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Patriots vs. Giants Week 6 highlights, analysis and injury updates

Patriots vs. Giants Week 6 highlights, analysis and injury updates

By Nick Goss October 10, 2019 10:05 PM

The New York Giants face the daunting task of playing the undefeated New England Patriots on the road Thursday night with most of their best offensive players unable to play because of injuries.

If that scenario wasn't bad enough for New York, it also must deal with difficult weather conditions expected to include plenty of rain and winds blowing from 15 to 25 mph at Gillette Stadium.

The Giants will be without starting running back Saquon Barkley, backup running back Wayne Gallman, No. 2 wide receiver Sterling Shepard and starting tight end Evan Engram due to injuries. Rookie quarterback Daniel Jones will need to give the best performance of his young career to keep this game competitive without many of his top offensive weapons. Oddsmakers have pegged the Patriots as 17-point betting favorites for this game.

Will the Giants spoil another unbeaten run by the Patriots, or will New England keep cruising and earn an 18th consecutive victory at home? Keep it right here for all of the latest highlights, score updates, injuries and quick analysis from Patriots vs. Giants.

FINAL: Patriots 35, Giants 14

Fourth quarter, 3:49, Patriots 35-14: Tom Brady is able to score on a quarterback sneak once again, his second of the game.

The goal-line score was set up by this huge 36-yard connection with Julian Edelman.

 

Fourth quarter, 8:32, 28-14 Patriots: Kyle Van Noy scoops up a Jon Hilliman fumble and returns it for a Patriots touchdown. The referees originally ruled Van Noy out at the 2-yard-line but it was overturned on replay.

Fourth quarter, 8:49, 21-14 Patriots: More bad injury news for the Patriots, as linebacker Dont'a Hightower and fullback Jakob Johnson are both questionable to return with injuries.

Fourth quarter, 13:32, 21-14 Patriots: The Patriots defense may be down another defensive back, as J.C. Jackson is questionable to return. The team is already without Patrick Chung and Devin McCourty missed a drive at the start of the second half before returning to the game.

Third quarter, 2:47, 21-14 Patriots: Patriots kicker Mike Nugent misses a 40-yard field goal (hit the left upright) and it's still a one-score game. 

Third quarter, 4:09, 21-14 Patriots: Patriots safety Patrick Chung (chest injury) will not return tonight.

Third quarter, 12:00, 21-14 Patriots: Stephon Gilmore has picked off Giants quarterback Daniel Jones for the Patriots' third interception of the night.

And here's an injury update on Josh Gordon.

Halftime, 21-14 Patriots

Second quarter, 0:36, 21-14 Patriots: The Patriots are back out in front. After a James White rushing touchdown was overturned, Tom Brady scored on a very short QB sneak. The Patriots will now take a 7-point lead into the half.

Second quarter, 4:38, 14-14 Tie: The Giants have added a defensive touchdown of their own. Lorenzo Carter strips Tom Brady on a sack and Markus Golden picks up the ball and returns it 42 yards for a touchdown. Josh Gordon came up limping after attempting to tackle Gordon, adding injury to insult for the Patriots on the play.

Second quarter, 6:05, 14-7 Patriots: The Giants are on the board. Daniel Jones fires a deep pass to Golden Tate, who shrugged off a tackle by Duron Harmon and backpedaled into the end zone. It was a 64-yard touchdown, and also the first passing touchdown the Patriots defense has allowed all season.

Second quarter, 7:11, 14-0 Patriots: New England took advantage of the good field position from the interception and Brandon Bolden ended the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Second quarter, 9:20, 14-0 Patriots: Daniel Jones is picked off again, this time by Patriots safety Duron Harmon.

Second quarter, 12:20, 7-0 Patriots: Two injury updates for the Patriots.

First quarter, 1:10, 7-0 Patriots: The Patriots are on the board with their second special teams touchdown of the season. Rookie Chase Winovich recovered the ball and ran it into the end zone for his first career score.

First quarter, 6:47, 0-0: Another interception for the Patriots, this time by John Simon. It's New England's league-leading 12th interception of the season.

However, on the very next play, Tom Brady threw his third interception of the year. He tried to connect with Julian Edelman on a deep pass and Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins picked it off. You rarely see Brady and Edelman have a miscommunication as bad as that one.

First quarter, 9:43, 0-0: Here's a look at the Patriots' failed fourth down conversion.

