To begin the year, Bill Belichick’s unit struggled to get off the field in crucial moments and was an Achilles heel for the club as it got out to a 2-4 start.
This was a continuation of what has been a dominant stretch by New England over the last month-plus.
Then, in the second half, a turnover tsunami washed over the Falcons as the Patriots forced four straight interceptions to end the game.
One of the hallmarks of a great defense is beating down on inferior teams and not letting them needlessly have life during a game.
Instead of things snowballing as they did at times to begin the year for the Patriots, the defense kept points off the board as they prevented the Falcons from advancing on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 from the New England 16-yard line.
Again, in a vacuum, shutting down the Falcons on Thursday shouldn’t be too much to raise your eyebrows at.
There admittedly may not be much to take from this game as Tennessee is facing a last-place club, but it will be interesting to see how it continues to look without star running back Derrick Henry nonetheless.
So far, Belichick is 5-0 this season when going up against a rookie head coach with the latest victory coming on Thursday against Atlanta’s Arthur Smith.
This week, he was tasked with covering Falcons star rookie tight end Kyle Pitts and came through early with a tremendous PBU on a third-and-9 throw from Matt Ryan on Atlanta’s opening drive.
While it remains to be seen if he’ll ever ascend to be the player the club hoped he would be upon drafting him, he’s recently carved himself out a solid role.
It’s also noteworthy that each of those grabs weren’t garbage-time targets for Harry as Jones looked at him during New England’s opening drive and he touched the ball again on the team’s third possession of the evening.