Jakobi Meyers: Redemption in Patriots Heartbreaker?
Jakobi Meyers is far from the primary reason why the New England Patriots are inching toward playoff elimination. But his name will, at the very least, rival the Stanford band in terms of mentions during futile lateral-o-ramas that conclude close games.
It'll take more than one futile December afternoon to fully remove the stain of Meyers' misfire ... and even completely erasing his Sin City sin already feels like a bit of a lost cause.
But Saturday afternoon began to forge a path toward making things right, one that saw Meyers contribute to a too-little, too-late effort to create big, high-yardage plays in what became a 22-18 defeat at the hands of the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals.
Meyers, ironically, came through on a lateral of sorts, albeit one of the unintentional variety: with New England facing a 29-yard third down just beyond midfield, Mac Jones went for it all on a single toss, intending to find Scotty Washington in an end zone crowd. The ball bounced off Washington's hands but went into the waiting arms of Meyers, whose 48-yard tally helped narrow the Patriots' gap to one possession.
That score was Meyers' first end zone visit since the Oct. 30 win over the New York Jets and the 48-yard scoring haul was the longest of his career.
Meyers was the Patriots' second-leading receiver on the day, picking up 83 yards on six grabs. It'll likely get lost in the fact that the Patriots' playoff hopes took a major blow thanks to the loss, but there was likely no better way for him to return to the game field after committing one of the most egregious unforced errors in NFL history.
It's a culmination of a week where Meyers handled the aftermath of his error graciously off the field, in a manner that assumed all responsibility and did not go unnoticed by his teammates.
"I think Kobs is just a very routine person, kind of like myself," Jones leading into Cincinnati's visit, per NFL.com. "No matter what happens the week before, we're running the same schedule. I see him at the same times every day and on the off-day, everything, he's a very routine person, and he's not going to let results affect his performance.
"He's going to grind and do whatever he can to help the team like he's done since he's been here ... I'm just proud of the way he's responding."
Their postseason hopes on life support, Meyers and the Patriots (7-8) will try to regroup in a divisional contest against the Miami Dolphins (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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