New England Patriots: 5 observations from drenching of Cleveland Browns
The New England Patriots defense did it again in a 27-13 drenching of Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
It’s becoming a familiar story with this New England Patriots defense.
Highlighted by Dont’a Hightower fumble recovery that led to a touchdown, that Patriots “Boogeymen” defense forced three consecutive turnovers in the first quarter to help the defending Super Bowl champions jump out to a quick 17-0 led against Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns.
With the rain falling, the Patriots faced a little bit of a challenge going up against a talented Browns’ offense led by Mayfield.
In fact, if it wasn’t for two fumbles from running back Nick Chubb, this would’ve been a closer game than it was. Tom Brady and the offense did some positive things, but still struggled to move the ball at times.
Overall, Brady had a 96.9 quarterback rating in the game, throwing for 259 yards and two touchdowns to Julian Edelman. Sony Michel ran the ball better and newly acquired wide receiver Mohamed Sanu had a couple catches, but the offensive line is still an issue that will hopefully be addressed by the NFL Trade Deadline or the return of offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn from injured reserve.
Until that issue is addressed or improves, that New England Patriots defense continues to be the strength of the team and in recording his 300th career victory, head coach Bill Belichick couldn’t have been happier, here is what the coach had to say following the game, via Patriots.com:
"“I thought we were well prepared for the game, played a tough game. Cleveland’s a very explosive team and they certainly gave us some problems on both sides of the ball. In the end, the turnovers and our ability to capitalize on those was really good and kind of the difference really. A great play by [Dont’a] Hightower coming out on the strip fumble and [Kyle] Van Noy played that play well, so it was good team defense. It’s good to be 8-0.”"
Here are five observations from the New England Patriots 27-13 drenching of the Cleveland Browns.