There are a lot of ways to describe Patriots punt returner Marcus Jones. You could go with "electric" or "dynamic," but neither capture what Jones did for the Patriots in Week 4 against the Carolina Panthers.

"I'm pretty ruthless back there," Jones said after he racked up 167 punt return yards, including a game-changing 87-yard touchdown return, to lead the Patriots to a big win on Sunday. 

The All Pro return man really went wild on two of his punt returns to spark New England's 42-13 beatdown of the Panthers at Gillette Stadium. With the Patriots in need of a spark after a slow start defensively and a three-and-out on offense, Jones turned the game on its head in just a few quick seconds.

Jones took a big risk when he fielded a punt from Carolina's Sam Martin at the New England 12-yard line. He had several Panthers in his vicinity when he caught the punt, and had to find a way around four would-be tacklers to have a chance at a big return.

For a few seconds, it looked like a fair catch would have been Jones' best course of action. But that's not a ruthless approach.

Once he got around those Panthers and broke free, there was no bringing Jones down. He raced down the field 87 yards for a touchdown, which put the Patriots on top 7-6 at the time. New England would go on to score 35 more points before the Panthers scored a garbage-time touchdown.

"Fantastic effort by Marcus and everybody else out there. I think a lot of that was just his own individual will, skill and effort," head coach Mike Vrabel said of Jones' return after the game. "Again, that has to be a weapon. It was something that we felt like could be through this season and getting ready for this year."

Jones was indeed a weapon on Sunday, and wasn't done after his 87-yard touchdown. In the second quarter, he broke free for a 61-yard punt return where he broke three tackles and raced up the sideline before Martin was able to trip him up and Jones fell down at the Carolina 14. Running back Antonio Gibson scored a few plays later to give the Patriots a 28-6 lead.

Jones said he'd likely hear about letting a punter bring him down from teammates in meetings this week. But they weren't saying anything bad about him after Sunday's victory.

"Shoot, he's the best in the game at it," quarterback Drake Maye said of Jones' punt return abilities. "Golly, it's fun seeing that ... I sure hope they keep kicking it to him, because he's fun to watch."

"He's not the biggest player, but he's got great play strength with the football in his hand," Vrabel said of Jones. "He's got great vision, and you have to be fearless at some level to catch that punt and know that you're going to make the first guy miss. We're confident in that. It's just a natural skill. It's hard to teach. It's hard to teach with all those bodies in traffic and catching it first and making great decisions with it back there."  

Marcus Jones sets new Patriots record

Jones added a 19-yard punt return in the third quarter that started another New England touchdown drive. It also gave him 167 return yards on the day, which set a new single-game franchise record for the Patriots. Jones beat out Mike Haynes' previous record of 157 punt return yards, which the Hall of Famer set in 1976.

Before Sunday, Jones' previous single-game high for punt return yards was 109. He did that against the New York Jets on Nov. 20, 2022, when the Patriots won 10-3 win on Jones' 84-yard punt return touchdown with five seconds left.

Jones now has four punt returns of 60 or more yards for his career, which is tied with Julian Edelman for the most in Patriots team history.