To borrow a baseball time period, Marcus Jones has just about hit for the cycle on the soccer discipline.
Fifteen weeks into the season, he has a punt return for a landing, a receiving landing, whereas Saturday in opposition to the Bengals, he added a pick-six to his ledger to finish the three-phase scoring trifecta.
The Patriots rookie was one of many lone shiny spots within the Patriots 22-18 loss to the Bengals.
He was tasked with masking each Bengals stud wideouts Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins at completely different occasions through the recreation, and whereas he did get beat every now and then, nonetheless made a number of game-changing performs.
Along with the interception, Jones additionally had a fumble restoration, led the workforce with 14 tackles, and pulled in a 15-yard cross from Mac Jones that put the Patriots within the purple zone for a potential go-ahead rating late. He was in every single place making performs.
“He’s just ridiculous,” mentioned Patriots quarterback Mac Jones. “Great player, great teammate, explosive, lines up, runs full speed on offense, lines up and goes full speed on defense. Same thing on special teams. Love the guy. Bummed when you have a great performance like that, we can’t pull out the win.”
The interception by Jones’ sparked a livid comeback by the Patriots within the fourth quarter. They had been down 22-0 earlier than Jones picked off Joe Burrow and took it 69 yards to the home.
Jones anticipated the place the ball was going, stepped in entrance of Chase, caught it and flew down the left sideline, simply maintaining in bounds as he averted would-be tacklers.
“We were in a certain coverage and whenever I saw him throw the ball I was like, ‘I gotta get there first.’ Make sure I get there and catch it,” mentioned Jones. “Then after that I saw our whole defense setting up a wall, I was running and seeing Burrow, the last man, and I was like, ‘let me make sure I don’t step out.’”
Burrow tried to select on Jones on a couple of event. And why not? Jones appeared to be manner out of his league trying to cowl Chase and Higgins.
The rookie, who’s listed at 5-foot-8, gave up eight inches to the 6-foot-4 Higgins alone. But with each Jalen Mills and fellow rookie Jack Jones injured, Marcus has been pressured right into a extra outstanding function on protection, to associate with being the particular groups returner, whereas taking a couple of snaps on offense.
All of Jones’ touchdowns this season have come from lengthy distance. He had a game-winning 84-yard punt return landing in Week 11 in opposition to the Jets, a 48-yard receiving landing within the Patriots’ dwelling loss to the Buffalo Bills earlier this month, together with Saturday’s 69-yard decide six.
With that rating, he joined Pro Football corridor of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders because the second participant within the Super Bowl period to attain 40-plus receiving, punt return and interception return touchdowns.
For his half, Jones says he’s gaining extra confidence the extra he performs.
“It’s definitely grown over time. Getting more plays and more snaps, things of that nature,” he mentioned. “But just making sure that I basically keep my head down and keep grinding because you can’t be complacent when it comes to playing in the National Football League.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com