The Patriots continued their winning ways on Sunday, going into Cleveland and taking down the now 2-4 Browns by a score of 38-15. New England moves to .500 (3-3) on the season and moves into an incredibly winnable stretch of games.
Here’s a look at Sunday’s scoring drives:
Patriots 3 – Browns 0 | 12 plays, 63 yards – Nick Folk 19-yard FG
Patriots 3 – Browns 3 | 9 plays, 55 yards – Cade York 38-yard FG
Patriots 10 – Browns 3 | 9 plays, 87 yards – Rhamondre Stevenson 31-yard TD
Patriots 10 – Browns 6 | 9 plays, 42 yards – Cade York 48-yard FG
Patriots 17 – Browns 6 | 7 plays, 75 yards – Tyquan Thornton 2-yard TD
Patriots 24 – Browns 6 | 3 plays, 40 yards – Hunter Henry 31-yard TD
Patriots 24 – Browns 9 | 9 plays, 48 yards – Cade York 51-yard FG
Patriots 24 – Browns 15 | 8 plays, 65 yards – Amari Cooper 15-yard TD
Patriots 31 – Browns 15 | 1 plays, 19 yards – Tyquan Thornton 19-yard TD
Patriots 38 – Browns 15 | 3 plays, 8 yards – Rhamondre Stevenson 6-yard TD
The play of Bailey Zappe will be the talk of the town this coming week in the Boston area as the rookie continues to show confidence and smoothly ran the Patriots offense yet again, but there’s obviously more to this – and frankly there should be no QB competition yet. We’ll get into that later. Here are my five takeaways from today’s Patriots win in Cleveland:
5. Kyle Dugger is an elite NFL safety.
New England has themselves a legit back end player in Kyle Dugger. The third year safety out of Lenoir Rhyne University made arguably the play of the day on the Browns opening drive, undercutting a throw from Jacoby Brissett to get the Patriots the ball:
Though Dugger’s pass coverage can be hit or miss (see: David Njoku spin cycle), it’s drastically improved since week one, and will only get better.
He also led the Patriots defense with eight total tackles and had two pass deflections. He buzzes all over the field making play after play for this defense. I can’t wait to see where he’s at at season’s end.
4. The Browns are nothing without a run game.
The key to the game for the Patriots this week was simple: contain Nick Chubb.
Well, the Patriots did that and more on Sunday – holding Chubb to just 56 yards on 12 carries, an average YPC of 4.6. He came into today averaging 6.1.
Impressively, they did most of this without either Lawrence Guy or Christian Barmore. Guy was out again with a shoulder injury, and Barmore left the game in the first half with a knee injury.
This defense is deep, and each player who reps has a relatively equal role in getting the offense the football back. They did their job today.
3. Rhamondre Stevenson keeps proving his worth.
I have been pounding my chest about Rhamondre Stevenson lately, and he’s done a great job over the last two weeks of proving me right.
The second year RB out of Oklahoma once again paced the Patriots run game with 19 carries for 76 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
He also had a 31-yard touchdown run that, to put bluntly, Damien Harris just doesn’t do. Stevenson should be getting the bulk of the carries even when Harris is healthy.
2. Zappe looks comfortable in the offense, run it like this with Mac.
The Patriots have a really good offensive scheme. They just failed to use it earlier this season with Mac Jones.
The talks of a “new”, “streamlined” offense took over the Boston radio airwaves all Summer. It had its ups and downs through 2.5 games in 2022 – but it’s finally seemed to be put by the wayside.
This is probably due to Bailey Zappe needing to take over the QB room. Well, the rookie has been sensational running the run heavy, play action, quick read scheme – and I give him all the credit in the world for that. Heck, he threw for 300+ yards and two touchdowns in just his second NFL start.
Having said this: Mac Jones is better, and he’ll prove that once he’s back in action running an offensive playbook that actually works.
1. The criticism of the Patriots draft picks ends today.
For a long time, and rightfully so, the talk in New England was that Bill Belichick had lost his fast ball in the draft room.
Times are changing though. Take a look at some of the guys the Patriots have brought in over the last three drafts:
2020: Kyle Dugger, Mike Onwenu
2021: Mac Jones, Christian Barmore, Rhamondre Stevenson
2022: Cole Strange, Tyquan Thornton, Jack Jones, Marcus Jones, Bailey Zappe
It’s time for the narrative to die. That’s 10 players that are playing Bill and his front office have had three GREAT drafts in a row, and have filled in their roster with quality young players that will be building blocks for the New England system.
New England will return home and get an extra day of rest, with their next game being next Monday night at Gillette Stadium vs. the Chicago Bears.
As always, we’ll have you covered here on CLNSMedia.com for EVERYTHING Patriots – including but not limited to: who will be at quarterback next week for New England…
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