New England Patriots
Marcus Jones set the tone, Christian Elliss made big hits, and the Patriots won their 10th game in a row.
FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots put together a dominant performance against the Giants on Monday night, stacking their tenth straight victory.
Marcus Jones gave New England an early double-digit lead with an electric punt return and New England never looked back, burying New York before halftime.
MVP candidate Drake Maye did not disappoint. As usual, he was accurate throwing the ball down the field. He didn’t commit any turnovers. The offense ran smoothly.
From big hits to highlight-reel catches and a field-goal attempt that never got off the ground, this game had plenty of highlights.
Here’s a look at which Patriots players stood out and struggled during the blowout 33-15 win against the Giants.
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Marcus Jones
Jones continued to put himself in elite company amongst returners with a 94-yard punt return for a touchdown.
He became the fourth player in Patriots history with more than one punt return touchdown in a season, and he’s the third player in the league to do it this year along with Tennessee’s Chimere Dike and Jacksonville’s Parker Robinson.
Jones’ combination of explosiveness and balance while running down the sideline at full speed and keeping himself in bounds was something special. His blockers did a nice job of walling things off for him, but the difference was that little extra burst of speed Jones used to scoot past New York punter Jamie Gillan en route to the end zone.
Christian Elliss
Elliss showed up ready to hit somebody under the Monday Night Football lights.
Elliss punished Jaxson Dart for staying in bounds with a forceful hit near the sideline that sparked a small scuffle that led to a Giants penalty.
He hit Gunner Olszewski so hard on a kick return that the “N” on Olsewski’s “NY” helmet sticker came off. Talk about leaving a mark. Olsewski fumbled and the Patriots recovered, putting them in prime position to add to their lead.
A double-digit tackle game and a pair of crushing hits made Elliss stand out.
Harold Landry
Credit to Christian Barmore and Eric Gregory for putting enough interior pressure to make Dart hesitate, but Landry goes down in the scorebook for the Patriots’ only sack of the night.
Landry had dropped back into coverage on the play, but came up to make the hit when Dart tried to bounce to the outside.
Make it 7.5 sacks on the year for the Boston College product. He hit the quarterback twice in this game and had a tackle for loss.
Drake Maye
The Gillette Stadium air was filled with MVP chants for Maye early and often Monday night, and they appeared to be well-deserved.
His 33-yard deep ball to Kyle Williams was placed perfectly where only his receiver could get to it and somehow stay in bounds.
He had some “wow” moments avoiding the Giants’ pass-rush, including one play where he dodged a pair of defenders before throwing it out of bounds.
Maye spread the ball around accurately and efficiently with no turnovers.
Vederian Lowe
Will Campbell’s injury remains a major storyline for this team, and monitoring how Vederian Lowe does replacing the rookie first-rounder will be intriguing over the next couple of weeks.
So far, so good. Maye looked comfortable and generally had ample time to throw. Neither of the sacks the Patriots gave up were on Lowe. Granted, the Giants got buried early in this one, but the drop-off between Lowe and Campbell didn’t look crazy on Monday night.
Hunter Henry
Henry was New England’s most productive receiver, catching four of his five targets for 74 yards.
Whether it was a well-run corner route or picking up short yardage on a slant, Henry found a number of ways to contribute.
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Rhamondre Stevenson
Stevenson once again got the bulk of the carries in the run game and wasn’t very impactful on the ground.
He a big gain on a nice throw from Maye where the Giants left him uncovered. He was New England’s second-leading receiver with 40 yards, and he caught all three of his targets.
He was a threat in the passing game, and while he wasn’t super productive on the ground, Stevenson helped compliment TreVeyon Henderson and eat up some carries.
Carlton Davis
Davis was pretty good in this game, but he dropped a potential interception that could have gone the other way for a touchdown.
The Patriots’ secondary played stingy defense and New York’s passing game had trouble all night.
Davis was a part of that, chipping in five tackles, a pass-breakup and a tackle for loss.
Stock down
Bryce Baringer
Baringer averaged 27 yards per punt on Monday, shanking a 22-yarder that went out of bounds and having a long of 32.
Not his best performance. Fortunately, the Patriots didn’t need to punt much.
Robert Spillane
A quiet night for Spillane, who recorded two tackles. Not a bad game per se, but it tied his season low for tackles. The other two tackle performance was against Tennessee.
Spillane came into the game with 95 tackles. He’ll have to wait at least another week to record what would be a third-consecutive 100-tackle season.
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