AFC East, now in ninth place in the conference, still outside the playoff picture. That's all fine, but there aren't any earth-shattering developments.
The flip side, though, would have been borderline devastating. A loss to the Jets is gross enough, but falling to 3-5, really taking a kill shot on the playoff chances, that would have been a lot. I'm not sure how much it impacts the team when the radio and TV shows are screaming in rage and disbelief about the team, but that surely would have continued for a second consecutive week if the Patriots had followed their face plant against the Bears with a loss of any kind against the Jets.
It's kind of the same deal next week. The Colts are ... OK. They're not good. They're not terrible. They're fine. They also will have a quarterback making his second career appearance, and they also just absolutely blew a game to Taylor Heinicke and the Washington Commanders, who are allegedly a real NFL football team. (I have not independently confirmed this to be true.)
Really, with the Colts game, the bye week, and a home date vs. the Jets, the Patriots have a real chance to make something of their season. They haven't done that quite yet. But Sunday's win gives them the opportunity to do so in the coming weeks.
