FOXBOROUGH – The New England Patriots went to their little-used second-round rookie right away in their 23-21 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Tyquan Thornton made two pretty big plays on New England's opening drive.
The first was a 24-yard grab he made while toe-tapping along the sideline to secure the catch. Seven plays later, Thornton got a good play design to get open right next to the pylon and score a rare first-quarter touchdown for the Patriots that put them up 7-0.
Thornton only had one other catch for the, which went for 29 yards, finishing the game off with three receptions for 60 yards with the touchdown. But it was the rookie's most productive day since Week 6 and his first real productive game with Mac Jones at quarterback.
His solid performance also came a week after he made a costly drop on a Jones deep ball in the Patriots' loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Thornton felt like he had to make up for that.
“It means a lot,” Thornton said. “Just to step up. I feel like I owed them for last week. So just to do that for my quarterback, the rest of the offense and the rest of this organization. It means a lot to me.”
Thornton said that he didn't dwell on his drop last week and added that he felt he had to step up because of the “whole scenario.”
Thornton seems to have the trust though of the two most important people: Jones and Bill Belichick. The quarterback gave the rookie glowing praise following the game, touting Thornton's ability and stated how much he's looking forward to playing with him for years to come.
“I think he's a really good route runner, really good, fast, smart kid,” the Patriots QB said. “Works hard. Doesn't complain about anything. Just goes out there and does what he's supposed to do. We have a lot of guys like that on our team. Just excited to grow with him. He's a young player. I'm a young player.”
Jones also said that the two are “working every day to get that chemistry.”
“He's done a great job. Definitely, we're going to watch the film together,” Mac Jones said. “I always like to tell him things to work on, same thing with him. He's very comfortable about telling me, ‘Hey, put it here, put it there, let's try this, try that.' As a young player, definitely impressed with him. His ability to communicate at a really high level during the games by telling me what he sees, too. Love our receivers and all those guys. They fight hard for each other, fight hard for the team. That's what it's all about.”
Jones certainly seemed to look at Thornton's way more than usual on Sunday. He was targeted seven times, the most in any game of his career with Jones looking to hit him on a pair of deep shots during the second half that just fell incomplete.
Bill Belichick has hopes that Thornton can develop into a good vertical threat.
“It's good to have him. He came back early in the year but he missed so much time early, it took him a little while to catch up on some things,” the Patriots head coach said. “He's an explosive player that can attack the vertical part of the defense. Fast with run-after-catch opportunities, things like that. But like any rookie, there's always room for improvement. There's things he needs to work on and can do better. But he certainly helps us. He's a big target. Obviously the quarterbacks, Mac likes to throw to him. Big, fast guy. Quarterback-friendly.
“But, yeah, he's made some big plays for us. He opens up some other things because of his ability to stretch the field vertically. Hopefully we can hit on him some more going forward.”