9 takeaways from the Patriots’ uneasy win over the Bengals

During the New England Patriots’ strong start to the season, rhythm was a constant factor. It helped that the Patriots played their first 10 games of the year on Sundays, allowing them to fit into a strong routine.

After beating the New York Jets last Thursday, the Patriots had extra time with the ‘mini-bye’ week before playing the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. That rest seemed to turn more into rust, as the Patriots looked uncharacteristically out of sync for most of the game. Still, they just hung on to win 26-20. 

“That’s what happens in this league,” head coach Mike Vrabel said on the nature of the game postgame. “You need everybody and you go through the season, you go on the road and it’s tough. Nobody wants to talk about numbers and records. That doesn’t mean s**t.”

Compounding the ‘pyrrhic’ nature of the win was the fact that the Patriots suffered multiple injuries to key players in this game. Vrabel did not have an immediate update on the status of players postgame but all three phases of the team were impacted, especially the offensive line (more on that in a bit). 

Overall, there’s a lot to talk about from this one. Let’s get started with this week’s takeaways…

Slow starts for the Patriots’ defense have become the norm this year. After allowing a field goal on the opening drive of this game, the Patriots have now allowed such points on nine drives this year.

What hasn’t been as regular is slow starts for the offense. Yet that’s what happened, against what is on track to be a historically bad Bengals defense. 

Early on, Drake Maye looked out of sorts. He missed open receivers short on his first two drives, leading to a pair of punts including a three-and-out. Things only got worse on the third drive, as Maye had Hunter Henry wide open up the seam but overthrew him. Bengals safety Geno Stone was right there and grabbed it for a pick-six, putting the Patriots in a 10-0 hole.

That interception didn’t stop Maye from throwing to Henry. In fact, as he looked to dig out of that hole the Patriots’ quarterback often targeted Henry, who has been a go-to option for him going back to last year.

On the drive following the pick-six Maye went 4-for-5, leaning on Henry as the offense got down the field. The final two plays of that drive were a 12-yard completion to Henry over the middle, and then a 28-yarder on the run that saw Henry walk into the end zone.

The next drive saw Maye continue to get the tight ends involved. He hit Austin Hooper on back-to-back plays for 14 and 21 yards, setting up a late field goal.

But really, it was Henry who carried the offense on the day. The Patriots’ tight end caught seven passes for a career-high 115 yards, his first 100-yard game of his career.

Henry was a bright spot in what was otherwise a disappointing day for the Patriots’ offense. Facing a Bengals defense that came into the game ranked last in points allowed (33.4), total yards per game (418.2), and rushing yards allowed per game (160.9), and second-to-last in passing yards allowed per game (257.3), the expectations were high. 

However the offense significantly struggled to move the ball for stretches of this game. A few isolated explosive passing plays pumped the numbers up somewhat - the Patriots totaled 392 yards in the game at 5.9 yards per play, including 7.9 yards per pass with Maye’s career-high 294 passing yards. 

The run game wasn’t as explosive as expected. With Rhamondre Stevenson back from injury it looked like the Patriots could go back to more of a ‘running back by committee’ approach. Yet TreVeyon Henderson took 65% of the snaps and 18 of the 26 designed traditional carries, for a total of 66 yards with a longest run of nine yards. Stevenson ran the ball six times for five yards. That was especially tough late in the game, as the Patriots couldn’t run out the clock and had to punt the ball back to Cincinnati with a chance to win the game. 

Another area where the Patriots uncharacteristically struggled on offense was on third downs. Coming into this game the Patriots were the sixth-ranked third down team in the NFL converting 42.7% of the time, while the Bengals defense ranked 31st allowing a 49.6% conversion rate. Yet the Patriots finished just 5-of-13 on third downs, including a 2-for-7 mark in the second half and 1-for-3 in the fourth quarter. They also failed their lone fourth-down conversion of the game, their first fourth down stop of the year.

Then there was the Patriots’ red zone offense, which deserves its own section in the takeaways. This game wasn’t as close as it was just because of one thing, but this was probably the biggest. Multiple times the Patriots had chances to put the game away on the goal line, but couldn’t.

Up 17-13 out of the half the Patriots’ defense got a quick stop, and the offense started moving the ball down the field. Kayshon Boutte drew a pass interference penalty to set up a 1st & goal from the five-yard line.

What followed was a sequence of nine snaps - eight from the five or closer including six from the one-yard line. The Patriots failed to score on all nine, despite getting a second chance on a defensive holding. Those failed plays included two incompletions, offensive pass interference penalty, and three stuffed runs including one on the final fourth down.

Then in the fourth quarter, the Patriots once again got an ‘and goal’ from the four-yard line. The first down run went for three yards, before two more runs were stuffed including a QB sneak. In that case the Patriots ended up kicking a field goal on fourth down, extending the lead to two scores.

“What happened? We didn’t score,” Vrabel said of the goal line issues after the game. “Again, you got to score with your man, whatever you call. It’ll be a good learning opportunity for us in a lot of phases and just how important and how critical the week of practice is and being ready to go because you never know when your opportunity is going to come and making sure that everybody’s on the same page and a lot of moving parts today.”

