Patriots WR Jakobi Meyers has career game on birthday in win over Jets

Jakobi Meyers had just one thought on his mind as he watched Nick Folk’s 51-yard field goal soar through the uprights to clinch the Patriots’ comeback 30-27 victory over the Jets on Monday night.

“Just jumping around,” Meyers admitted. “I was like, ‘It’s gotta be good.’ I had complete trust in him and there was no doubt in my mind.”

It was a much-needed win for the Patriots, and probably wouldn’t have been possible without Meyers.

On his 24th birthday, the second-year wide receiver — who was something of an afterthought to start the season — had the best game of his young career. A week after sparking the passing game in the Patriots’ loss to the Bills, Meyers took his game to a different level Monday night, hauling in career highs of 12 receptions for 169 yards.

Those numbers exceeded his combined totals to start the season as he became the first Patriots receiver since Brandon Lloyd in 2012 to haul in at least 10 catches and 150 yards. More importantly, almost every single catch was critical to the Patriots’ comeback, as eight of his receptions went for first downs.

And there was none more important than his final one on the game-winning drive. Cam Newton had just snuck for a first down and spiked the ball to stop the clock with eight seconds left, but at their own 47-yard line, they needed significant yardage to get in position for Folk and had one play to do it. That’s when Meyers made the biggest play of the night, finding space in the middle of the Jets’ defense to connect with Newton for a 20-yard completion.

Meyers secured the ball, the Patriots called timeout and Folk’s field goal went right down the middle.

“That’s a situation we’ve run over in practice time after time every week I feel like, and it’s just … coach called a great play,” Meyers said. “I felt like we had a great plan going into it. We knew what we had to get Nick before the drive started and we just did the best we could executing-wise.”

It was yet another chapter in the development of Meyers, who has continued to earn and take advantage of his opportunities and become Newton’s most reliable target in the absences of N’Keal Harry and Julian Edelman. Meyers had been inactive for the Patriots’ losses against the Chiefs and Broncos, but the receiver is proving that should have never happened.

“I’m just a young guy trying to take advantage of my opportunities,” Meyers said. “The more they give me, the more I’m going to try to do and hopefully I can keep building and building and every week is better than the week before, so like I said, just keep trying to take advantage of those opportunities and keep trying to grow every day.”

And he’s clearly left an indelible mark on Newton, who has supreme trust in the wideout that’s been the product of a long relationship. Newton coached Meyers on a 7-on-7 all-star team when Meyers was in high school. That’s when Meyers was still a quarterback, but Newton always knew he had great potential as a receiver, which he’s starting to show with nights like Monday.

“I’m extremely proud of Jakobi,” Newton said. “He’s the person that I’ve known the longest this whole ordeal. … For him to be morphing into the player that he is today, it’s just hard work paying off for him. …

“For him to be able to throw as far and as hard as he used to play and to transfer to the receiver position, I knew he would have success because playing the quarterback position makes you intellectually sound. Cerebral by default because you know what a quarterback is looking for, and he’s such an easy target to throw it to, as you can kind of tell. He just finds a way to get open. He has a knack for the ball and his decisiveness while running routes is easy to kind of tell where his body language is going to go, but for him to have the type of performance that he had tonight, ongoing these last couple of weeks, it’s just a show of hard work paying off.”

Newton added that the two are just getting started, and Meyers certainly isn’t letting any of the initial success get to his head. Asked if he feels like he’s proven something over the last few weeks, Meyers displayed something of a quiet confidence about himself.

“It’s not necessarily about me proving anything to anybody,” Meyers said. “Just hopefully my teammates, my coaches just trust in me and hopefully they just see what I can do. That’s pretty much all of it, but as far as proving what I can do, they’ve seen me in practice so they can see what I can do.”

Now, they’re seeing it in games, too.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2JUzuc3