The New England Patriots‘ defense and specials teams put on a show in the team's 35-14 win over the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football.
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Final Score
New England Patriots 35, New York Giants 14
New England Patriots
New England's defense was excellent all night long. The secondary stuck to New York's receivers like glue and recorded a number of pass breakups on what would have otherwise been receptions for first downs, including one on the Giants' offensive play of the night, where Stephon Gilmore broke up an accurately placed ball on a go route on 4th and 10.
In addition to shutting down the Giants' run game, New England's front seven did a good job of keeping Daniel Jones under pressure all night, winning with stunts as well as winning a number of one on one matchups. The highlight of the night came on a fumble after a screen pass that edge defender Kyle Van Noy returned for a touchdown.
Tom Brady was efficient but didn’t throw a touchdown pass. The Patriots got the bulk of their pass-game production off of crossing routes following a play-action fake until late in the fourth quarter when Brady hit Julian Edelman on a double move for a 36-yard gain.
Edelman was productive catching three first downs on crossing routes. Late in the fourth quarter, Edelman caught a hitch route for a first down and then a 36-yard pass on a stop-and-go route. Edelman also dropped a screen pass and wasn’t on the same page with Brady, leading to an interception.
New York Giants
Outside of a nice throw down the field to Golden Tate, who bobbled the ball but managed to secure the pass for a touchdown, there weren't a lot of bright spots for rookie quarterback Daniel Jones. While he managed a few shorter throws that moved the chains, he wasn't very accurate when going down the field and misread a cover-2 look badly that resulted in an interception thrown right to Patriot standout cornerback Stephon Gilmore.
With Saquon Barkley missing another week to injury, New York's running game was unable to get going against a stout Patriots front. Golden Tate may have been the lone bright spot for New York's offense tonight.
Janoris Jenkins had an interception of Brady on what appeared to be miscommunication between Brady and Edelman. Jenkins also had a nice pass breakup at the goal line in the second quarter.
Markus Golden and David Mayo combined for a first-quarter sack of Brady. Alec Ogletree beat Joe Thuney with an inside spin move to sack Brady in the fourth quarter.
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