Bill Belichick applauds ‘effort’, New England Patriots fly through Falcons

The New England Patriots did exactly what they had to do on Thursday night. They went down to Atlanta and delivered a shutout victory over the Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and they did it in executing in all three-phrases of the game, which must please Bill Belichick.

In the 25-0 victory, Mac Jones and the Patriots’ offense did leave some points on the field, but with a nice balance of the running game and efficient passing they were really in control of the game. A third quarter interception by Jones was a killer, but Belichick’s defense did not let the Falcons gain any momentum offensively.

With contributions by just about everyone, the Patriots’ defense limited the running game, kept explosive tight end Kyle Pitts pretty much quiet and basically steamrolled through that Falcons’ offensive line to knock Matt Ryan around.

New England Patriots fly high in all three phrases

In all, balanced offense, stingy defense, and special teams doing their thing was the remedy for victory on a short week. The team extended their record to 7-4 by executing in all three phrases of the game. It wasn’t flawless, but Belichick lauded the effort of the coaches and players in taking care of the Falcons.

"“Good effort by everyone,” Belichick said during his postgame press conference. “Coaches, staff players, obviously on a short week. Falcons play hard. Dean 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.”"

In a game that was a little closer than it should’ve been until the Patriots really pulled away late in the fourth quarter, Belichick’s squad really had control of the game even when they were just up 13-0 in the third quarter. A couple of missed blitzes on offense stalled two drives.

If not for those drive killers, along with that Jones’ interception, the game would’ve been over early in the third quarter.  But, like all season long, offensive mistakes didn’t hurt the team because of that defense that really did a job on the Falcons.

Not only weren’t they able to gain any traction in the run game, but the pass rush also made sure Ryan was uncomfortable all night long. Led by Matt Judon, Christian Barmore and a suddenly revived Kyle Van Noy, the Patriots really showed collectively why they are a top 5 defense in the league.

In talking about his defenses’ improvement, Belichick credited cohesion and communication as the key to the defense establishing themselves as the strength of the team.

"“These guys play well together,” Belichick said. “We use a lot of different personnel groupings. They communicate well together. Played with good communication and anticipation.”"

In all, the defense recorded 4 sacks and 4 interceptions to compliment the New England Patriots offense, in which Mac Jones was efficient as usual going 22/26 for 207 yards and a touchdown.  The running game, led by the combination of Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson contributed 134 yards on the ground.

Overall, a satisfying victory for a team breathing on the heels of the Buffalo Bills in the AFC.