No asterisk on this Patriots defensive performance

FOXBOROUGH – Place no Luke Falk, Josh Allen or Colt McCoy asterisk on this one.

The New England Patriots delivered their most impressive defensive performance of this 2019 6-0 start on Thursday night – if not statistically at least aesthetically.

In spanking the New York Giants here, 35-14, the Patriots did all the things that have placed them atop any defensive category that matters.

They held Daniel Jones and the Giants to just 2 of 10 on third downs with only 213 total yards, and New England pilfered the football away four times, with three picks and a fumble recovery.

So why is this any different than the other wrecking-crew efforts so far, all of which came with built-in excuses?

The New York Giants, while undermanned due to injuries, came prepared on Thursday night. They were ready, with a workable plan.

The one glaring number missing from the Patriots’ stat line was sacks. New England came in with an NFL-best 24 sacks.

They left Gillette on Thursday night with an NFL-best 25, the lone sack coming from Kyle Van Noy. And it really wasn’t one, with Jones scrambling to the sideline for a zero-yard loss.

Do not discount the Giants.

They won the battle up front. This was not free-running blitzers mauling Ryan Fitzpatrick or a pathetic Jets offensive line allowing full-speed shots on Falk.

The Patriots had to work in this one.

They covered. They pounced. They inflicted their will at the second and third levels.

“I think I keep saying it's a whole defensive effort. It's pressure, it's disguise, it's guys when the ball is thrown to them, catching it,” said captain Devin McCourty, who had a quiet night as one of five different Patriots defenders with three tackles. “And I think that's something we know we have to do as a defense. It makes us a better team. Tonight we did a good job of taking advantage of our opportunities that came up.”

Giants fans should revel in the fact that their football team, now 2-4, is attempting to do the right things.

Jones showed some flashes, even without his top guns, Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard.

“We moved the ball a little bit at times, but we need to do a better job of staying on the field,” said Giants coach Pat Shurmur. “We were only, I think, 2-for-10 on third downs, which is not good. That hasn't been the way it's been the last couple weeks. Give them credit, they made more plays than we did.”

Indeed.

Shurmur brought a “we’re here to win,” message to his team this week, almost to a fault.

New York is doing things the right way, allowing the rookie QB to learn on the job safely, with an offensive line that is not serving him up like pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

Battered with Dont’a Hightower and Patrick Chung leaving the game with injuries, New England wasn’t ready to buckle.

To the contrary.

“There were some guys in and out as well. Yeah, again, our depth helped us in that situation and the coaches did a good job, players did an excellent job of managing those groups with different people subbing in for them,” said Bill Belichick, clearly pleased with the effort in all three phases. “That's football. Things like that happen. You just have to be able to adjust to it. But our players do a great job of just working with whoever's in there and making sure we get the communication and the assignments right. Sometimes it's a little tricky, like, ‘Who are you? Are you this guy, that guy or that guy?’ But they do a good job of sorting it out so that there's no confusion.”

The schedule, at least after the Monday nighter with the Jets at the Meadowlands (MetLife Stadium) on October 21, picks up.

But mark this one down. It was real regular-season football.

“Anytime you get three scores in a game that are non-offensive touchdowns, that's kind of a season's worth and it all happened in one game,” Belichick said.” A couple of big plays for us on the blocked punt, on the fumble, scoop-and-score by Kyle (Van Noy). Those are great plays and we took advantage of those opportunities, had some turnovers. I thought we played the ball well and got our hands on some balls. That was good, too.”