Marcus Jones looked up to catch a punt at his own 13-yard line. With a pair of Carolina Panthers defenders in his face, it appeared New England’s returner could call for a fair catch.
Instead, Jones fielded the punt and made each man miss. Seconds later, he was 87 yards away in the end zone.
“I’m pretty ruthless back there,” Jones said post game with a laugh. “I had a little bit of space and I was just like man, those guys trust me a lot and I trust them to make the right blocks. It kind of went from there.”
Jones’ first-quarter punt return gave the Patriots a 7-6 lead — kickstarting an offensive surge for New England as they went on to score 42 unanswered points in a blowout win.
“I think that’s what we’ve been looking for. I talked about that throughout training camp and how those return units need to be a weapon for us,” head coach Mike Vrabel said. “To be able to do that on the punt return, fantastic effort by Marcus and everybody else out there. I think a lot of that was just his own individual will, skill, and effort.
“Again, that has to be a weapon. It was something that we felt like could be through this season and getting ready for this year.”
Jones’ day was not done there. In the second quarter, he fielded another punt and somehow stayed in bounds on a 61-yard return before just being tripped up by the Panthers’ punter (which he now expects to hear about from his family and in team meetings this week).
Setting his offense up with a short field, the Patriots offense needed just four plays to find the end zone.
“They put us in some great spots,” quarterback Drake Maye said of his defense and special teams. “Marcus Jones, can’t say enough about him. Shoot, he’s the best in the game at it.”
In total, Jones — a first-team All-Pro punt returner in 2022 — finished the day with a franchise single-game record 167 punt return yards — breaking Mike Haynes’ old record of 156 set back in 1976.
“He’s not the biggest player, but he’s got great play strength, I think, with the football in his hand he’s got great vision,” Vrabel said. “And, again, you have to be fearless at some level to catch that punt and know that you’re going to make the first guy miss. We’re confident in that. I think he kind of just — it’s just a natural skill. It’s hard to teach.
“It’s hard to teach with all those bodies in traffic and catching it first and making great decisions with it back there. It’s a lot of comfort with him back there, and we need to continue to make it a weapon.”
