The New England Patriots playoff hopes are now officially on full life support. New England did make a good attempt at a rally on Saturday afternoon from a 22-0 halftime deficit, but a fumble by Rhamondre Stevenson deep in Cincinnati territory late in the game allowed the visiting Bengals to escape with a 22-18 win at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
Joe Burrow tossed three touchdown passes in the first half, one to Tee Higgins on the opening possession of the game and a pair to Trenton Irwin as Cincinnati took the 22-0 lead to the halftime break. New England (7-8) scored for the first time late in third quarter when Marcus Jones intercepted Burrow and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown. The two-point try was unsuccessful. The Patriots began another drive before the end of the period, that would culminate in a five yard scoring pass from Mac Jones to Kendrick Bourne early in the fourth. Cincinnati (11-4) kicker Evan McPherson would miss a 43 yard field goal attempt on the next possession, and the hosts really made it interesting when Jones hit Jakobi Meyers for a 48 yard touchdown with 6:02 left to play. The score by Meyers was a hailmary type pass by Jones on a 3rd and 29 that was tipped by former practice squad receiver Scotty Washington at the goal line right into the hands of Meyers in the endzone. The drive also included a 28 yard pass to Bourne, but the extra point by Nick Folk was no good. On a 3rd down and 3 with 3:19 remaining, Burrow completed a pass to Ja’Marr Chase. Chase was stopped for a third yard loss and Matthew Judon forced a fumble on the play that was recovered by Marcus Jones at the Bengals 43 yard line. The Pats drove to the 7 yard line, but that is when a fumble was forced on a Stevenson run by Von Bell and B.J. Hill would recover for the huge takeaway. The New England defense stood strong though to force the guests into a punt with 48 seconds to go. With no timeouts however at their own 24, they weren’t able to get anything done and turned it over on downs to end the game.
Mac Jones finished 21-33 passing for 240 yards and two touchdowns. Stevenson led an inefficient run attack with 30 yards on 13 carries. The team was held to 61 rushing yards on 16 attempts. Bourne and Meyers both had six catches for 100 and 83 yards respectively with a touchdowns each. Devin McCourty also had an interception in the loss, and Marcus Jones had the one pick and 12 tackles to lead the defense. New England now has six defensive touchdowns on the season tying a franchise record, and this was their third straight game with a defensive score for the first time since 2004. Burrow was 40-52 for 375 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in the win for Cincinnati. Joe Mixon ran 16 times for 65 yards. Higgins and Chase both had eight receptions for 128 and 79 yards respectively, with Higgins finding the endzone on the games opening drive. The Patriots will host the Miami Dolphins in their regular season finale next Sunday at 1 p.m.
Recap written by Chris Lessner
