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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\u2019s returner could call for a fair catch.<\/p>\n
Instead, Jones fielded the punt and made each man miss. Seconds later, he was 87 yards away in the end zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty ruthless back there,\u201d Jones said post game with a laugh. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 first-quarter punt return gave the Patriots a 7-6 lead \u2014 kickstarting an offensive surge for New England as they went on to score 42 unanswered points in a blowout win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been looking for. I talked about that throughout training camp and how those return units need to be a weapon for us,\u201d head coach Mike Vrabel said. \u201cTo 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, that has to be a weapon. It was something that we felt like could be through this season and getting ready for this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 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\u2019 punter (which he now expects to hear about from his family and in team meetings this week).<\/p>\n
Setting his offense up with a short field, the Patriots offense needed just four plays to find the end zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put us in some great spots,\u201d quarterback Drake Maye said of his defense and special teams. \u201cMarcus Jones, can\u2019t say enough about him. Shoot, he\u2019s the best in the game at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In total, Jones \u2014 a first-team All-Pro punt returner in 2022 \u2014 finished the day with a franchise single-game record 167 punt return yards \u2014 breaking Mike Haynes\u2019 old record of 156 set back in 1976.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not the biggest player, but he\u2019s got great play strength, I think, with the football in his hand he\u2019s got great vision,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cAnd, again, you have to be fearless at some level to catch that punt and know that you\u2019re going to make the first guy miss. We\u2019re confident in that. I think he kind of just \u2014 it\u2019s just a natural skill. It\u2019s hard to teach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to teach with all those bodies in traffic and catching it first and making great decisions with it back there. It\u2019s a lot of comfort with him back there, and we need to continue to make it a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jones totaled 167 return yards and a touchdown in Week 4 against the Panthers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":100245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n