Cam Newton describes the Patriots’ huddle before the Jakobi Meyers touchdown pass

The Patriots are fun again.

Sunday night’s win over the Ravens was the most enjoyable football game that we’ve witnessed in 2020.  It was highlighted by this trick play call that resulted in an absolute dime from Jakobi Meyers to Rex Burkhead towards the end of the first half:

If you couldn’t tell, Meyers was a quarterback in high school.  Cam Newton remembers, as he and the New England wide-out’s history together goes back to when Jakobi was 16 years old and attended a 7-on-7 tournament hosted by Cam’s foundation in North Carolina.

“Jakobi can take the humble route, but I know personally [who] Jakobi is,” said Newton in praise of his teammate. “In high school, when he was on my 7-on-7 team, Jakobi without question I would say could throw it 65-70 yards, easily. With him having a baseball background — he played baseball — it was always the short, intermediate passes that Jakobi lacked.  So when I saw him throw yesterday, I wasn’t surprised.  I’ve seen him throw it a thousand times.”

Despite his experience at the position, Newton says that Meyers was a bit nervous when the play was called:

“He heard it, I was like, ‘Well, we got X, Y, Z,’ and Jakobi looked, he was like, ‘Huh?’” Newton explained. “I said, ‘Yeah, the play was called. He looks down, he was like, ‘Damn, hold on.’ So everybody’s looking at him, looking at his gloves, so he’s like, ‘Well, I gotta take off one of these gloves.’ He took off one of his gloves. [Ryan Izzo] was like, ‘You want my warm pouch, so you can keep your hands dry?’ [Meyers] was like, ‘No, no, no, but hold my second glove too.’”

“We had a moment as an offense in that huddle,” Newton added, “because it was coming off a TV timeout, and Jakobi was [nervous]. I was like, ‘Bro, relax, if you don’t got nobody, just throw it to your check-down, which is me, and I’m going to make something out of it.’”

That plan went out the window right away, as Cam was covered immediately after releasing the ball:

“When the play was snapped, somebody went straight to me, so I was like, ‘Dang, Jakobi, you have nobody, so just throw it!’” said Newton. “And I was telling him to throw it out of bounds, but he ended up making the play. And when I looked at the play on ESPN, I was like what is [the defender] doing? He’s trying to keep his hands over [Burkhead’s] eyes? But it was just fun, and making those plays is something that we’re going to need moving forward a lot, especially getting into the second half of the season.”

“Fun” is something Patriots fans are welcoming with open arms.  A playoff appearance may still be a long shot, but building off the momentum of this two-game winning streak will bring some excitement back to Pats Nation.

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