Pats Pulpit
Whether he would admit it or not, the New England Patriots got a win for Mike Vrabel on Sunday. Taking on the Tennessee Titans, who fired him just two years ago, they celebrated a 31-13 victory that was personal for the players. And so, they went out and took care of business for a fourth week in a row.
Here are our 10 takeaways from this week’s contest.
Maybe it’s the recency bias speaking, but Drake Maye might be in the middle of one of the best stretches for a quarterback in the last 20 years. Since the start of the season, he has completed 75.2% of his passes for 1,744 yards with 12 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions, all while gaining 207 rushing yards and score two more times on 38 carries.
More impressively than that, however, he is just immensely calm and collected for a player with only 19 career starts under his belt. Nothing seems to rattle him.
“He keeps his poise,” said wide receiver DeMario Douglas on Sunday. “Never too high, never too low. He comes into the game very prepared. He watches a lot of film, definitely locked in and gets everybody right in their position. He’s becoming a great leader and his confidence is getting up there. I want his confidence out the roof. So as we play week after week after week I need it to keep going up, and I’m proud of him for sure.”
Through seven games, Maye is the best deep ball thrower in the league; his accuracy and pocket awareness have risen to elite levels. And, for the second time this season, he threw as many touchdowns as he did incompletions, which is just an unreal stat.
If you play zone, he’ll pick you apart. If you play man, he’ll pick you apart. With a quarterback playing the way that Maye is right now, there is no game that is out of reach.
The Patriots will go as far as Drake Maye takes them, and, right now, it looks like he’s going to be able to take them very far.
Slow start hurts again: The Patriots have had a tendency of starting slow this year, and that was the case again on Sunday: the Titans were able to move the ball down the field with ease on their first two drives, taking a 10-3 lead, and eventually leading 13-10 before the visitors scored at the end of the first half. The Patriots took care of the Titans in the second half, and ended up just basically running the clock out at the end of the game, but even though the final score doesn’t show it, the slow start could potentially hurt the Patriots in their next few matchups. That is something that they need to get fixed, especially defensively.
Pass rush is showing signs of life: The Patriots pass rush...