First quarter, 11:15, 0-0: The Patriots marched right down the field, but instead of kicking a 36-yard field goal on 4th-and-1, New England went for it and running back Sony Michel was stuffed. The Giants take over on their own 18-yard line.

Tom Brady also made history on the Pats' opening drive:

First quarter, 15:00, 0-0: The Giants won the toss and deferred to the second half. The Patriots will receive the ball first.

8:07 p.m.: Devin McCourty's pre-game speech is a must-listen as always.

8:02 p.m.: Bill Belichick gives his take on the windy conditions at Gillette Stadium.

8 p.m.: The Patriots will be wearing their special "color rush" jerseys tonight.

7:45 p.m.: Here a good pregame chat between NBC Sports Boston's Phil Perry and former Patriots linebacker (and current NFL Network analyst) Willie McGinest.

7:25 p.m.: Interesting comments here from Patriots owner Robert Kraft on a potential return of retired tight end Rob Gronkowski.

7 p.m.: Inactives for both teams:

PATRIOTS
QB Cody Kessler
RB Rex Burkhead
RB Damien Harris
WR Phillip Dorsett
CB Joejuan Williams
DT Byron Cowart
OT Korey Cunningham

GIANTS
RB Saquon Barkley
RB Wayne Gallman
WR Sterling Shepard
TE Evan Engram
OT Eric Smith
G Chad Slade
LB Tae Davis

6:30 p.m. ET: Let's start the blog with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's arrival and head coach Bill Belichick checking out the field conditions a few hours before kickoff.


This stat bodes well for Pats' hopes of reaching Super Bowl again>>>

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Patriots on controversial calls in loss to Chiefs: 'A tough pill to swallow'

Patriots on controversial calls in loss to Chiefs: 'A tough pill to swallow'

By Phil Perry December 08, 2019 9:36 PM

FOXBORO — Bill Belichick wasn't thrilled. He stood at the podium in the belly of Gillette Stadium, his team coming off of its second consecutive loss, and he was peppered with questions about the officiating. This after he'd said in his opening remarks, "A lot of other circumstances in the game; no point in talking about those."

The officiating queries came anyway.

"You'd have to talk to them about that," he said. "I'm not going to speak for them."

Asked if calls made by Jerome Boger's crew impacted his team's ability to sustain any momentum: "I don't know," he said.

In all, there were 15 penalties called for 161 yards in the game, and penalties were among the calls garnering attention after the fact. But the calls that generated the most buzz in the Patriots locker room weren't penalties. The headliner was the call that took points off the board for Belichick's team early in the fourth quarter.

Tom Brady hit rookie N'Keal Harry with a short pass that he took down to the goal line. Diving into the end zone, it appeared as though Harry had scored a touchdown. He celebrated as though he had. Replays showed he remained in bounds. But one official marked him out of bounds at the three-yard line.

The Patriots weren't able to challenge the play — they were out of challenges after losing a pass-interference challenge earlier in the game — and they kicked a field goal three plays later to make the score 23-16.

"We still had a chance to win," Brady said. "Wish we could have scored there at the end."

A touchdown and an extra point would've made the score 23-20, meaning on the final Patriots drive of the game, where they entered deep into Chiefs territory, they would've been able to kick a chip-shot field goal to tie it.

"I thought it was a touchdown," said Harry, who left the game with a hip injury. "I'm pretty sure everybody else thought it was a touchdown. It's something that's out of our control, out of my control.

"It's definitely frustrating, but at the end of the day I was always told to control what I could control. I felt like I did that. I felt like my effort was good. That's all I can give."

ESPN's Mike Reiss, serving as the pool reporter, spoke to Boger after the game about the call.

"What led to it was the covering official on the wing was blocked out by defenders," Boger said. "The downfield official who was on the goal line and looking back toward the field of play had that he stepped out at the three-yard line. So, they got together and conferred on that. The final ruling was that he was out of bounds at the three-yard line."

Calling the play a touchdown and then using replay to the crew's advantage — since all scores are reviewed — was not discussed as an option, Boger explained.

"Not really. Those two officials who were covering it, they look at it in real time," he said. "This case was unique in that the guy who would have ruled touchdown had him short. So maybe if that ruling official on the goal line had a touchdown, we could have gotten into that, but he thought that that guy stepped out of bounds. The goal line wasn’t in the play."

