Patriots replay: The win over the Falcons

Bill Belichick dictated most of the terms of Sunday night's 30-23 win over the Falcons — emphasis on "most." On offense, the Patriots were going to outmuscle the Falcons' undersized and undermanned front seven and run the ball straight at them. They ran the ball 10 straight times on one first-half drive, finished with a perfect 31/31 run/pass split and compiled 132 rushing yards and a 4.3-yard average. Their success in the run game opened up the field for the play-action pass in the second half, as well as Kenbrell Thompkins's fantastic touchdown catch on a fade pattern. And on defense, Belichick went all out to slow down two players: receiver Julio Jones and tight end Tony Gonzalez. Belichick had his best cornerback, Aqib Talib, follow Jones around for most of the game, while using Devin McCourty to shadow Jones over the top. Jones did have six catches for 108 yards, but other than a 49-yard catch in the closing moments, his impact was limited. Gonzalez, though, was a different story. No matter how many ways Belichick tried to stop him, Gonzalez found ways to get open — or catch the ball even when tightly covered. Belichick put an army of players on Gonzalez — Jerod Mayo, Dont'a Hightower, Jamie Collins, and Logan Ryan — and had Steve Gregory shadow him over the top on most snaps. Gonzalez never got behind the defense for a huge gain, but none of the defenders were effective, either. Gonzalez caught 12 passes for a career-high 149 yards and two touchdowns, and was simply unstoppable. He had eight catches that went for first downs, and he caught passes even when he was draped by two defenders. By the end of the game, the Patriots were chipping him with three defenders at the line of scrimmage just to slow him down. It was an incredible performance for a tight end of any age, let alone one who is 37 years old and in his 17th NFL season. Fortunately for the Patriots, Tom Brady was a lot sharper than Matt Ryan, who got his team a touchdown on just one of six trips inside the red zone. Some of that was due to tight coverage but some of it was Ryan flat-out missing receivers on relatively easy throws. Video by Alan Miller, Globe Staff. See more at: http://b.globe.com/152jAz2   / boston   Follow us on Twitter   / bostondotcom   Follow us on Google+ https://plus.google.com/+BostonDotCom...