The Patriots streak a win in Atlanta!

Hi there Patriots Nation, to all my fellow UK fans, I wish you oodles and oodles of coffee on this sleep deprived Friday!

So, another win against the Atlanta Falcons huh?

It wasn’t an easy, utterly clean game, there were a few blips on the radar with this one, but the defense was definitely bringing the nasty against the Falcons and Matt Ryan. 

As well as the Patriots ran the ball, they went 4 for 12 on third down, and that’s not great when you compare it to last week particularly. But the Patriots defense still found a way to shut out the Falcons, and please excuse the colourful language here, spanked, a solid, veteran quarterback.

For the tight endage enthusiast, it was a little slim pickings this week. Hunter Henry played 32 of the snaps (50%) and was more often than not, heavily covered when running routes. When Nelson Agholor caught his touchdown, Hunter had three guys covering him. The Falcons cottoned on that he was a regular target of Mac Jones, his go-to tight end, and they kept him closed down. There was a beautiful, beautiful, catch towards the end of the third quarter, a nice li’l sweet treat for me, but this was undone by a throw from Mac towards Jonnu Smith for an interception. Boo.

Speaking of interceptions, the Patriots had, four. One for each of the Falcons quarterbacks and then a spare. Mr Interception himself, JC Jackson had one, well that’s becoming a given, right? Adrian Phillips and Devin McCourty didn’t want to be left out, and finally Kyle Van Noy, who took it for 35 yards, and a touchdown. Exactly what the word fabulousness was created for!

Matt Judon, a name to star on my game recap every week, stacked up another sack and that’s 10.5 for his New England Patriots season so far, SO FAR!

Kyle Dugger brought it again this week with six tackles and some glorious blocks. My favourite was towards the end of the third quarter where he just pancaked Isaiah Oliver to the floor, you could almost hear the ‘boom’. 

Another name that I should create a shortcut for, as I am typing it every week, is Jakob Johnson. This guy is slapping the face of anyone who thinks a fullback isn’t important, and I love it! With the quality of his blocking, and his integration into plays a little more, I don’t think I’m remiss in saying he is having his best Patriots season so far.

And on the note of effective blocking, from the result of that, Damien Harris ran like a freight train. Sometimes he was so quick I almost lost him! This week showed an even split of runs between Rhamondre Stevenson (now officially to be referred to as ‘Mondre, hey, if it’s good enough for the beloved David Andrews, it’s definitely good enough for me!) and Damien Harris. ‘Mondre notching up 12 attempts for 69 yards, and Harris 10 attempts for 56 yards. 

Okay, that’s enough of me for this week folks! I’m off to top up my coffee. 

Go Pats!

Don’t forget to pick up your tight endage design t-shirts exclusively at Pats Propaganda!