Tag: Jonathan Jones

4 big takeaways from Patriots’ 24-10 loss vs Bills

4 big takeaways from Thursday’s loss to the Bills.

That wasn’t pretty.

A week after their inspiring loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the New England Patriots were defeated by their AFC East rival Buffalo Bills at home in a game that was much less competitive than the 24-10 final score indicated.

New England’s offense could barely develop any semblance of a rhythm against Buffalo’s tough defensive front, and the Bills’ offense was able to attack the Patriots’ defense both through the air and ground with relative ease.

The bright side of such a dismal Thursday night defeat is that the Patriots now have 11 days to prepare for their next game: a Monday night football matchup with the Arizona Cardinals.

Here are four big takeaways from the game.

WATCH: Jonathan Jones pick off Vikings QB Kirk Cousins

Jonathan Jones highlighted interception on Kirk Cousins

The New England Patriots began Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings in a defensive battle. Fortunately, a defensive turnover went the Patriots’ way, as Jonathan Jones intercepted Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.

This was Jones’ second interception of the season, and it put the Patriots in field goal range. Nick Folk kicked a field goal to make it 10-7 in favor of New England.

Defense has been a calling card for the Patriots this season, and Thursday’s interception was just another example of that.

The Patriots have leaned on their defense all season, and when a play was needed to be made, Jones was there to make it.

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Patriots missing key defensive playmaker at Thursday’s practice

The Patriots defense was missing a key member of the secondary at Thursday’s practice.

Another New England Patriots player is down for the count with an illness, and this time, it’s a key member of the defensive backfield.

Cornerback Jonathan Jones was the lone absence at Thursday’s practice. He’s one of several players that have missed practice due to an illness recently. The Patriots are hopeful a little rest and recuperation will get the veteran defensive playmaker back on his feet again.

Jones’ defense on the backend has been a big reason for the unit’s success this season. He hasn’t skipped a beat in a year where the team has moved him from working in the slot to outside coverage.

Defensive lineman DaMarcus Mitchell returned from an illness designation that kept him out of Wednesday’s practice. He was listed as limited on the injury report, along with Kyle Dugger, DeVante Parker, Josh Uche, Anfernee Jennings and Jake Bailey.

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Auburn Morning Rush: Johni Broome reaches points milestone, Tigers miss on recruit

Here is the latest for this edition of the Auburn Morning Rush:

Happy Wednesday, Auburn fans.

Basketball is where this chronicle begins, and it’s a healthy dose of good and bad news. The good news is that forward Johni Broome has reached a career milestone in Auburn’s game against Winthrop, but the bad news is that Auburn won’t be making another addition to its 2023 recruiting class after officially making its first signing a few days ago. Additionally, there’s some Auburn news from the NFL — a former Auburn kicker is performing well and a former Tigers cornerback made the trip back to the Plains for A&M weekend.

Here is the latest for this edition of the Auburn Morning Rush:

3 standout stars for Patriots in Week 9 blowout victory over Colts

Three standout stars for the Patriots’ 26-3 blowout win over the Colts

The New England Patriots (5-4) dominated the Indianapolis Colts (3-5-1) with a 26-3 thrashing at home. Mac Jones limited the turnovers, and the Patriots made Sam Ehlinger’s afternoon a nightmare with nine team sacks, while also holding the Colts to just 121 total yards of offense.

The Patriots will head into the bye week before taking on the New York Jets, who surprisingly knocked off the Buffalo Bills this week.

Let’s take a look at the three stars who made this blowout possible.

Winners and losers in Patriots’ Week 9 win over Colts

Who were the winners and losers in the Patriots’ win over the Colts?

The New England Patriots got hand-fed a bad Indianapolis Colts team on Sunday.

Sam Ehlinger had only one career NFL start coming into the game, and the team had just fired their offensive coordinator, Marcus Brady. The writing was already on the wall with the Colts going on the road to face a shaky Patriots team with a championship caliber defense.

Sure, it would have been nice to see the offense come to life as well. Instead, it was just more of the same sluggish drive attempts that ended in more field goals than touchdowns.

But the Patriots can feel satisfied with the victory and finally moving over .500 win percentage heading into the bye week. Here are the winners and losers from their 26-3 victory over the Colts.

 

Patriots rule out two more key starters ahead of Browns game

Injuries continue to pile up for the Patriots

The New England Patriots got some bad news on both sides of the ball on Saturday. Cornerback Jonathan Jones and wideout Nelson Agholor have both been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns.

