Cyrus Jones and Matthew Slater both made huge special teams mistakes for the New England Patriots to lose the team’s control on Monday Night Football.
Through the first 2.5 quarters of Monday Night Football in Week 14, the New England Patriots were in complete control of the Baltimore Ravens in Foxborough. Tom Brady was working the talented visiting defense and the defense was holding their own against a limited Ravens attack. However, even in a matchup where you have control at home, you can’t open the door all the way.
Unfortunately for Bill Belichick’s bunch, that’s exactly what they did in middle of the third quarter. In the span of 14 seconds, the Patriots special team made mistakes that saw their lead slip from 20 points to only six.
The first mistake was by far the worst. New England’s defense, which has seen its share of struggles this season, again stopped the Ravens. That brought out the punt with Cyrus Jones back to return for the Patriots. The rookie out of Alabama let it bounce, but was standing dangerously close to it. Having made mistakes in this area in recent weeks, he did it again as the ball hit his foot and bounced towards the goal line.
The Ravens recovered inside the 5-yard line and converted easily. However, they weren’t done getting opportunities on special teams.
Following the touchdown for Baltimore, they kicked off to Patriots special teams captain, Matthew Slater. He fielded the kick quickly and took off down the left sideline. However, he didn’t have the ball secured and the Ravens pounced to knock it out and get another turnover. Here’s a look at both the Jones and Slater turnover:
With another short field, they punched it in with Kenneth Dixon to pull the score to 23-17. Even at home, all it takes is a couple of plays like this to completely change a game of this magnitude.
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Once these two special teams gaffes and subsequent Ravens scores happened, the whole mood changed at Gillette Stadium. You could almost feel the nervousness among Patriots fans. Thus, the stage was set for a much closer finish than what it appeared it would be early on.
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