CINCINNATI — The Patriots punched the Bengals in the nose on Sunday afternoon to win a stunning season opener in Cincinnati.
Despite being the NFL’s biggest underdog of Week 1, New England delivered a 16-10 upset over Joe Burrow and company. The Patriots were simply the better — and tougher — team on Sunday, dominating in the trenches on both sides of the ball. It was a hard-fought victory.
Here are 10 takeaways from a surprising start to the Jerod Mayo era:
1. Statement made with physicality
The Patriots set the tone in this one from the jump, flying around on defense and establishing the run on the offensive side of the ball. It was one of those games where everyone was getting into the mix, perhaps best exemplified by Jonathan Jones croaking Bengals wideout Andrei Iosivas on a 4th-and-2 to force a turnover on downs. The 183-pound Jones has always been a willing tackler, but the pop he delivered was a bone-cruncher. New England was playing with an edge.
On the other side of the ball, Rhamondre Stevenson had the best seat in the house for the offensive line’s performance, as the Patriots ran for more than 6 yards per carry in the first half.
“I thought we were very, very physical,” Stevenson said. “I feel like our offensive line was rolling guys off the ball and giving me and (Antonio Gibson) lanes to run through.”
2. Rhamondre runs wild
After the win, Mayo revealed a conversation he had with Stevenson during the offseason.
“I challenged Rhamondre in the spring,” Mayo said. “I said, ‘Look, you don’t get a lot of love, a lot of hype.’ But I’ve always believed that he’s one of the best running backs in the league.”
Stevenson certainly looked the part on Sunday, picking up 120 yards on 25 carries and scoring New England’s lone touchdown. Most impressively was that the 26-year-old back kept moving the chains in obvious running situations; the Bengals knew Stevenson was getting the ball and couldn’t stop him.
3. Mayo gets first win
With the Patriots in victory formation, Davon Godchaux and Daniel Ekuale doused Mayo with a Gatorade bath to celebrate his first win as Patriots head coach. Like his predecessor Bill Belichick, Mayo deflected praise to all of the players afterwards.
“Very proud,” Mayo said. “My message to the players — they gave me the Gatorade shower and things like that — but, without them, I’m nothing. I made sure they knew that. They crossed the white lines. I always talk about empowering the players to go out there and play. I always talk about awareness really being the number one thing and those guys taking ownership. So all the praise goes to those guys. They did a great job.”
4. Dugger makes game-changing swing
It looked like the Bengals had their first touchdown of the game in the second quarter when old friend Mike Gesicki hauled in a pass in the corner of the end zone, but as he went to the ground, Kyle Dugger kept battling in coverage and the ball popped loose. It was ruled incomplete after a review. On the next play, Burrow hit fellow tight end Tanner Hudson, and as he was about to cross the goal-line, Dugger leaped with a Superman dive and punched the football free. Marcus Jones recovered and the Patriots were in business.
“It was one last shot to get the ball out at the goal line,” Dugger said. “I just basically gave everything I could to get the ball out and try to strip the ball out, and I was able to have an assist thankfully.”
5. Gonzalez is back
After a loud week talking about his contract, Bengals wideout Ja’Marr Chase was largely quiet on Sunday afternoon. The superstar hauled in six passes for 62 yards, but was held out of the end zone and never really made a game-changing play. That was because Christian Gonzalez had tight coverage on him for much of the afternoon. After a slow summer, the second-year corner started real games off on the right foot.
“There was a plan – they wanted me to go with (Chase),” Gonzalez said. “I talked about it earlier this week – that’s what you want. Being a corner, that’s your dream. Being able to do that is fun.”
6. White delivers
Keion White built upon his productive summer, delivering 2.5 sacks in his 2024 debut. He looks poised to have a true breakout season and took the first step in Week 1. The Patriots will need production like this with Matthew Judon wearing an Atlanta Falcons jersey.
7. Good start with turnover battle
To win football games this season, the Patriots are going to need to win the turnover battle like they did on Sunday. Jacoby Brissett and the offense didn’t turn the ball over at all, while the defense and special teams forced three fumbles, recovering a pair. That +2 advantage was massive in escaping Cincinnati with the upset.
8. Special teams chips in
The Patriots were borderline perfect in the kicking game on Sunday.
New kicker Joey Slye was 3-for-3 on field goal attempts, long snapper Joe Cardona forced a fumble that led to three points, and special teams ace Brenden Schooler registered three solo tackles. It was a really encouraging showing.
9. Peppers guts it out
A game-time decision, Jabrill Peppers was able to play through a hip injury and delivered an impactful performance, registering six tackles. After the game, he explained how he’d wound up a late addition to the injury report on Saturday.
“Friday practice I landed funny and I kinda felt it,” Peppers said. “Later on that night, I really couldn’t sleep. I was up all night. Probably only got two hours of sleep on Friday, came in, couldn’t really walk on Saturday morning… I attacked the treatment. They had a good game plan for me. Had to go to the hotel across the street to use the pool, get my legs going and everything. There was no way I was going to miss the first game of the season. My leg would’ve had to fall off for me to miss that.”
That pool Peppers used was at a Holiday Inn.
The safety also wore a guardian cap on top of his helmet and liked the way it went. He’s planning to continue using one moving forward .
“I didn’t really notice a difference,” Peppers said. “The deciding factor was just how hot it was going to be, because it covers all the holes on the helmet so it gets hot in there. But I didn’t feel a thing out there, so I think I like that.”
10. End it emphatically
Facing a 4th-and-5 deep in his own territory with 2:26 remaining, Bengals coach Zac Taylor elected to punt the football away, betting that his defense would get him the ball back with all three timeouts. It proved to be a poor wager.
Instead, Stevenson picked up a pair of first downs to ice the game; the Bengals were simply overpowered by the Patriots rushing attack.
“There comes a point in time where they know we’re going to run it, we know that we’re going to run it, all the fans know that we’re going to run it, and we’re going to have to pick up four yards,” Mayo said. “It’s really man-on-man in those instances. It has nothing to do really with Xs and Os. It’s about dominating the player across from you — and those guys did that.”
