Patriots Report Card: How Mac Jones Pulled Off Career-Best Game

The New England Patriots pulled off a sensational win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, winning 29-25 on a Mike Gesicki touchdown catch with 12 seconds remaining. Here’s a closer look at how each position group fared in the Week 7 matchup:

QUARTERBACK: A-
Best game of Mac Jones’ career? Given the opponent and the stakes, we’d say so. He went 25-for-30 for 272 yards with two touchdowns and — crucially — no turnovers. Jones was hyper-efficient after halftime, with as many touchdown passes as incompletions (two) over the final two quarters. He led his first game-winning touchdown drive in more than two years and his 126.7 passer rating was the third-best of his career, as was his 83.3% completion rate.

Was he bombing the ball all over the yard? No. But after a stretch of flat-out miserable offensive football, coordinator Bill O’Brien seems to have found a viable blueprint that relies on short and occasional intermediate passes and features frequent motion and misdirection.

Jones didn’t attempt a pass that traveled more than 20 yards downfield and threw just six that traveled 10-plus, per Pro Football Focus. But what he was doing was working. Among Week 7 QBs, only Chicago’s Tyson Bagent had a lower average depth of target than Jones (4.0), but Jones ranked eighth in yards per attempt (9.1), and the Patriots got points on six of their nine possessions.

Asked immediately after the game what changed for the offense, Jones replied: “O’Brien.”

“He did a great job calling a good game,” the QB told CBS sideline reporter Evan Washburn, “and being aggressive and using things that I did in college that I really like. So, I really appreciate that.”

Getting the Patriots’ cleanest offensive line performance of the season helped massively, and Jones made some of his best plays of the day while under pressure, including his 33-yard hookup with Kendrick Bourne, his on-the-dot strike to Pharaoh Brown down the right sideline and his third-down conversion to Hunter Henry on the final drive. Jones was 8-for-9 for 113 yards and a touchdown when blitzed, per PFF.

There were a few moments that Jones will want back. He had a late fumble that New England recovered and a penalty negated, and two passes that appeared to slip out of his hand. The third-year pro was flagged for delay of game. He had one dicey pass into heavy traffic that could have been picked.

So, not perfect. But this was a statement-making, confidence-building step forward for a QB who badly needed one.

RUNNING BACKS: B
Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliot averaged just 3.25 yards per carry on 20 total attempts. Nothing special there. But four of their first seven carries went for 5-plus yards, including a 14-yarder by Stevenson and 7- and 8-yarders by Elliott, to help stake New England to an early 10-0 lead.

Elliott scored a hard-earned short-yardage touchdown, and Stevenson kick-started the game-winning drive with a 34-yard catch-and-run. Stevenson caught all six of his targets for 54 yards to go along with nine carries for 34 yards. Both players ran hard behind improved blocking.

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WIDE RECEIVERS: B-
This was the Demario Douglas breakout game we’ve been waiting for since training camp.

The sixth-round rookie led the Patriots in all-purpose yards with four catches for 54 yards, a 20-yard carry off a jet sweep and a 25-yard punt return. He had red-zone receptions on all three Patriots touchdown drives and also drew three defensive penalties.

The Liberty product wasn’t flawless, as an apparent missed read blew up one third-down play late in the first half. But Douglas absolutely deserves to be New England’s top slot receiver and a featured part of its passing game moving forward, even after JuJu Smith-Schuster returns from his concussion.

Bourne also had his second straight strong outing (seven targets, six catches, 63 yards, touchdown) but coughed up a fourth-quarter fumble that nearly lost the Patriots the game. DeVante Parker, meanwhile, played a season-low 58% of snaps and wasn’t targeted until the final drive. Tyquan Thornton saw just three snaps and caught one pass for 2 yards.

Parker, who signed a contract extension this summer, caught two passes for 15 yards over the last two games and eight for 87 over the last five.

Elevated practice squadder Jalen Reagor saw extended playing time for the second straight week (25 snaps) and caught his first pass as a Patriot. New England would need to sign him to the 53-man roster if it wants to use him again, so it’ll be interesting to see whether that happens this week.

TIGHT ENDS: A
Gesicki caught the game-winning touchdown. Henry had a clutch 14-yard catch on third down to extend that drive and also walled off three Bills defenders on Bourne’s touchdown. Brown continued to be the big-play threat no one saw coming, rumbling for gains of 25 and 26 yards and having a 22-yarder wiped out by a penalty.