Meanwhile, there were also high expectations for the Patriots’ defense coming into this game with the Bengals being without both Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. Results were mixed.

The unit hit on some high points. Offensively the Bengals scored just 13 points (taking away the score off the pick-six), while picking up a total of 307 yards to the tune of 5.0 yards per play.

Situationally the unit came up big on third downs. The Bengals went 3-for-13 on third downs in this game, well below their season average of 41.1% (10th in the NFL).

One area that will likely be revisited by the coaches was the end of the first half. The Patriots’ coaching staff has been big this year on ending the half with the ball. However, after kicking a field goal to make it 17-10 with 28 seconds left, the Patriots had to kick back to the Bengals. Cincinnati responded by going 37 yards in three plays, getting a field goal of their own to answer.

The biggest bright spot for the defense in this game was the cornerback play. In particular, Marcus Jones and Carlton Davis. 

Jones was the one who helped the tide really start turning for the Patriots. On the drive following the Patriots’ first touchdown, he read Joe Flacco all the way and jumped a checkdown for a pick-six. That gave the Patriots a 14-10 lead which, while it got close, they never gave up. 

Then on the final drive of the game Jones showed up again. After missing on a pass breakup on one fourth down he was able to break up a pass to Mike Gesicki on the next fourth down to end the game. 

Davis also had a redemption moment. He was called for a pass interference on the previous drive, which put the Bengals in range for their touchdown that made it 23-20. Davis seemed to take that call personally, telling reporters after the game it made him “mad as f–k” and motivated him on the final drive. 

On that drive Davis had some high-level pass breakups. He was targeted four times, with all four falling incomplete. That included three pass breakups, with two coming on the second and third downs before Jones’ PBU to end the game.

As for the Patriots’ run defense, that unit struggled in the first game without Milton Williams. Chase Brown nearly doubled-up the best game by a running back this year, going for 107 yards on 19 carries (the previous high was 58 yards by Breece Hall last week). 

On top of not having Williams, the Patriots played most of this game without Khyiris Tonga. Projected as the player who would have the biggest role increase with Williams out, Tonga played just 12 snaps before he left the game with a chest injury. 

With the Patriots down two of their top two interior defenders, the Bengals got to work on taking advantage. Of their 120 team rushing yards, 46 game on runs in between the guards and 57 on runs between the tackles. Those were at a clip of 5.8 yards and 4.8 yards per carry, respectively. 

Williams is going to miss at least three more games, and Tonga’s status is up in the air. Down those two players, the Patriots clearly have things to figure out when it comes to their run defense.

Rookie kicker Andy Borregales continues to quietly put together a very solid season. He hit another four field goals in this game, and accounted for 14 of the Patriots’ 26 points without a miss on the day.

Of Borregales’ four field goals, three were from 40 yards or more. His 52-yard field goal with 1:51 to go was a major play in this game, forcing the Bengals to drive for a touchdown instead of a field goal at the end. It’s the second time this season Borregales has hit a long kick in that kind of spot, also having done so in the Dolphins game earlier this year. 

Borregales wasn’t the only Patriots rookie who showed up on special teams. With Efton Chism inactive the Patriots needed to look elsewhere for a kick returner. Three of the four returns went to Kyle Williams, and he made the most of his opportunity. Williams averaged 28.7 yards per return, bringing a key late return out to the 40 yard line. 

Earlier in the season, Patriots coaches talked about size being important for the kick return position and Williams may not have fit that build. Results are results though - will his performance on Sunday be enough to earn another look next week.

Despite the win, injuries will likely be the biggest story coming out of this game. After having tremendous injury luck to start the year, the Patriots got hit with about a season’s worth of injuries on Sunday.

We’ll start with the offensive line. Both Will Campbell and Jared Wilson left the game and had to be carted from the sideline to the locker room. Campbell will reportedly have an MRI on his knee on Monday, while Wilson (who was ruled out with an ankle injury) was seen postgame in the locker room with a walking boot and crutch.

In their places, a couple of starting linemen from last year’s team entered the game. At left tackle Vederian Lowe saw his first regular action of the year. Initial charting had him allowing two pressures on 16 pass blocking snaps. Ben Brown - who filled in earlier this year when Wilson missed a game - stepped in at left guard, allowing two pressures and a hit on 40 pass blocking snaps.

On top of that, the Patriots were also briefly without right tackle Morgan Moses. Moses missed seven plays early in the game with what the team called an illness, but did return and ended up playing 64 of the team’s 71 snaps. While Moses was out, rookie Marcus Bryant got his first significant NFL experience, playing seven snaps. He allowed two pressures. 

Defensively, Tonga was the major loss, as he left with a chest injury and did not return. In his place Cory Durden, Eric Gregory, and practice squad elevation Jeremiah Pharms got more playing time. 

Even special teams was impacted. Brenden Schooler suffered an ankle injury and was ruled out early in the third quarter. 

This could mean a lot of moving pieces for the Patriots depending on which players miss time and how much time they miss. It will be something to watch in the coming days.