In 20 years with Tom Brady at the helm, the New England Patriots offense set numerous records and helped transform how the game is played today.
The unit had touchdown drives of 92 and 95 yards, but the king among them was a massive 99-yard rally in the second quarter.
Following a 58-yard punt by the Browns’ Jamie Gillan and a holding penalty against the Patriots’ Joejuan Williams, Mac Jones and company set up shop at their own 1-yard line.
In order to accomplish that goal, the Patriots trusted their fourth-round rookie running back: Rhamondre Stevenson was given the football to move the line of scrimmage and give the team more space to work with.
However, backside linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah were left unblocked, which in turn allowed the team to get a numbers advantage at the point of attack.
The rookie running back did not hit it at full speed but instead took a rather patient approach.
Using the same personnel package that they employed on first down, the Patriots again turned to Stevenson on the second play of the drive.
Facing a 3rd-and-1 at their own 10-yard line, the Patriots again went with their 11-personnel package.
The blocking was superb, but so was Stevenson’s speed and acceleration which allowed him to get past six defenders and into the secondary.
New England went to a 21-group with fullback Jakob Johnson on the field in place of a third wide receiver ; the team also inserted second-year running back J.J.
The blocking was set up pretty well initially, but Hunter Henry failed to properly mirror off-the-ball linebacker Mack Wilson, who got free to stand up Taylor after a modest 2-yard gain.
The Patriots used the same personnel group on 2nd-and-8.
The play was initially designed to follow Johnson, but Taylor was forced to reverse course when safety Grant Delpit was able to get through a gap in the blocking: wide receiver Jakobi Meyers was late to get over to take him out of the play, which appeared to be more of a design error than anything.
To do so, they went back to an 11-personnel group — albeit one that looked different from the one employed earlier during the drive.
New England still used Jakobi Meyers and Nelson Agholor at the wide receiver spots and Hunter Henry as the tight end, but it also added Kendrick Bourne to the equation as well as receiving back Brandon Bolden.
Aligning in the left-side slot, Bourne gained inside leverage against Browns cornerback Troy Hill but he attacked right into the area guarded by Delpit.
Delpit initially moved to his left to assist against Hunter Henry , but he quickly reversed course once Jones re-set his feet and started to go through his progressions.
The play would not have been possible without the offensive line giving Jones enough time to go through his reads after seeing Delpit drop into the underneath zone.
Following the third down conversion to Kendrick Bourne, the Patriots went to a 12-personnel package with tight end Matt LaCosse joining Hunter Henry and wide receivers Nelson Agholor and N’Keal Harry as well as running back J.J.
On second down, the Patriots returned to the same formation they used on the third down pass to Kendrick Bourne two plays earlier.
The play was well-designed to target a lighter box, but Taylor ran straight ahead into traffic rather than trying to maybe bounce the play to the outside through the right-side B-gap.
With Taylor’s second-down run virtually going nowhere, the Patriots found themselves in the third third down situation of the drive.
With Newsome playing inside leverage against Meyers, Jones knew he had to attack towards the boundary if he wanted to hit his target.
The Patriots kept their 11-personnel group on the field for the ensuing first down, but instead of attempting another pass used a run with Brandon Bolden.
Facing a 2nd-and-5 following the Brandon Bolden run on first down, the Patriots again did not change their personnel.
The wide receiver himself did a good job at the snap to get through contact and over the top of cornerback Troy Hill .
The first-year QB placed the ball perfectly, and along the way showed tremendous confidence to deliver a tight-window throw against good but just slightly open coverage.