The New England Patriots’ comeback bid fell short Sunday in a 25-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Here’s a closer look at how each position group fared in that season-opening matchup:
QUARTERBACK: B-
Mac Jones was hard on himself after this game. Extremely hard. He said, repeatedly, that he let the team down and deserved blame for the loss.
“At the most critical times,” Jones said, “I played my worst.”
Was that scathing self-criticism warranted? Not in our eyes.
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Jones actually played quite well for long stretches in this game. He completed 64.8% of his passes, threw for 300-plus yards and three touchdowns for the first time in his career and delivered some gritty completions with defenders in his face. Two of his late incompletions — one to Kendrick Bourne down the middle on third down, one to Kayshon Boutte on the left sideline on fourth down — should have been caught to extend drives.
Overall, this was a positive first showing for Jones in Bill O’Brien’s offense, especially considering that offense was down two starting interior linemen and one of its top pass-catchers.
But no, it wasn’t perfect. Jones did make mistakes. He was erratic early amid rainy conditions, especially on the high pass that bounced off Bourne’s hands for a pick-six.
Jones also nearly had a screen pass intercepted early in the fourth quarter, and an off-target pass to Hunter Henry two plays later forced the tight end to make a sensational one-handed catch on fourth-and-8.
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The Patriots ultimately scored just 20 points and came up empty on each of their final two drives despite starting both near midfield. Blame for uninspiring offensive outputs tends to fall on the quarterback, fairly or not. But we saw more good than bad from Jones on Sunday.
WIDE RECEIVERS: C+
Bourne turned back the clock to 2021 with six catches for 64 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His hands could have been stronger overall, as mentioned above, but this was a strong start for a player who currently looks like the Patriots’ No. 1 receiver.
As for the man expected to fill that role entering training camp, JuJu Smith-Schuster had a third-down conversion on the Patriots’ first touchdown drive but little else. He dropped a low pass on another third-down target and finished with just 33 yards on four catches.
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Most notably, Smith-Schuster played 12 fewer snaps than Boutte (55 to 43) and wasn’t on the field at all on the Patriots’ final drive, with Boutte and Demario Douglas both playing over him. New England either was managing Smith-Schuster’s workload amid concerns about the health of his knee, or it believed two rookies were better options in the game’s most important moments. Not sure which would be more concerning.
The Patriots also missed DeVante Parker, who was sidelined with a knee injury. Boutte assumed the veteran’s role and finished without a catch on four targets. The LSU product failed to get both feet down on two sideline receptions — including one on the Patriots’ final play — and had a deep ball broken up in the end zone. All three were plays Parker probably makes.
Douglas (four catches, 40 yards) helped set up two Patriots touchdowns with chunk-play receptions of 23 and 16 yards.
RUNNING BACKS: C
Neither Rhamondre Stevenson nor Ezekiel Elliott could find much running room Sunday, with their 19 combined carries gaining a total of 54 yards (2.8 per attempt). But that was more the result of poor run blocking (more on that below) than anything the backs themselves were doing.
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Elliott was at fault, however, for his rare ball-security gaffe. After pulling in an off-target Jones screen pass with one hand, Elliott fumbled for the first time since Nov. 14, 2021. Philadelphia recovered and quickly scored to take an early 16-0 lead.
Stevenson didn’t have a run longer than 5 yards but did flash in the passing game with fourth-quarter catches of 11, 12 and 32 yards. Both backs also posted clean sheets in pass protection on 12 opportunities, per PFF.
O’Brien often deployed Stevenson and Elliott together in “pony” sets, including one that had Elliott line up at fullback and take a short-yardage handoff. (He converted.)
Veteran hybrid Ty Montgomery, promoted from the practice squad on Saturday, played two snaps in the backfield, four in the slot and one out wide, rushing once for 7 yards and catching two passes for 9 yards.
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TIGHT ENDS: A-
Henry was Jones’ most consistently reliable target throughout training camp, and that connection translated Sunday. He was excellent as a pass-catcher, finishing with five receptions on six targets for 56 yards and a touchdown. Three of Henry’s catches were contested, and another was the aforementioned one-handed grab.
Henry did have one drop and a costly holding penalty, but that was a ticky-tack call over which Bill Belichick was rightfully furious. The newly minted Patriots team captain looks poised for a bounce-back season after seeing his numbers dip in 2022.
Mike Gesicki had a relatively quiet Patriots debut but picked up first downs on all three of his targets. Third-stringer Pharaoh Brown played six snaps in heavier sets.
