AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
CINCINNATI- The Patriots survived a scare in Cincinnati, beating the Bengals 26-20. The story of the day wasn’t the win however. It was the injuries. The Patriots lost Jared Wilson, Will Campbell, Khyiris Tonga and Brendan Schooler to injuries. It was a bad day for a team that has been relatively healthy up until this point.
Here are seven points on the win.
1. A win is a win: The Patriots fell behind 10-0 early and looked like they were going to crash back to earth after winning eight straight. They turned things around fortunately, rattling off 17 straight points and hanging on to win 26-20. It wasn’t pretty and the game was marred by injuries, but when adversity struck, the Patriots responded and won a tight football game. Bottom line. A win is a win.
2. Campbell injury headlines a long lost of players who got banged up: Rookie left tackle Will Campbell headlines a list of four players who got banged up in the game. Campbell left in the second half with what appears to be a knee injury. He will have an MRI on Monday. Rookie left guard Jared Wilson left on the first series with ankle injury. Special teams ace Brendan Schooler and defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga also left the game with an injuries and neither returned. The Patriots have been relatively healthy
3. Maye’s Day: Maye’s day did not get off to a good start. He looked off and it was evident on the pick six he threw to Geno Stone. Once he settled down however, he was good completing 22-of-35 passes for 294 yards and a touchdown pass to Hunter Henry. It wasn’t vintage Maye but he did enough for the Patriots to win the game.
4. Henry’s big day: Tight end Hunter Henry caught 7 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown. It was a career day for Henry as he notched his third 100 yard receiving game of his career. Coming into the game, the Bengals were among the worst defenses in the league in terms of defending the tight end. It showed against Henry.
5. Quiet day for the receivers: The Bengals have the worst secondary in the NFL statistically but the Patriots failed to capitalize on it. The leading receiver for the day was Mack Hollins who had 2 catches for 30 yards. Pop Douglas had one catch for 37 yards. Stefon Diggs had 2 catches for 20 yards while Kayshon Boutte who returned from a hamstring injury had 2 catches for 15 yards. It just wasn’t good enough but the Patriots overcame it.
6. Stevenson returns: Rhamondre Stevenson returned from a turf toe injury and he did not do much on the stat sheet, but he did a great job in pass protection and complementing TreVeyon Henderson. I did not expect much from Stevenson as he is working his way back but I would expect more production from him moving forward.
7. Big kick Borregales: Andy Borregales was 4 for 4 in field goal attempts including a season long of 52 yards. With the offense struggling to finish in the red zone, Borregales came up big by making his kicks. The Patriots are going to need him to be good moving forward. They will be counting on him to make some big kicks.