There were not too many surprises in Week 1 of the 2024 season, but one game that did shock a lot of people was the New England Patriots beating the Cincinnati Bengals on the road on an early Sunday afternoon. It might not have been the most convincing victory of the season, but to hold Joe Burrow to just ten points that included a shutout in the first half is really impressive. Even though it is only Week 1, this matchup can go a long way toward determining how the rest of the season for either of these teams could turn out. New England’s defense played with a lot of heart and passion, two things that Cincinnati failed to play within their own house. Let’s take a look at the five biggest takeaways from this matchup and realize just how the Patriots were able to pull this off when a lot of people predicted that they would be the worst team in the league.
Patriots Week 1 Recap
1. Jerod Mayo Gets Win Number One
For the first time since 1991, the Patriots have won a football game with a first-time head coach. Jerod Mayo deserved to get the Gatorade bath from his players once his quarterback took the knee to run the clock out because his team played with something that has not been seen from them in a while: swagger. For sixty minutes, New England had nothing to lose because they were given little to no expectations, but they did not pay attention to what the media thought. All that mattered was how they prepared, what they knew what it would take to win, and who they believed in to get the job done. Despite the changes the team made with their roster, several guys stepped up and never took their foot off the gas, which is all that was needed. Time will tell to see if this continues throughout the year, but many Patriots fans have a lot more optimism and faith after this performance.
2. Keion White Was a Menace
Knowing that Matt Judon got traded to the Atlanta Falcons and Christian Barmore was going to be out indefinitely, general manager Elliot Wolf and coach Mayo knew that at some point in time, the potential of some of their younger defensive players needed to be unlocked for the rest of the world to see. Last year’s second-round pick Keion White took the challenge and had a career-defining performance in Week 1. The defensive end finished with 2.5 sacks and three quarterback hits, the most from any Patriots defender of the day, impossible for any offensive lineman to stop. Given the circumstances, he had the best defensive performance out of anybody else on Sunday, and his stock took a big bump as a result. Now it is time to see if Josh Uche, Anfernee Jennings, or anybody else on the Patriots’ defensive line to follow down that path next week against the Seattle Seahawks.
3. Christian Gonzalez Picking Up Where He Left Off
Before injuring his shoulder in Week 4 of the 2023 season against the Dallas Cowboys, first-round cornerback Christian Gonzalez was showing the rest of the league that he could be one of the best at his position in the game. Against receivers like A.J. Brown, Tyreek Hill, DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle, and Garrett Wilson, he never allowed more than four catches and fifty yards. In his return to action on Sunday against the Bengals, Gonzalez added another name to his list: Ja’Marr Chase. The two lined up against each other twenty times, which was an expected aspect of New England’s defensive strategy against Cincinnati. Chase might have finished the game with six catches on six targets, but with Gonzalez across from him, he was only held to three receptions for fifteen yards. The second-year cornerback is not only stamping together a nice resume so far in his young career but is living proof that defensive backs can enjoy some of their best success wearing a Patriots uniform.
4. Rhamondre Stevenson Running the Offense
Jacoby Brissett did a decent job in his first start of the season. Even though he only threw for 121 yards, he picked up an extra thirty-two with his legs and deferred to the success of the running game. Sixteen points and one touchdown might not sound like a perfect day on offense, but without running back Rhamondre Stevenson, the Patriots would not have been able to control the clock the way they did or get their only end-zone trip of the day. He finished with 120 yards on twenty-five carries, nearly five yards a pick-up, and he wore down the Cincinnati defense as the game progressed. New offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt started out the season with a conservative game plan, and while it worked this week, they still have a long way to go in terms of improvement and development. Brissett did not push the ball down the field, their top wide receivers did not finish with more than three catches, and it is not exactly a strategy that they can get away with all year. However, a win is a win, and the Patriots know that they have a bright face of the offense in number 38.
5. Two Fumbles Making the Difference
The Patriots might have led the entire game, but the Bengals are the team that has more talent on paper, so this was not a blowout by any means. However, two huge takeaways set the tone and made the whole difference in the ball game. The first came on Cincinnati’s final drive of the first half, down 7-0 with a chance to tie the game with a touchdown. At the fifteen-yard line, it looked like Joe Burrow would cap it off with a sweet touchdown pass to the former Patriot Mike Gesicki in the corner of the end zone, but the tight end could not maintain possession throughout the entire process of the catch and it was ruled incomplete. On the next play, Burrow found tight end Tanner Hudson on a crosser route over the middle of the field, and he had plenty of space to get the touchdown. However, with bad ball security, safety Kyle Dugger punched the ball out and Marcus Jones picked it up for New England. If that play had not been made, the Bengals could have had a better chance of winning, but they let that opportunity slip out of their hands. The Patriots then went on to kick a field goal to take a 10-0 lead heading into the break, and an upset seemed almost inevitable.
The second took place at the beginning of the second half. The Patriots offense got the ball to start the period, but they went three-and-out, so they were forced to punt the ball back to the Bengals. Charlie Jones caught the ball and tried to get some yards on the return, but the long-snapper Joe Cardona drilled right into the receiver, and the football came out again. New England recovered it at the Cincinnati twenty-four-yard line, and even though they didn’t get a touchdown off of that turnover, those were three points that the Bengals could have kept in their pocket. Mayo knows very well that winning the turnover battle is a huge factor in winning a ball game, so the fact that they were on the right side of it this time around, had to feel really sweet. Without those two huge takeaways, who knows what the final score would have been?
Next week, the Patriots will have their home opener in Gillette Stadium against the Seahawks. They might be considered an inferior team compared to the Bengals, but their defense did a tremendous job of shutting down Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos, and their offense did enough in the second half to pick up the victory. If New England wants to start the season 2-0, not only do they need to replicate what they did last week, but they need to open things up more on both sides of the ball.
Main Image: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