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OFFENSIVE LINE: C+
We’re admittedly grading on a curve here. The Patriots’ O-line generated little push in the run game, and their three big question marks (left guard Atonio Mafi, right guard Sidy Sow and right tackle Calvin Anderson) allowed 17 QB pressures between them. Mafi and Anderson also both had valid holding penalties.
This was not an especially clean performance up front, but it could have been a whole lot worse. The Eagles led the NFL with 70 sacks last season, and they didn’t notch their first takedown of Jones until the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. Philadelphia added a second and final sack with just under a minute to play.
It was a surprisingly respectable performance for a group that was missing both of its starting guards (Cole Strange and Mike Onwenu) and starting a pair of rookies in their place. Mafi and Sow both played every snap, as did Anderson, who missed all of training camp with an illness and has limited experience at right tackle.
DEFENSIVE LINE: A-
How about that debut from Keion White? The Eagles boast two of the league’s best tackles in Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata, and White beat both multiple times in his first NFL game.
The second-round pick won with power and with speed, and though he didn’t notch any tackles, sacks or QB hits, he pressured Jalen Hurts on four of his 13 pass-rush snaps, per Pro Football Focus, and deflected one pass at the line. White was just as disruptive as he was in his impressive preseason debut, if not more so, and against much higher-quality competition. He’s a stud.
This also was a big game for Christian Barmore, who recorded the third-best pass-rush win rate among all D-tackles in Week 1, per ESPN’s Seth Walder. Barmore had a clear path to Hurts for a would-be sack on the Eagles’ opening possession, but Matthew Judon got there first.
Two penalties on Deatrich Wise, including a blatant neutral zone infraction that negated a botched Philly snap, knocked this group down half a letter grade. Wise also was pushed aside by tight end Dallas Goedert on one of the Eagles’ few explosive run plays (a 14-yarder by Kenneth Gainwell on the opening drive).
Philadelphia gained more than 8 yards on just two of its 25 carries and averaged less than 4 yards per attempt.
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LINEBACKERS: A-
Ja’Whaun Bentley notched three run stuffs on the first drive alone and led the Patriots with nine tackles. Judon sacked Hurts once and pressured him six times. Both were vital in swarming the Eagles QB and preventing him from doing what so many mobile signal-callers have done to the Patriots’ defense in the past.
Hurts picked up 14 yards on a QB draw five minutes into the game but totaled just 23 rushing yards the rest of the way.
SECONDARY: A-
Christian Gonzalez went wire to wire in his NFL debut, playing every defensive snap for New England. His diving pass breakup on fourth-and-2 gave the Patriots’ offense a chance to win it late. The first-round draft pick also added a sack on a cornerback blitz and was aggressive in run defense (seven tackles), allying some of the concerns about his physicality.
Gonzalez’s coverage wasn’t flawless (PFF credited him with seven receptions allowed on 10 targets for 71 yards), but he prevented big plays against an Eagles offense that’s more than capable of creating them. His and fellow rookie Marte Mapu’s tight coverage on a deep incompletion to A.J. Brown was one highlight.
Fellow starting cornerback Jonathan Jones let up just one catch for 7 yards in 53 snaps, though he nearly was beaten deep by Brown on a catch that Belichick successfully challenged. Slot corner Myles Bryant decked the much bigger Brown coming across the middle to force an Eagles punt.
Back at safety, the Patriots’ primary replacement for Devin McCourty in this game was … Jabrill Peppers! The heavy hitter played 88% of defensive snaps, held up well in coverage and showed off his trademark physicality by blasting Hurts to force a fourth-quarter fumble.
The Patriots’ defensive game plan varies by week, but Peppers and Kyle Dugger (100% of snaps) were the clear top safety options in this one, with Adrian Phillips and Jalen Mills both posting snap rates below 30%.
In totality, New England’s secondary limited Hurts to 170 passing yards, his third-lowest total since the start of last season. His 5.2 yards-per-attempt average was his lowest since November 2021.
Hurts’ lone touchdown pass — a rollout to DeVonta Smith inside the right pylon — beat tight coverage by Marcus Jones.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B+
Marcus Jones showed off some nifty sideline footwork on a 21-yard punt return. Montgomery broke a 43-yard kick return. Bryce Baringer pinned the Eagles at their own 16, 8 and 14 with his first three punts, and had another that traveled 64 yards in the air.
Chad Ryland wasn’t asked to attempt any field goals — he’s still never done so in an NFL game, regular or preseason — but he made both of his PATs and notched touchbacks on all three of his deep kickoffs.
The knocks on this group: Baringer had one punt that bounced into the end zone for a touchback, and Jones was a little too cavalier with his punt returns. He got drilled on two that should have been fair-caught.
Featured image via Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports Images
