FOXBOROUGH - Gabe Jacas has built his game around getting after quarterbacks, not catching their mistakes. On Sunday, though, the Patriots rookie found himself in the right place at the right time and turned a tipped ball into the first interception of his football career.
That pick came in just his second NFL game and helped fuel a defense that smothered Aaron Rodgers in New England’s 20-3 win. Jacas snared a wobbling pass after a tip drill and, in the process, ended Rodgers’ run of 310 pass attempts without an interception.
“The ball was up and I just got it,” Jacas said postgame. “It was just surreal because I never had a pick before in my career. … It was pretty cool to get the first pick against Aaron Rodgers.”
The turnover was part of a day when the Patriots kept landing body blows on Rodgers. Elijah Ponder added a scoop-and-score touchdown, Christian Barmore helped force the fumble that led to it, and New England’s defense finished with four sacks, two turnovers, seven more quarterback hits and just 235 total yards allowed.
“Coach got on our ass all week in practice: ‘We’ve gotta get in the middle of the pocket. We’ve gotta put our hands up.
… We’ve gotta put pressure on the quarterback. Anybody.’
That was our goal, and we took that personally,” defensive lineman Christian Barmore said postgame.
The performance came in a game where the Patriots were already dealing with major injury trouble. Michael Onwenu’s reported season-ending ankle injury was the biggest hit, but New England also lost edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones, safety Craig Woodson and safety Dell Pettus during the win. Jones went down with a shoulder injury, leaving the Patriots even thinner at pass rusher with Harold Landry still on the physically unable to perform list because of a nagging knee issue.
That forced Mike Vrabel and his staff to lean on a young, untested edge group that included Jacas, 2026 seventh-round pick Quintayvious Hutchins and Ponder, who entered the league last year as an undrafted free agent out of Cal Poly.
“They’ve [Pittsburgh] got T.J. Watt and [Alex] Highsmith and [Nick] Herbig, and we’ve got Ponder and Jacas and Q, so I’m proud of our guys for going out there and being ready,” Vrabel said postgame.
Ponder did plenty to justify that trust. He finished with a sack, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and the defensive touchdown that gave New England insurance in a 13-3 game. On the play, Barmore won at the line, knocked the ball loose from Rodgers and Ponder scooped it up for the score.
“Once I heard the stadium erupt, my teammates coming to celebrate with me, I was just overwhelmed with joy,” Ponder said. “I’m glad that I was able to make that play with all the dudes on the field and to help out the team, really.”
Jacas has also started to look more comfortable after an abbreviated training camp and an uneven preseason. Against Seattle in Week 1, he had a sack and two tackles for loss, and against Pittsburgh he added the interception and forced an incompletion while pressuring the quarterback.
“He cares, extremely, and it’s an extreme amount,” Vrabel said of Jacas. “He cares, he comes in early, he stays late … he works with all the coaches, he cares about his teammates, he goes hard, he makes mistakes. And the thing about Gabe is he can work through mistakes, and I think that’s critical for any young player trying to improve, is you have to be willing to make new mistakes and be OK with that, and be able to be coached, and I think he’s been able to do that.”
Jacas has already made his presence felt in a short time on the pro stage, though he still drew some teasing afterward.
“I’m going to clown him a little bit for being tackled by [Rodgers],” cornerback Christian Gonzalez said of Jacas.
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