FOXBOROUGH – On a day where there were military members sworn in on the field before the game and a flyover followed the national anthem, the Patriots made sure they put on a show for all those that fight for our freedom.
New England scored 45 unanswered points and hammered the Browns 45-7 for the team’s fourth straight win. In the last two home games against the Jets and Browns, the Pats have outscored them by a combined total of 99-20.
Just a few weeks ago, things looked dire at 1 Patriot Place. Now, at 6-4 and another winnable game coming up Thursday night in Atlanta, the Patriots have become quite a dangerous team again.
“The relationship that our team, our organization has with the TAPS Foundation has been very meaningful for all of us for a number of years, and proud to work with James Patrick Darcy’s pin on here today,” said Bill Belichick. “All of our players and coaches have been involved in that and all week, and I know they had Mr. Kraft and the organization had some events for them and things like that. But it was awesome to see that, to recognize the military, to have Admiral Gilday here. Always like to see a lot of those gold bars on those, any of the uniforms. Always sends chills down my spine.
“Just the whole week, the Veterans week, the Salute to Service Day and all that that brought. And you know, thankfully we did our part and I thought the team really played well today.”
You can easily make the argument that the first 30 minutes of football was some of the best New England’s played all year. The Patriots led 24-7 at the break and held the Browns to just 91 yards of offense, only 27 of them through the air.
Cleveland opened the game with an impressive 11-play, 84-yard march that ended with Baker Mayfield hitting Austin Hooper in the back of the end zone on 4th-and-goal for a 3-yard touchdown. It was all Pats from that point on.
Mac Jones – who was 13-of-15 for 134 yards and two touchdowns in the half and was an absolute force on third down – orchestrated a fantastic response drive. The offense drove 83-yards in 15 plays and Mr. RedZone himself Hunter Henry was the beneficiary of a beautifully thrown ball to the back corner of the end zone from 3-yards out to knot things up at 7-7 after Nick Folk’s PAT.
Kyle Dugger jumped a route and picked off Mayfield one play into the second quarter, returning it 37 yards to the Browns’ 5-yard line. Rhamondre Stevenson rumbled in on the next play, making it 14-7 17 seconds into the frame. After a Cleveland punt, Jones led another methodical 11-play, 99-yard drive that ended with a ridiculous leaping grab by Kendrick Bourne in the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown and a 21-7 lead with 5:40 to go in the second.
Nick Folk added a 38-yard field goal with four seconds left in the half for New England’s 17-point cushion heading into halftime.
“I always ask him how did you end up as a D2 player, because he’s a physical freak,” Devin McCourty said of Dugger.
With 5:04 left in the third, Stevenson finished off the second of three 90+ yard drives on Sunday with a 2-yard TD run and a 31-7 lead. On Cleveland’s ensuing drive, Baker Mayfield was injured while the Browns were turning the ball over on downs and Case Keenum entered, During that same drive, a Matt Judon sack gave him 9.5 on the year, a career high and we’re only 10 weeks in.
“I’d say eight of those were coverage sacks,” Judon said modestly.
Another Hunter Henry touchdown catch from 3-yards out early in the fourth made it 38-7. It was Brian Hoyer’s show in the fourth quarter and he too ended up leading a 90-yard drive, 95-yards to be exact, before hitting Jakobi Meyers for the receiver’s first career touchdown. Cleveland’s Troy Hill was injured on the play and hard to be carted off, but Meyers was still happy to finally get rid of the goose egg next to his name.
“I’m praying Troy Hill will make a speedy recovery, but everybody celebrating with me when it finally happened, that’s a moment I’ll have forever,” Meyers said.
The Patriots ended up giving up just 217 yards of total offense and 17 first downs. On the flip side, New England had 452 yards of total offense and 30 first downs. Jake Bailey had a couple bombs and Nick Folk was perfect again. Jones had his first three-TD game and Stevenson eclipsed 100 yards for the first time in his career too.
It’s truly an “everything’s coming up Milhouse” type of stretch for this team right now.
It’s only been 10 weeks and there’s a lot of football to be played, but if the Pats can keep stringing together performances like the one they put on display Sunday and in the games prior, the matchup with Tennessee in a few weeks just may be for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.