Patriots' defense dominates Falcons, Mac Jones steady in fifth straight win
By The Athletic Staff
November 19, 2021Updated 8:21 AM EST
The Patriots defense silenced a short-handed Falcons offense on Thursday night, allowing 165 total yards en route to a 25-0 victory. New England (7-4) won its fifth straight game to keep the pressure on the Buffalo Bills (6-3) in the AFC East race.
Atlanta (4-6) played without dual-threat weapon Cordarrelle Patterson, who was inactive with an ankle injury. The Patriots hounded Matt Ryan, sacking him four times and intercepting him twice while limiting him to 153 yards passing.
Josh Rosen and Feleipe Franks each entered in the final minutes and threw an interception, including one by Kyle Van Noy off Rosen that he returned 35 yards for a touchdown. The Falcons averaged 3.2 yards per play.
New England's defense hasn't allowed a point in 19 possessions, covering 115 minutes and 5 seconds of game time, since the opening drive against Cleveland last week. Atlanta hasn't scored in its last 22 possessions, covering a span of 113 minutes and 24 seconds since its opening drive against Dallas last week. The Falcons haven't scored a touchdown in 130 minutes and 39 seconds.
The Patriots' offense gained only 310 total yards but got a 19-yard touchdown from Mac Jones to Nelson Agholor along with four Nick Folk field goals. Jones completed 84.6 percent of his passes (22 of 26) for 207 yards with the TD and an interception.
The game was the second meeting between the teams since Super Bowl LI, in which the Patriots engineered a historic rally to overcome a 28-3 deficit. Coincidentally, Thursday night also brought a partial lunar eclipse of three hours and 28 minutes, the longest in nearly 600 years.
