The Patriots kicked off 2022 with a dominating 50-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Gillette Stadium. They also secured a playoff position with the win after Miami fell to Tenessee, but we won’t know the final seedings until after next week’s regular-season finale. Here are your Ups & Downs from Week 17.
Ups ⬆️
Damien Harris & Rhamondre Stevenson
Each back played a big part in yesterday’s win, both combining for 125 yards on the ground, with 2 touchdowns each. Harris led the work in the first half, quickly helping improve the score to 28 by the end of the second quarter, but, he did appear to tweak his hamstring, which has been an issue for the past couple of weeks. It may be minor, but the team decided to sit him for the second half to be safe, the job was already done.
Stevenson picked up the slack for the rest of the game and continued to show his rough-running skills and poured more misery on the helpless jags. A top day for the backs.
Mac Jones
Mac was back yesterday, looking comfortable and accurate on his way to finishing with 22/30 227 yards – 3 TDs, a welcome return for him following back-to-back down weeks for the rookie quarterback.
Sure the Jags didn’t pressure Mac a whole lot, or, offer much difficulty in pass coverage, but, I think Mac needed this game ahead of the now pending postseason and should fill himself with confidence ahead of Miami in the regular-season finale.
Jakobi Meyers
Meyers improved his season receiving total to a career high 796 yards yesterday, after hauling in 8 catches for 73 yards and a touchdown (his second career score). He’s been a key figure in Mac’s progression this season, another brilliant day for him.
J.C. Jackson
J.C. had a solid game yesterday, he was involved in good redzone coverage and managed to snag his 25th career pick (8th of the season). With the news this week coming that the team extended Adrian Phillips, a decision will be made soon on what to do about Jackson’s future with the franchise. I personally would extend him, sure he isn’t the best CB in the league, but he’s proved over his rookie contract that he’s a ballhawk and manages to find plenty turnovers.
Kristian Wilkerson
What a game for this man, finally getting a chance to perform on the main roster and he catches his first and second career touchdowns! Now, Wilkerson was pretty open on both plays due to poor coverage by the Jags, but, take nothing away from him, it was a special moment and potentially could earn himself a place on the 53-man roster.
Downs ⬇️
Special Teams
This will be the only entry on the down list this week, but, it’s needed. The Patriots for years have prided themselves on their special team capability, but this season something has been off on the entire unit.
The unit missed two extra points, which didn’t have an impact on the game, but regardless, this is the type of thing that can cost you in the postseason, especially in a different scenario where the game is close at the end. A note to this, Nick Folk was not at fault for either of the misses, all hail Big Kick Nick.
