FOXBOROUGH, Mass. _ It's been easy for naysayers to point to the schedule when talking about the Patriots defensive dominance this season.
On Sunday, however, the Patriots pack of boogeymen went to work against a pair of Pro Bowl receivers, one of the best young running backs in the NFL and a quarterback who was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018. The Pats defense was challenged at points by the Cleveland Browns on this night, but little changed in terms of the overall result.
It didn't matter if it was Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb or Baker Mayfield. The Patriots once again showed they had one of the best defenses in the NFL in Sunday's 27-13 win over the Browns.
The Pats improve to 8-0 as the defense forced three turnovers and held the Browns to 3-of-12 on third down. Tom Brady finished 20/36 for 259 yards and two touchdowns. Julian Edelman caught eight passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
The offense was slow to start on Sunday. The Patriots had a few chances to get into the end zone, but settled for a field goal when they took a 3-0 lead at 6:35 of the first quarter.
The Pats quickly got downfield thanks to a 33-yard reception by Phillip Dorsett. Instead of attempting a 51-yard field goal, the Pats stayed on the field on fourth-and-7 and converted as Brady hit Edelman for a gain of 10. The offense quickly had a first-and-goal, from the 7-yard line, but stalled on the 2-yard line before Mike Nugent hit the 20-yard field goal.
Of course, as we've seen all season, the Patriots defense continues to outpace the offense. The Pats took complete control of this contest thanks to the defensive unit as they forced turnovers on the next three Browns drives � all in the first quarter.
On the first series, after the field goal, Lawrence Guy was credited with a forced fumble on Chubb, who actually had the ball kicked out of his hands by guard Joel Bitonio. Dont'a Hightower recovered the fumble and ran it back 26 yards for a touchdown to give the Patriots a 10-0 lead at 5:45 of the first.
The defense was rolling and that was seen pretty quickly. On the first play of the next drive, Chubb broke free for a 48-yard run. Jonathan Jones, however, punched the ball out and Devin McCourty recovery to give the offense the ball back at 5:45 of the first.
The lockdown effort didn't stop. On the very next Cleveland series, Guy intercepted Mayfield, who was trying to toss the ball to Jarvis Landry at 2:36 of the first. The Pats took over at the 11-yard line and two plays later were in the end zone as Brady hit Edelman for an 8-yard score to take a 17-0 lead at 1:47 of the first.
The Browns did the improbable at 7:44 of the second � they scored a passing touchdown against the Patriots. Mayfield hit tight end Demetrius Harris for a 21-yard touchdown and the Patriots led, 17-7. That score marked the second passing touchdown the Pats defense allowed this season _ in eight games.
Offensively, the Patriots weren't nearly as efficient as they'd like to be. They were 11 yards away from the end zone at 2:25 of the second quarter, but stalled and then saw Nugent's 29-yard field goal attempt blocked by Denzel Ward. The play negated Mohamed Sanu moving the chains in the red zone on fourth down to mark his first reception as a Patriot.
The Browns opened the second half with a drive that took up 6:23 minutes. Cleveland had the Patriots defense bending behind the running of Chubb, who surpassed the 100-yard mark in the series. The unit didn't break, thanks to a third-down sack by Jamie Collins. That led to a 38-yard field goal by Austin Seibert at 8:37 of the third quarter and the Pats lead was down to 17-10.
The offense woke up on the next drive to extend the Patriots lead to 24-10. James White jumpstarted everything with a 59-yard catch and run. The big third-down conversion put the Patriots at the 25-yard line. Four plays later, Brady hit Edelman for his second touchdown of the game, a 14-yard score, at 6:11 of the third quarter.
The Patriots extended their lead to 27-10 with 7:43 left following a 29-yard field goal from Nugent. Brady was able to get the Patriots into field-goal range with two nice throws to Sanu (19 yards) and Ben Watson (26 yards).
The Browns got desperate toward the end of the contest. Faced with a fourth-and-16, from their own 19, Cleveland went for it only to see Adam Butler notch his second sack of the game. The Browns eventually got a field goal, a 47 yarder from Seibert, with 2:33 remaining.