The reason the Patriots couldn't challenge the Harry play was because they'd had a challenge fail earlier in the contest. Late in the third quarter, Belichick threw his red hanky when on a third-and-4 play Stephon Gilmore got picked by Travis Kelce, allowing a catch to Sammy Watkins. Watkins was tackled right near the line to gain,  and so Belichick was challenging both the pass interference and the spot of the ball.

The challenge failed, which meant they'd have just one more challenge for the game, even if that next challenge succeeded.

Later in the third quarter, on a third-down pass to Kelce, Devin McCourty punched out the football and Gilmore recovered it quickly with a good deal of open space in front of him. The play was whistled dead.

The Patriots challenged and won. It was a momentum-shifter, but the fact that they had to use their challenge at all — on a play that was clearly fumbled upon review, no guesswork there — bothered the Patriots after the fact.

"It sucks because at the end of the day, we felt like those were plays that were gonna help us change the momentum of the game and put us in a good spot to eventually win the football game," safety Duron Harmon said. "It was taken away from us. I know the refs, they have a hard job. I'm not going to sit here and say obviously  their job is easy. 'Just make a better call, and do this better.' At the end of the day, we all have a job. We all get paid money to do the job and do it well."

Harmon added: "I just feel empty. We played a good team and had a chance to win. We didn't win. Like I said, I'm not going to just sit here and blame the refs. The Chiefs probably feel some calls could've gone their way, didn't go their way, but at the end of the day when you got two touchdowns taken away from you, that's always a tough pill to swallow."

The Patriots finished the game going 1-for-3 in the red zone. They were 3-for-15 on third and fourth down. They averaged — including three sacks — just 4.6 yards per pass. They averaged 3.4 yards per carry in the first half against a defense that was allowing over 5.0 for the season.

There was plenty they could have done to help themselves. But it's not hyperbole to say that final drive — which resulted in a fourth-down pass breakup on a Brady attempt to Julian Edelman — should have been an opportunity for them to tie the game with an easy field goal.

"You don't wanna blame officiating," Harmon said, "because at the end of the day, we still had an opportunity to win."

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Chiefs' Chris Jones reveals his reason for trash talking with Tom Brady

Chiefs' Chris Jones reveals his reason for trash talking with Tom Brady

By Nick Goss December 08, 2019 9:01 PM

FOXBORO -- Trash talking New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady doesn't sound like a good idea, but Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had a reason for getting into it with the six-time Super Bowl champion Sunday.

Jones and Brady came helmet-to-helmet with 2:59 left in the first half and Kansas City leading 17-7. The Chiefs defense had just forced an incompletion from Brady to bring up fourth down, and Jones tried his best to frustrate the 42-year-old quarterback as much as possible.

"Just crap-talking," Jones said of his exchange with Brady. "Tom is a heck of a quarterback, a Hall of Famer. Any time you're able to talk crap, you gotta affect him any type of way. I got much respect for Tom Brady, man. He's definitely a GOAT in my eyes, one of the greatest. Any time you're able to affect his game any type of way, whether it's talking, whether it's hitting him, whether it's getting him uncomfortable, you got to."

Does Jones think all of that had any effect?

"I mean, you see the score."

The Chiefs won 23-16 to secure the AFC West title and take another step closer toward earning a top-two seed in the AFC playoff race.

It's hard to imagine any kind of trash talk having a negative impact on Brady's performance. He's one of the most mentally tough players in league history. What we do know is this Chiefs defense is much better-equipped to slow down the Patriots' offense than last season's unit.

The Chiefs, from a physicality standpoint, made an effort to stand up to the Patriots, and that was quite apparent when Kansas City wide receiver Sammy Watkins got tangled up with New England cornerback Stephon Gilmore on the visitors' sideline in the second half.

"You got two good players going up against each other in heated moments," Watkins said. "I know him from (the Buffalo Bills), so I was like, this is my opportunity to take a shot, and I did, and he took his shots also."

The chippiness made for a playoff-like scene in Foxboro, and you can bet all of the trash talk and physical play won't be forgotten if these teams meet again in January.

"First play of the game I knew it was more of a playoff atmosphere, a playoff game," Watkins said. "It definitely was probably one of the hardest battles since last year, and that's what we look forward to. It's going to be the same way in the next six or seven weeks, so we just gotta continue to come out and play with each other and play hard, strong, and keep fighting."

Phil Perry's turning point in Patriots-Chiefs>>>

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