The New England Patriots humiliated the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football, shutting down the hosts and taking back home a 25-0 win.
In the replay of the Super Bowl LI, Bill Belichick was again on the winning side. This time, his Patriots dominated throughout the entire game, without any need to make big and memorable comebacks.
Though, the final result will be remembered for a long time. The Pats scored 25 points, while on the other side, the former MVP, Matt Ryan, couldn’t lead his unit to a single point. This was by far one of the worst nights in his career and the Falcons fans’ lifespan.
Atlanta’s head coach, Arthur Smith, changed quarterbacks three times, and each one of them was picked.
“It’s been a tough five days offensively,” Ryan said. “We haven’t thrown the ball well enough, we haven’t run the ball well enough.”
Matty-Ice had 153 yards thrown but was sacked four times for 33 negative yards and was intercepted twice. Josh Rosen and the rookie Felipe Franks were also picked during their short stints on the field.
Meanwhile, the ground game of the home team was equally terrible as the overall performance, with only 40 rushing yards, 34 of them by Qadree Ollison.
On the other side, Mac Jones was solid, with 207 yards for one TD and one interception, yet suffering three sacks for 33 negative yards. The only TD toss rookie fired last night was to Nelson Agholor, who had 40 receiving yards. Kendrick Bourne ended the night with 42.
New England’s rushing productivity was excellent as well, with 134 yards on the ground; Rhammondre Stevenson posted 69 on 12 snaps and Damien Harris 56 on 10.
The defense provided one score as well, with Kyle Van Noy returning home a pick-six for 36 yards.
“That’s something that you always have in the back of your mind, as a quarterback, you know you have a really good defense,” said quarterback Mac Jones. “You can try to get a feel for the way the game is being played based on the way they’re playing too.”
The start of @MacJones_10 & @TomBrady's careers are EERILY similar. 👀 (via @nflthrowback)
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This was the fifth straight victory for the Patriots, who are in one hell of a form right now. Bill Belichick slowly started putting all the pieces together at the start of the season, with the defense evolving faster than Mac Jones and the offensive part of the crew. That was understandable because of Jones’ inexperience, but as time went by, the rookie started feeling the game, slowly taking over the leadership on the field.
At the moment, New England is 7-4, with legit chances of winning the AFC East, and entering the playoffs, which is the most important thing for the Pats, Belichick, and Jones.
Up next, they have a clash at home against the injured Tennessee Titans, the AFC leaders, and visit the Buffalo Bills in a game that could decide a lot in this division. Following these two games, the Pats visit the Colts and then host the Bills.
On the other side, the Falcons are 4-6, and their playoff prospects fade away. Their next game will be a must-win situation, with the Falcons visiting the Jaguars. After that they have two division matchups, against the Buccaneers in Atlanta and vs. Panthers on the road.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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