Jones has been one of the team’s best defenders, and his absence could obviously cause issues in the defensive backfield.

The team has been fortunate to see the immediate impact that rookie corner Jack Jones is having on the field, and they’ll be hopeful that his presence, combined with Jalen Mills (questionable)—and maybe even some Marcus Jones—can help keep the unit afloat.

Perhaps Cleveland being such a run-heavy team will help the Patriots absorb some of the blow from losing Jones this week.

As for Agholor, his absence will likely mean more work for rookie receiver Tyquan Thornton, who returned last week from a collarbone injury.

Thornton only caught two passes for seven yards in his regular season debut against the Detroit Lions, but he managed to beat coverage pretty consistently.

We’ll see if the Patriots can get him going in a week where the Browns will be without two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward and professional game-wrecker Jadeveon Clowney.

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Jonathan Jones chimes in on egregious roughing the passer penalty in Raiders-Chiefs game

Jonathan Jones commented on the controversial roughing the passer penalty in the Raiders-Chiefs game

New England Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones wasn’t a fan of the roughing the passer penalty called on Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Chris Jones, after forcing a strip sack fumble on Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr on Monday Night Football.

It was another head-scratcher of a call in the same week that Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett was flagged for rolling Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady to the ground.

“It was a long hug, a long unwelcome hug from Grady,” Brady said on SiriusXM’s “Let’s Go! Podcast,” via NFL.com.

Jones chimed in on the state of things from a defensive perspective with all of the ticky-tack calls.

“I get the NFL wants to protect its investment in quarterback. But you have to protect the integrity of the game,” the Patriots defensive back said.

A roughing the passer flag carries a 15-yard penalty that can drastically impact the outcome of the game.

Granted, the league doesn’t want to get too conservative on those sorts of penalties with quarterbacks being defenseless in the pocket, but there has to be some middle ground where we can avoid the sort of egregious calls we saw in Week 5, too.

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This Patriots CB leads the NFL at his position, per PFF

One Patriots cornerback is making waves three games into the season

The New England Patriots were going to have to figure out a way to offset the loss of cornerback J. C. Jackson in the offseason. It turns out that option was right in front of them this whole time.

Jonathan Jones has had a stellar season, and even in the loss on Sunday, he played at a high level against the Baltimore Ravens.

He had the highest coverage mark for qualifying corners, per Pro Football Focus. His overall grade was 93.5. He is currenly the top-ranked corner in PFF’s rankings. He has proven to be a lockdown corner and has a 90.4 overall coverage rating, per a report from Dakota Randall of NESN.com.

This is certainly a bounce-back season for Jones, who was hurt in October last year. The Patriots took a risk by relying on in-house cornerback depth for 2022. So far, it has paid off.

It will be intriguing to see if Jones can continue to play at a high level. This has been a rough couple of weeks for the Patriots overall, and Jones’ emergence is certainly a welcome sight for a struggling team.

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Former Auburn players lead cornerbacks in NFL PFF grades

Is Auburn DBU?

It might be time to start calling the Auburn Tigers football team “DBU”.

That’s what some stats are indicating, at least, as PFF’s top two cornerbacks this year are currently both former Auburn players — [autotag]Jonathan Jones[/autotag] of the New England Patriots takes the No. 1 spot with an 85.6 grade while Tampa Bay Buccaneers corner [autotag]Jamel Dean[/autotag] comes in a narrow second at 85.2. Jalen Ramsey of the Los Angeles Rams is the third-highest ranked and fellow SEC product Jaycee Horn of the Carolina Panthers rounded out the list.

Thus far this season, Jones has accumulated eight solo tackles, two forced fumbles, one interception and two passes defended so far in New England. His best game so far has been against Baltimore in Week 3 where he nabbed an interception with four tackles and a forced fumble on the day. Despite that, the Ravens won 37-26.

Jamel Dean, meanwhile, has been a bit of a ballhawk. He’s netted two picks thus far, both being against his former teammate Jameis Winston — a third pick against Aaron Rodgers in Week 3 was called back. Dean’s production has been a huge part of the return of Tampa Bay’s “Grave Diggers” defense, which is currently allowing a league-best nine points per game.

Jones and the Patriots will take on Green Bay next week at Lambeau Field while Dean in the Bucs will take on the Kansas City Chiefs in a location to be determined in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

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