BSJ Game Report: Patriots 25, Falcons 0 - Defense stifles Atlanta as New England wins 5th straight

Everything you need to know from the Patriots' win over the Falcons in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

HEADLINES

Patriots get job done to win fifth straight: If you're looking for great football, don't ever watch Thursday Night Football. Basically, you're just trying to get the win to enjoy the mini bye week. The Patriots did that, and get to enjoy the spoils with a long weekend before a big week hosting the Tennessee Titans. The defense dominated a limited opponent, holding the Falcons to just 165 total yards, 2 of 11 on third downs and the Patriots intercepted Falcons QBs four times. Patriots are now on a run out-scoring opponents 70-0 since Cleveland's opening touchdown.

"Good effort by everyone. Coaches, staff players, obviously on a short week," Bill Belichick said. "Falcons play hard. Dean (Pees) did a good job on us defensively and they were ready to go. Got to give them a lot of credit. Falcons really played very competitively tonight, and good to come away with a win. We got some big plays defensively.  Nick made some kicks and we did enough offensively to score enough points to get ahead and win. Hopefully, we can just play a little bit more consistently. We had obviously way too many penalties. Kill us in the return game, killed us offensively. We got to do a better job there. But it's good to get to come down here and get a win and get a couple of days here this weekend to kind of catch our breath and then be ready to go. Short week but good week.”

Offense underwhelming: Those looking for perfection will find plenty to fault with an offense that produced just one touchdown (an uncovered Nelson Agholor) and two drives over 50 yards. Patriots had nine penalties for 72 yards, some coming on offense to negate big plays. "I don't think there was a lot of bad plays out there. We just had too many negative plays that kill drives," said Belichick. Mac Jones was very good outside of a forced interception to A.J. Terrell. Jones finished 22 of 26 for 207 yards and a rating of 96.6. His expected completion percentage was 71.8 so he was a +12.8 — his second-highest Completion Percentage Above Expectation mark of the season behind last week.

"Yeah, it’s first down and you never want to throw an interception on first down in the high red zone, so I’ll have to watch it and see what happened but, the guy made a good play, and the line gave me enough time. It was just a bad throw and a poor read," Jones said.

Rhamondre Stevenson, RB1?: They finished with similar stats — 12 for 69, 5.8 average for Stevenson; 10 for 56, 5.6 for Damien Harris — but it sure feels like the rookie is taking over the lead role for the Patriots. Stevenson had runs of 13 and 21 yards, and had a spectacular run wiped out by a David Andrews hold.

TURNING POINT

Remarkably, it was still a game into the fourth quarter at 13-0 when the Falcons arrived at the New England 44-yard line. But Kyle Dugger got a good jam on TE Kyle Pitts, Dont'a Hightower and Ja'Whaun Bentley rushed Matt Ryan, and Devin McCourty snagged an overshot pass to Pitts for an interception. That turned into a field goal that made it 16-0 and largely ended the game.

"He's a beast, he's a big challenge," Belichick said. "I thought our players did a good job that good awareness. They hit a lot try to throw a bunch of play-action passes. And I thought Bentley and Hightower, Phillips and Kyle Duggar. Those guys had some good awareness on some of the over routes. Kyle made a good play there one of the third down plays early in the game where they're trying to go to him but he's, a tough guy to handle. He's got a really good skill set. He's a great player and got a quarterback that can get him the ball. I’m glad we don’t have to play him every week.”

SECOND GUESS

Not sure if it was Mac Jones' fault — it looked that way from his reaction after the sequence — or a Bill Belichick decision but the Patriots blew a chance for more than just a field goal with some questionable clock management. Jakobi Meyers caught a pass over the middle with 24 seconds left to bring up 4th down. The Patriots didn't hurry for a QB sneak or take their final timeout immediately. Instead, they took it at 5 seconds for a field goal.

THREE UP

Kyle Van Noy: Led the team with eight total tackles, posted two sacks and had a pick-six in garbage time. A continuation of his strong play of late.

Rhamondre Stevenson: Was a big-play threat every time he touched the ball and his best run was wiped out by a penalty. You won't see many runs better than this.

Kyle Dugger: Another player who seemingly has started his ascension of late, Dugger seemed to peak in this game with a big third-down breakup early, coverage on the Pitts INT, held Pitts to 3 catches and 29 yards on 5 targets, and a couple of really nice open-field tackles (six total tackles). Another young player coming into this own at the right time.

THREE DOWN

Special teams: Two more penalties and another unfielded punt to take the luster off Jake Bailey's first great game of the season.

Offensive line: Too many penalties and got hit on a few blitzes. Wasn't a great week for the big fellas on a short week. Comes with the territory.

Thursday Night Football: I don't care what you say, I have always hated it and will continue to hate it. At least move it to Friday to give guys an extra day. The Patriots have basically played 13 straight weeks before this. Come on.

STATS OF NOTE

From Patriots PR

• Patriots improve to a 5-0 road record in 2021. 
• Patriots earn 30th shutout and 13th of the Bill Belichick era. 
• Belichick moves past Tom Landry into sole possession of third place for most wins with one team. 
• Nick Folk connects on fourth 50-yard field goal of the 2021 season. 
• Matt Judon reaches double-digit sacks for first time in his career. 
• Matthew Slater plays in 200th regular season game. 
• Kyle Van Noy has fifth career two-sack game. 
• Devin McCourty registers 30th pick and takes over sole possession of third place. 
• Mac Jones improves to a 5-0 road record. 

INJURIES

CB Jalen Mills (undisclosed): Left in first quarter for the second-straight week. Returned to the game again.

TOP PLAYS

THREE TAKES BEDARD WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

Now we see what this team is made of: The five-game winning streak has been great and very necessary, but the referendum on the ceiling for this team comes now. The Patriots face the Titans and Bills before the bye, then the Colts and Bills after it. Patriots are peaking at the right time, and this long weekend and the bye seem to be well-time for this team to be at their best for this run that will largely determine the AFC East and AFC playoff seeding. Patriots have served notice, big time, with this winning streak. Now they can make a statement in these four games.

Don't fret over the offense: This is New England, so many people will worry about everything and since it's the Patriots, they expect perfection. Yes, the offense wasn't great tonight but keep in mind it's Thursday Night Football. It's never going to be great. When you're the road team, all you want to do is win, get home and enjoy the mini-bye. Just enjoy the win and let the rest go.

Falcons offense is atrocious: Atlanta's defense made some plays, held up against the run and made big plays tough for the Patriots, so give them credit. But the Falcons' offense was just awful, starting with one of the worst lines in the league besides RG Chris Lindstrom (Mass. guy, of course). Matt Ryan had no help. It's great the Patriots defense played great and executed, but the Falcons were very complicit in this.