The New England Patriots forced four turnovers on Sunday afternoon, rookie Tyquan Thornton scored his first two career touchdowns, and Bailey Zappe threw for over 300 yards as they pulled away for a 38-15 win over the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. New England has now won two in a row and moves back to .500 through six games.
Both teams exchanged a turnover and a field goal in the first quarter, before New England took the lead for good on a Rhamondre Stevenson 31 yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Cleveland (2-4) got another field goal from Cade York of 48 yards just before the break to make it 10-6 at the half. A big passing play by Zappe to Jonnu Smith on the second offensive play of the third quarter of 53 yards set up the next Patriots score. Zappe found rookie Thornton in the back of the endzone on a third and goal for a two yard touchdown. It was the first career TD for Thornton. After a second interception by Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissette, Zappe found a wide open Hunter Henry for a 31 yard score to extend the lead to 24-6. York hit another field goal, this time from 51 yards to cut it to a two possession game early in the fourth. Nick Folk missed a field goal of 45 yards for the Patriots with 9:06 left, snapping his streak of 64 made kicks inside of 50 yards. Cleveland found the endzone for a final time as Brissett hit Amari Cooper for a 15 yard touchdown to cap off a 10 play, 75 yard drive. The two-point conversion pass failed by Brissett with 6:22 remaining. The Browns looked like they had recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, but the Cleveland player was ruled out of bounds when recovering the ball giving it to New England. Thornton would score on a 19 yard run with 4:32 to go, and after a sack on Brissett and a fumble that was recovered by Carl Davis, Stevenson ran one in from six yards for the final points of the game.
Zappe finished 24-34 passing for 309 yards and two touchdowns. He becomes the first rookie quarterback to post a 100 or better QBR in each of his first two career starts in the Super Bowl era. Stevenson rushed for 76 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns, while Thornton had one rushing and one receiving score. Devante Parker and Henry both had four catches for 64 and 61 yards respectively. Kyle Dugger had six total tackles and an interception, while Jalen Mills also had an interception. Brissett went 21-45 for 266 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. New England held a very good rushing attack for Cleveland down for a total of 69 yards on 18 attempts led by Nick Chubb with 56 yards. Donovan People-Jones had four receptions for 74 yards. The win moves head coach Bill Belichik into a second place tie for all-time NFL coaching wins with George Halas (324). The all-time leader is Don Shula at 347. The Patriots (3-3) will head home and host the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football next Monday at 8:15 p.m.
