Ryan: With Patriots' playoff hopes freezing over, rookie Marcus Jones sparks hope with season-saving, walk-off touchdown

FOXBOROUGH — Deatrich Wise might have said it best in the immediate aftermath of the Patriots' victory over the Jets on Sunday afternoon.

In the controlled chaos that often spills out onto the gridiron during a punt return, many moving pieces all need to click in conjunction in order for a big play to manifest itself amid that high-speed fracas. 

It takes timely blocks and a willingness to accept the punishment that comes with absorbing the full brunt of a gunner racing down the sidelines. It takes keen awareness from the player with the ball in his hands, including some 0-to-60 speed once any parcel of real estate presents itself in front of you.

But given the circumstances, stakes — and especially the player thrust in the middle of the Patriots’ dramatic final act on Sunday — Wise couldn’t just chalk up what transpired at Gillette Stadium to simple Xs and Os.

“It was almost like a movie script,” Wise said. “I think out of all the football movies — Rudy, Any Given Sunday, Remember the Titans — this beats it. The way it ended was phenomenal.”

Frankly, if any screenwriter penned what played out in the final 25 seconds of Sunday’s divisional bout between New England and New York, it likely would have been dismissed as a hackneyed third act wrought with cliches.

After all, what occurred as soon as the Jets’ final punt of the afternoon was corralled by Marcus Jones is a sequence usually reserved for Hollywood, rather than the NFL.

Because with New England’s hopes of a second-half surge and march to the postseason waning as each second ticked off the clock in the fourth quarter — few could have predicted that a rookie like Jones would be the one to light the spark that this team so desperately needed. 

But sure enough, in a frustrating offensive slog that seemed destined for overtime, Jones crafted the much-needed plot twist that thousands of chilled Patriots fans were hoping for —  breaking a 3-3 deadlock with six seconds remaining by way of an 84-yard punt-return touchdown. 

Jones’ walk-off score on special teams was the lone time either team found the end zone, but it came at the perfect time for the Patriots to cap off a frustrating, banal … and ultimately thrilling 10-3 victory over New York.

"I've never won a game like that at any level of football,” Matthew Slater remarked. “Just when you thought you had seen it all, year 15, you see something else. It was awesome.”

Frankly, the only person who had seen such a script play out before … was Jones himself. 

After all, the 24-year-old cornerback found himself in a very similar scenario a little over a year ago, when the University of Houston returner took a kickoff back to the house for 100 yards against 19th-ranked SMU with under a minute left on the clock, lifting the Cougars to a dramatic 44-37 victory over the Mustangs. 

Jones’ ability to orchestrate a big-yardage play off a key block or a fortuitous gap in coverage has been well-documented during his collegiate years at both Troy and Houston — with his nine returns for scores at the NCAA level (six kickoff-return TDs, three punt-return TDs) offering hope for a Patriots special-teams unit that struggled to shift momentum by way of dynamic returns in previous seasons.

And even though upsetting a fellow collegiate program in the Lone Star State previously stood as the apex of Jones’ young career, his heroics on Sunday was perhaps even more consequential when it comes to the course that New England can continue to chart this season.

Sunday’s disheartening performance from New England’s offense was a tough pill to swallow for multiple reseasons — with an already underachieving unit somehow managing to hit a new low despite having a whole bye week to re-assess and re-focus in hopes of a strong finish to the year. 

But given the stakes involved, Sunday’s putrid showing in terms of offensive execution very well could have been the death rattle for the Patriots’ season if New York just managed to string together one more promising drive at some point during the snoozer. 

According to FiveThirtyEight’s NFL prediction model, the Patriots’ odds of making the postseason rose to 53% with Sunday’s win. But if New England did fall short, its playoff odds would have dipped down to 18%.

New England’s sputtering offense would not have completely doomed their playoff hopes on Sunday, but it’s easy to see the writing on the wall — and the daunting uphill climb that presented itself — if a rookie like Jones didn’t bail out most of the roster with his game/season-saving play in crunch time. 

Not too bad for a special teamer who didn’t even open the season at the top of the depth chart when it came to returns. 

“I think it speaks to his professionalism, his patience, his unselfishness to bide his time and the coaches, for whatever reason, didn't feel like it was his time at the beginning of the year,” Slater said of Jones. “I think the guys we had in there did a good job. And then when it was his time, he was ready for it. He was ready to seize the moment.”

Even though Sunday’s last-second score stood as Jones’ first NFL touchdown, the young corner was already serving as a breath of fresh air for New England’s special-teams squad ever since he started to earn more reps with the top unit.

Entering Sunday’s game, Jones ranked among the NFL’s top-10 in kick-return yards (second), punt-return yards (seventh) and yards-per-punt return (third) — with Sunday’s game-winner standing as an inevitable result as Jones started to feel more and more comfortable up in the pro ranks. 

"His god-given ability has been evident since day one,” Slater said of Jones. “And I think now our group realizes, 'Hey if we block for this guy, he's gonna have a chance to make plays.' So we go out there, and he has a lot of confidence in us. We have a lot of confidence in him. And I think it makes for a good unit. When we needed it most, we just trusted each other. We trusted the calls that Cam (Achord) was making and we made the play when we needed it."

Jones, like most wide-eyed rookies ingratiating themselves to the Patriots’ Way, didn’t dole out the same cinematic parallels offered up by veterans like Wise and Jonathan Jones when it came to his dramatic punt return. 

Rather, he kept things brief, said all of the right things and already offered up the usual spiel about the challenge that awaits later this week in the form of the Vikings. 

He then made his way back down from the podium and exited the video room — with more important matters to attend to. 

"My parents actually came to this game, so seeing them and everything will definitely be a good thing. … "This is their first time coming here, both together," Jones said. "Just excited for them to see the atmosphere of this place and just have a good time watching the game."

*Freeze frame*
*Roll credits*

You can’t write a Hollywood ending any better than that.