Jones’ late punt return lifts Patriots over Jets 10-3
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The NFL went 10 weeks and hundreds of kicks without a player returning a punt for a touchdown. Marcus Jones made the first of the season one to remember.
The New England rookie returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown with 5 seconds remaining and the Patriots outlasted the stunned New York Jets 10-3 on Sunday.
Jones’ score was the lone TD of the game and broke a stalemate on a day when both offenses struggled to move the ball.
With only 26 seconds showing on the clock when the Jets lined up to kick, Jones thought Braden Mann might punt it out of bounds. Once he got it in his hands and made a few players miss, everything changed.
“Then I seen the punter and I was like, ‘If I make him miss, I should be able to go the distance.’“
He was right.
Jones’ TD was the second-latest game-winning score on a punt return in regulation since 1970, behind only DeSean Jackson’s 65-yarder for Philadelphia with no time remaining against the Giants in 2010.
It was the third straight win for the Patriots (6-4) and their 14th straight over New York. They also denied the Jets (6-4) a chance to move into first place in the AFC East this late in the season for the first time since 2010. Instead, New York dropped to last place.
“I’m in disbelief,” Jets cornerback D.J. Reed said. “It’s a tough loss.”
The Jets haven’t won in Foxborough since the 2010 playoffs when they knocked out the Patriots in the divisional round.
The Patriots moved the ball well at times, with Mac Jones completing 23 of 27 passes for 246 yards. But they were only 4 of 15 on third down and had only one field goal — with Nick Folk missing two attempts — despite getting inside the Jets 30 three times.
New York sacked Jones six times, but managed only 103 yards on offense and six first downs. Zach Wilson was just 9 of 22 for 77 yards, and Mann punted 10 times. In the second half, the Jets had just 2 yards on seven possessions.
Jets coach Robert Saleh said he thought their defense was “outstanding.“He likened the offense’s second-half effort to dog feces. But he said it wasn’t just on the second-year quarterback.
“We couldn’t run the ball. either, so there’s a lot of things that we got to look at to see if we can find some efficiency in the offense,” Saleh said.