It was a defensive battle Sunday between the New England Patriots and New York Jets at Gillette Stadium that was stalled at a 3-3 tie until the final seconds of the game when the Patriots scored the first punt return touchdown in the NFL this season.
The league had gone 10 weeks and hundreds of kicks without a player returning a punt for a touchdown, and Marcus Jones made the first of the season one to remember. The New England rookie returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown with 5 seconds remaining and the Patriots outlasted the stunned Jets 10-3 on Sunday.
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Jones' score was the lone TD of the game and broke a stalemate on a day when both offenses struggled to move the ball.
"My first thing was ball security, so making sure I track the ball and everything because the wind was going crazy out there, that was the main thing, and just staying within the scheme," Jones said in his postgame press conference. "You know without my teammates on that play, that would have been a hard play to make so."
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"It's one of those situations where I'm happy, you know definitely, for the divisional win, so that's the main thing, and now I'm onto the next week, I'm one of those people," Jones added.
With only 26 seconds showing on the clock when the Jets lined up to kick, Jones said he initially thought Braden Mann might punt it out of bounds. Once he got it in his hands and made a few players miss, everything changed.
"Then I seen the punter and I was like, 'If I make him miss, I should be able to go the distance.'"
He was right.
Jets coach Robert Saleh said postgame of the game-winning 84-yard punt return, "You make one mistake and they'll make you pay," noting Mann punted to the middle -- a no-no.
It was the third straight win for the Patriots (6-4) and their 14th straight over New York. The Patriots were coming off the bye, and the Jets -- in particular quarterback Zach Wilson -- were looking to make up for their Week 8 loss at MetLife Stadium, but it was New England who prevailed, improving to 6-4 on the season. The Jets (6-4) were denied a chance to move into first place in the AFC East this late in the season for the first time since 2010. Instead, New York dropped to last place.
After starting the season 1-3, the Patriots have now won five of their last six -- including two over the Jets.
"I'm in disbelief,'' Jets cornerback D.J. Reed said. "It's a tough loss.''
The Jets haven't won in Foxborough since the 2010 playoffs when they knocked out the Patriots in the divisional round.
The Patriots moved the ball well at times, with Mac Jones completing 23 of 27 passes for 246 yards. But they were only 4 of 15 on third down and had only one field goal -- with Nick Folk missing two attempts -- despite getting inside the Jets 30 three times.
The wind was a factor, and Sunday also marked an in-season switch at punter for the Patriots, which meant Michael Palardy was the holder for Folk, instead of Jake Bailey. Palardy was signed to the 53-man roster on Saturday, as Bailey was placed on injured reserve. Bailey has been the Patriots' starting punter since 2019 but is enduring his worst season with the team and has been limited in practice this week due to a back injury. He'll miss at least the next four games while on IR.
New York sacked Jones six times, but managed only 103 yards on offense and six first downs. Zach Wilson was just 9 of 22 for 77 yards, and Mann punted 10 times. In the second half, the Jets had just 2 yards on seven possessions. Saleh said he thought the team's defense was "outstanding." He likened the offense's second-half effort to dog feces. But he said it wasn't just on the second-year quarterback.
"We couldn't run the ball. either, so there's a lot of things that we got to look at to see if we can find some efficiency in the offense,'' Saleh said. "It just wasn't good enough."
Back-to-back plays involving New York wide receiver Denzel Mims and New England cornerback Jonathan Jones kept the Jets alive late in the fourth. First, Jones dived in front of Mims and dropped a near interception. Then, Jones was called for defensive holding on Mims, negating what would have been a sack by Mack Wilson. But New York couldn't move the ball with their new set of downs and were forced to punt.
"Complete domination. That's kind of what we wanted to do," Patriots defensive lineman Deatrich Wise, Jr. said. "We wanted to stop the run and affect the pass. And I thought we did that.''
SMALL COMPANY This was the first game in at least the last 40 seasons in which the first TD scored was a defensive or special teams TD in the final minute of the game.
SACK MAN Patriots linebacker Matt Judon combined with Mack Wilson for a sack early in the third quarter and dropped Zach Wilson for a 9-yard sack on the first play of the fourth quarter to set a career high of 13 1/2 this season. Only one player in Patriots franchise history has had more sacks in a season: Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, who had 18 1/2 in 1984 and 16 1/2 in 1985.
Matt Judon played another great game, notching 1.5 sacks to set a new career-high with 13.5 sacks this season. He surpassed Chandler Jones (12.5 in 2015) to become the Patriots player with the most sacks in the Bill Belichick era. Postgame, Judon credited his teammates for his success. "It's my teammates and the guys that sit here in this room with me, they push me, they challenge me everyday and then when we go out there, they just have so much confidence in me to get the job done and they run a lot of games and stuff for me to free me up," Judon said. "Bro it's not me, it's really not. It could be anybody in this situation, it's really my teammates."
EARLY ACTION Field goals by both teams provided all the scoring until the winning punt return. The Patriots drove to the Jets 6 before settling for a 24-yarder by Folk. Zach Wilson completed a 34-yard pass to Mims to set the Jets up on the Patriots 25. It stalled there, leading to a 45-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein. The Patriots had a chance to add points late in the second quarter when they drove to the Jets 7. But a holding penalty on Yodny Cajuste, followed by a sack on Mac Jones pushed the ball back to the 26. The series ended with Folk's miss from 44.
INJURIES Jets: LB Quincy Williams limped off with an ankle injury in the first quarter after combing on a tackle. He returned in the second quarter. ... CB Michael Carter II left with a chest injury in the fourth quarter, but returned late. ... CB Brandin Echols was able to walk off on his own power after being shaken up on a play in the fourth. Patriots: C David Andrews left late in the first quarter with a thigh injury and didn't return. He was replaced by James Ferentz. ... LT Isaiah Wynn also left in the first and was ruled out with a foot injury. He was replaced by Trent Brown.
UP NEXT Jets: Host the Chicago Bears next Sunday. Patriots: It's a short week for the Patriots, as they'll head on the road to face the Minnesota Vikings on Thanksgiving, with kickoff at 8:20 p.m. The Pats are seeking a fourth straight win.
