FOXBORO, Mass. — Rookie Marcus Jones stood 44 yards from the line of scrimmage, certain he wasn’t going to touch the football.

Only 26 seconds separated the Jets and Patriots from overtime in a game that had been dominated by the defenses and was without a touchdown to that point. So Jones thought the Jets would punt it out of bounds. Why let the best returner in college football a year ago have a chance at a miracle? Why not boot it out of bounds and dare a stuck-in-the-mud New England offense to score?

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But Jones was wrong. The Jets gave him a chance. And they paid for it.

Jones fielded the ball at the 16, made a quick cut, then raced past would-be tacklers. A stadium full of frozen fans waiting for something to celebrate rose to their feet before Jones crossed the goal line. The place shook when Jones folded his arms, his 84-yard return (and the subsequent point after) giving New England a 10-3 lead with five seconds left. He turned a boring game into a thrilling victory for the Patriots, their 14th straight win over the Jets.

See ya later, @MarcusJonesocho 🔥

📺: #NYJvsNE on @NFLonCBS

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 20, 2022

“I’ve never won a game like that at any level of football,” said Matthew Slater, the team’s longest-tenured player. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, Year 15, you see something else.”

Had the Patriots found a way to lose, their playoff hopes would’ve been on life support and their spot at the bottom of the AFC East solidified. Instead, what followed was a season-saving play that was months in the making.

After the Patriots opted against tendering Gunner Olszewski in free agency last March, finding a punt returner became one of coach Bill Belichick’s top priorities before the NFL Draft. Sure, he had turned players without experience (notably Julian Edelman) into great returners before, but it’s hard to bank on that.

Belichick, who puts a bigger focus on special teams than perhaps any coach in the league, made clear that he had no problem drafting a new returner early on. The team’s pre-draft scouting led to one name that kept popping up: Marcus Jones, a wide receiver-turned-cornerback at Houston who had the best returning statistics in college football, taking four kicks back for touchdowns as a senior.

Marcus Jones shares the NCAA record with 9 career TD returns (six kickoff returns, three punt returns) when he was at Houston.

First career punt return TD is a game-winner.

— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) November 20, 2022

Most teams saw Jones as undersized, a corner who would probably be stuck in the slot because of his height (5-foot-8), a factor that would limit his role and slide him down draft boards. Belichick saw a special teams ace, so he drafted Jones in the third round.

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After the selection, Patriots defensive backs searched on YouTube for his highlights.

“The first thing shown was his return ability,” safety Adrian Phillips said.

He watched a play where, with the score tied and only 30 seconds remaining, Jones returned a kickoff 100 yards for the game-winning score. Phillips thought to himself how nice it would be to have a player like that on his side. That play made the rounds in a group chat among Patriots players.

“They called him the most dynamic returner for a reason,” cornerback Jonathan Jones said.

The potential was obvious when Jones first showed up for practices with the Pats, but the polish wasn’t. He needed some fine-tuning, coaches thought, before he was ready for the role that is extremely important to Belichick. At first, the Patriots gave the gig to Myles Bryant, but Jones continued to work on the side.

Troy Brown, perhaps the best punt returner in Pats history, spent time at practice with Jones. Brown coaches the team’s wide receivers, but Belichick asked if he’d work with returners given his expertise there and Jones’ potential.

“I think Troy Brown has done a great job with him,” Belichick said. “Where Marcus was when he got here and where he is now are — they’re an ocean apart. Troy has really done a good job with the ballhandling, ball catching, making the first guy miss, ball security, setting up blocks, having vision on the ball, the gunner, playing the wind and so forth. Marcus, we didn’t feel like he was quite ready at the beginning of the year. We went with Myles. Then as Marcus got better and gained more experience and confidence and then performed well, then he’s handled all the return game for a number of weeks now.”

Part of Belichick’s midweek game prep is an examination of the weather forecast, an important piece of the puzzle for a coach notorious for considering every aspect of a game. On Friday morning, he realized the direction the wind was blowing that day was the same as the wind expected Sunday afternoon.

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So for the first time this season, Belichick moved the team’s practice inside Gillette Stadium instead of having it on the practice fields outside. He wanted the kickers and returners to get used to the wind pattern.

“The wind was stronger (Sunday) than it was on Friday. But we had the general idea on Friday about the way the ball was going to go and how we would call certain returns based on whatever the situation was: the distance, the field position and the wind and so forth,” Belichick said. “And it did kind of play out.”

Said Bryant, who relieved Jones for a punt return in the fourth quarter while Jones had an ankle injury attended to: “The whole game we knew what the ball was going to do. The wind was blowing to their sideline.”

That’s why, as the Patriots prepped for the all-important punt return with only 26 seconds remaining, they called for a return down the Jets’ sideline.

Jonathan Jones was the right vise on the play, responsible for what would be the final big block of the return. He knew that if Marcus Jones made it past him, he would have only the punter to beat.

Jonathan Jones was turned toward the Jets’ end zone while blocking and faced Marcus Jones at the start of the return.

“We made eye contact, and he took off after that,” Jonathan Jones said.

Marcus Jones easily sprinted past the diving Jets punter, the final player to beat on an improbable run, the NFL’s first punt return for a touchdown this season.

The returner the Patriots fell in love with before the draft, the special-teamer they saw as worthy of a third-round pick, had delivered a season-saving touchdown. Thanks to the win, New England’s playoff hopes are alive and well.

GO DEEPER

Buckley: Rookie Marcus Jones enjoys star turn with late punt-return TD for Patriots

Jones’ play made up for a brutal offensive display, something that will need to change if the postseason is to remain a viable goal. The Patriots know that. They moved the ball OK (they totaled 297 yards of offense to the Jets’ 103) but had nine negative plays, were penalized eight times for 55 yards and played poorly once they neared the red zone.

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Those are legitimate concerns as the season carries on, but addressing them will feel much better after a win. The Patriots are 6-4 now, winners of three straight, and hope to continue leaning on a defense that may be the league’s best. Those are solid reasons for hope.

Plus, there’s the rookie returner who showed Sunday why he was the best in college football a year ago. In what was close to a must-win game, Jones bailed out a bad offense and made a boring contest one of the most thrilling finishes this stadium has seen.

“I think out of all the football movies — ‘Rudy,’ ‘Any Given Sunday’ and ‘Remember the Titans’ — this beats it,” Deatrich Wise Jr. said. “The way it ended was phenomenal.”

(Photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)