Patriots’ Kendrick Bourne Pulls No Punches Following Slow Day

The Patriots put together their best performance of the season Sunday, thoroughly dismantling the Lions, 29-0, at Gillette Stadium.

New England received strong individual performances from a number of players in their rout of Detroit. Bailey Zappe managed the game perfectly in his first career start. Rhamondre Stevenson set career bests on the ground, drawing strong praise from head coach Bill Belichick and Matthew Judon made franchise history throughout a game-wrecking performance on defense.

One player who didn’t have much of an impact on the stat sheet was Kendrick Bourne, who is in mired in a slow start to his second season in New England. Fully aware of that fact, Bourne took to Instagram to poke fun at himself following a one-catch performance.

“When you do nothing in the group project and get an A,” Bourne wrote in and Instagram post. It didn’t stop there either. The 27-year-old sent out an Instagram story that included another self-jab as well.

Though he didn’t put up gaudy numbers (one reception on one target for one yard) Bourne did have an eventful game Sunday. After seemingly being locked into the back end of New England’s wide receiver rotation and getting into a notable argument with Belichick, Bourne set a season-high in snaps played with 34, the second most among Patriots wide receivers behind Jakobi Meyers.

The season-best mark came as a bit of a surprise as rookie Tyquan Thornton’s activation from injured reserve led to the Patriots carrying six wideouts on the active game day roster. Before the game it looked as though New England could be on the verge of stapling Bourne to the bench, but instead relied on him heavily as he showed a consistency that Nelson Agholor couldn’t, despite committing two penalties.

Perhaps, given his positive attitude regarding the slow start, Bourne will continue to receive more playing time as the Patriots move into the cupcake portion of their schedule.