Brown, who joined the Patriots after final roster cuts, has five catches on five targets for 137 yards and one touchdown this season, just 34 yards shy of his single-season career high. He has more receiving yards than Smith-Schuster and just 7 fewer than Parker.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A-
Best game of the season for this group, bar none. Moving Mike Onwenu over to right tackle (finally) gave the Patriots a significant upgrade over Vederian Lowe. Sidy Sow also played well in Onwenu’s usual right guard spot, earning the highest PFF grade of any rookie O-lineman this season. Left tackle Trent Brown enters Week 8 as PFF’s highest-graded player at his position. Jones was sacked just once and pressured on 21% of his dropbacks.

The starting five New England fielded Sunday is the one it should stick with moving forward, assuming its members all can stay healthy.

This group’s lone penalty came when Lowe briefly replaced Brown late in the game and was flagged for ineligible man downfield. The starters were much cleaner in that area than they were last week against Las Vegas. This is how the Patriots need to perform up front.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A-
Despite missing three of their top edge rushers in Matthew Judon, Josh Uche and Keion White, the Patriots still were able to consistently harass Josh Allen. Leading that effort: Christian Barmore and Deatrich Wise, who teamed up for 10 QB pressures and frequently made Allen uncomfortable.

Barmore, who notched the Patriots’ lone sack in the win, was similarly impactful in last week’s loss to the Raiders. He’s really flourished of late and is playing some of the best football of his career. Nose tackle Davon Godchaux also had a strong game in the middle.

New England’s 26 total pressures, per PFF, were more than it tallied in the first two games after Judon’s injury combined (18). That active pass rush was vital to the secondary’s strong performance against Stefon Diggs (more on that below), as Allen sailed several throws while scrambling.

Allen, who’s given the Patriots fits as a ball-carrier in the past, also finished with just 17 rushing yards on seven carries. Buffalo’s ground game overall lacked punch outside of one 20-yard pickup by James Cook (2.7 yards per carry on its other 23 attempts).

LINEBACKERS: B
Hit-or-miss game by Ja’Whaun Bentley, who lost Cook in coverage on a third-and-long conversion, missed a tackle on Buffalo’s longest run of the day and let Allen wriggle out of a would-be sack. But Bentley also had a key pass breakup to force a turnover on downs, led the team with nine tackles and notched a season-high four pressures.

Anfernee Jennings continued his career year with a couple of impact plays in run defense, including a tackle for loss. The 2020 third-round pick is playing his way into a second contract after opening the season as a healthy scratch.

SECONDARY: B+
The good: The Patriots finally limited arch-nemesis Diggs, holding the Bills’ superstar wideout to 58 yards on 12 targets. Losing Christian Gonzalez for the season lowered this group’s ceiling, but they now have a solid cornerback stable in place with J.C. Jackson aboard and Jonathan Jones and Jack Jones both back from injuries.

Jackson’s end-zone pass breakup against Diggs was one of the plays of the game. Safety Jabrill Peppers made another when he intercepted an Allen pass on Buffalo’s first offensive play.

The not-so-good: Patriots defensive backs missed way too many tackles, which has been a problem for them in multiple games this season. Peppers missed one on Cook’s third-quarter touchdown. Jackson couldn’t bring down Diggs on his fourth-quarter score. Jack Jones, Myles Bryant and Kyle Dugger all had missed tackles on converted third downs. Bryant and Adrian Phillips both whiffed on sacks, too.

Had even half of those tackles been made, the Patriots might have won this game easily. Gotta clean that up.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A-
Amid wind that caused Bill Belichick to compare one shanked Bills field goal to his five iron, the Patriots’ rookie specialists were perfect. Chad Ryland went 5-for-5 on kicks (three field goals, two extra points), and both of Bryce Baringer’s punts were beauties, with one traveling 64 yards to pin Buffalo at its own 13 and the other landing out of bounds at the 3.

Add in Douglas’ 25-yard punt return, and even a couple of pre-snap errors (false start on Brenden Schooler, substitution error on a field goal that cost New England a timeout) couldn’t drop this grade out of the “A” range.

“Across the board, it was probably one of the best, if not the best, outings we’ve had,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said.