1st Quarter: Rare Miss for Patriots’ Stephen GostkowskiNew England had a chance to go up 3-0 but Stephen Gostkowski missed wide-left on a 46-yard field goal attempt. The Patriots had started the drive on their own 12-yard line, but got into their typical rhythm, executing a series of short plays that consistently moved the chains. The Rams twice had huge defensive opportunities slip away from them, once when Julian Edelman ripped off an 11-yard catch-and-run on 3rd-and-9, and once when Nickell Robey Coleman’s crushing hit of Rex Burkhead on a 2nd-and-14 was determined to be a defenseless receiver violation and an automatic first down. A nice play-action fake following the penalty led to a 19-yard pass to Rob Gronkowski, but it was followed by a run attempt by Rex Burkhead that went for 2 yard, a deep pass attempt to Chris Hogan that fell incomplete in the end zone, and a run by James White that went for 3, leading to Gostkowski’s ill-fated field goal attempt.

Source: New York Times February 03, 2019 22:01 UTC