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Team Grades: Special Teams Help Keep The Patriots Undefeated

By Gregory Hunt

For a while on Sunday, it looked like the New York Giants were about to pull off yet another fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the New England Patriots, but the Patriots were able to flip the script and earn a 27-26 victory at MetLife Stadium. The Patriots remain undefeated with a 9-0 record, one-half game ahead of the 8-0 Cincinnati Bengals, who host the Houston Texans Monday night. With the Denver Broncos dropping to 7-2 after losing 29-13 to the Kansas City Chiefs this week, it now appears to be a two-team race for the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC.

Offense: C+

The New England offense finished with respectable final statistics thanks to a solid start and a spectacular finish, but the Patriots struggled to move the ball for much of the game. New England opened the game with a 14-play, 80-yard drive for a touchdown, but then quarterback Tom Brady spend much of the next two quarters trying to avoid the Giants pass rush. Brady was sacked three times, and he fumbled on two of those sacks, losing one of them. Brady recovered well enough to throw a 76-yard touchdown pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski in the 4th quarter. Brady later engineered a game-winning drive that included a completion to wide receiver Danny Amendola that converted a 4th-and-10.

On the down side, the Patriots squandered a chance to put away the game earlier in the fourth quarter when a holding penalty on center David Andrews negated a would-be touchdown run by running back LeGarrette Blount. Brady subsequently threw an interception to Giants cornerback Trumaine McBride, which ended a red zone opportunity that was set up by a 54-yard pass reception by wide receiver Brandon LaFell. In the second quarter, Gronkowski was flagged for pass interference, which has been happening quite frequently to New England receivers this season. It was the second game in a row, and the third time this season, that the Patriots have failed to score 30 points in a game.

Defense: B

The Giants executed a very aggressive game plan on offense, and the Patriots defense had trouble handling it in the first half. On New York's first offensive possession, Giants quarterback Eli Manning hit wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. for an 87-yard touchdown pass. New England cornerback Malcolm Butler was beaten on the play and safety Devin McCourty was late in providing help. Butler also picked up a pass interference penalty later in the game, but he otherwise covered Beckham extremely well after that touchdown. Beckham didn't score again, and he caught only three more passes for 17 yards.

In the first half, Manning threw for 251 yards, which is the most he's ever thrown for in the first half of a regular season game. But in the second half, he threw for only 110 yards, which much of that coming on a 15-play, 86-yard drive in the fourth quarter that resulted in a field goal. The most important defensive play of the game by New England may have been a strip sack in the second quarter by linebacker Chandler Jones, with cornerback Justin Coleman recovering the fumble. The play happened on a 1st-and-10 from the New England 16, so it prevented the Giants from building a halftime lead larger than the 17-10 lead they ended up with.

Special Teams: A-

All season long, kicker Stephen Gostkowski has not missed a single field goal; his biggest one was the 54-yard game-winning kick he made with :01 seconds left in the game. The punting game was fair, with Ryan Allen getting only one of his four punts inside the Giants 20-yard line, and Giants punt returner Dwayne Harris averaging 10 yards per return. Amendola had a shining moment when he returned a punt 82 yards for what looked like a sure touchdown until he was inexplicably tripped by his teammate Duron Harmon at the Giants 7-yard line. Fortunately, New England got the touchdown on that drive, anyway.

Coaching: A

Thanks to a series of injuries along the offensive line, New England coaches were forced to play the game with only five offensive linemen, some of whom were playing out of position. Somehow, second-year offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo has been able to mold those players into a unit with interchangeable parts, and that's a big reason why the Patriots have one of the best offenses in the NFL. Also, head coach Bill Belichick demonstrated smart clock management by using his second-half time outs on defense late in the game in order to give Brady enough time to engineer his game-winning drive.

Next week, the Patriots will be back at Gillette Stadium to host the Buffalo Bills on Monday night. Despite some early-season struggles, the Bills are now playing well and would qualify for the postseason as a wild card team if the playoffs were to begin next week. It will be Buffalo head coach Rex Ryan's first visit to Gillette Stadium since he took over the Bills job during the offseason.

Gregory Hunt is a Boston native and a life-long fan of the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics. He's also particularly fond of lacrosse, IndyCar racing and women's college basketball. He currently works for Examiner.com where he serves as the Senior Manager of Content and Media Access. He also writes for Examiner.com as the New England Patriots Examiner. His work can be found on Examiner.com.

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