The New England Patriots registered a big win in Los Angeles yesterday, beating the Chargers with a final score of 27-24.
Mac Jones does not look sharp: Yes, it was a win, but Mac Jones was not very good on Sunday.
With that being said, with the team up seven points late in the game, Jones engineered a 14-play, 54-yard drive that killed almost seven minutes and stretched the lead to double digits.
He is going to need to be consistently better moving forward, but sometimes the defense and/or special teams can steal one for the Patriots like they did against the Chargers, and it is good to see him do enough to seal the victory at the end.
Special teams helps out: After having some issues on special teams early in the season, the Patriots got some help for their third unit on Sunday.
Instead, they decided to throw far too often, which led to them getting stopped at the 1-yard line in the second quarter, and settling for field goals multiple times as well.
I know that a few of those were from the 30, but that’s still scoring range and they couldn’t do anything when they got there.
Phillips has been one of the best players on the New England defense this season, and he had his best game of the year on a day where the team really needed it.
Having a good pass rush makes your defense significantly better, and the Patriots defense has really been doing a great job of getting after the passer lately.
The former first-round draft pick wasn’t overly dominant, and he only had two receptions for 30 yards, but they were both contested catches where he used good body control and positioning to come down with the football.
Damien Harris continues to run well: Damien Harris finished the game with only 80 yards rushing and a touchdown, but he also had a few long runs called back because of penalties.
Harris has now scored a touchdown in four straight games, and with J.J.
Many people, including myself, have questioned the coaching at times this season, but there is no doubt about it: the Patriots out-coached the Chargers on Sunday, and it led to them pulling out the road win.
The first was the holding flag that was picked up; the officiating crew said that because Hunter Henry was blocking it was OK, which makes absolutely no sense, because you’re still not allowed to hold the offensive player.
Then, Jerry Tillery decided he was going to take a free shot on Mac Jones after the whistles had been blown, and everyone had stopped.
Later in the game, it seemed that Kyle Van Noy had been held in the end zone, which would have been a safety.
It’s a new season: The Patriots are at .500 for the first time since beating the New York Jets in Week 2, and they all of a sudden have some hope as to where they are headed.
They have some winnable games coming up, and have a chance to make some noise towards the end of this season.
The Patriots will try to improve to 5-4, which would give them a winning record for the first time since Week 3 of last season.