New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots are headed to the AFC Championship.
New England’s superb run throughout the postseason continued with a 28-16 divisional round victory over the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, setting up a matchup with the Denver Broncos.
I’ve got your takeaways:
The Patriots were only expected to go as far as Drake Maye was willing to take them this postseason, but through two games the sophomore signal-caller has been nothing more than pedestrian…
Maye has completed 33-of-56 passes for 447 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions during playoff victories over the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans — while fumbling six total times and putting the ball in harm’s way much more often than otherwise.
If they want any chance at actually winning Super Bowl LX, that player and this coaching staff are going to have to find a way to turn things back in the right direction.
Maye’s potential upcoming opponents rank second (Seattle Seahawks; -0.12), fifth (Denver Broncos; -0.09) and sixth (Los Angeles Rams; -0.06) in defensive expected points added per play, and we saw how much he struggled against the teams who ranked first (Houston Texans; -0.13) and fifth (Los Angeles Chargers; -0.09).
It’s time to put the big boy pants on and take your game to an even higher level, Drake.
If there was ever something to be particularly negative about, it’s the way in which this team has gotten pressure on the quarterback.
The Patriots have been extremely disruptive through two postseason games, generating nine total sacks and an unbelievable amount pressures (some have charted it at 54, others at 51) — though those came against the No. 27 (Texans) and No. 30 (Chargers) rated offensive lines, according to PFF.
New England couldn’t get there with four- and five-man pressures, though, as it relied on blitzing to force bad decisions from Justin Herbert and C.J. Stroud, who combined to conclude the regular season with 94.1 and 60.2 quarterback ratings under pressure, respectively.
It’ll be a tad more difficult to successfully blitz against the Broncos, who had the No. 1 ranked offensive line, according to PFF. Jarrett Stidham isn’t exactly someone who should be feared, but cutting the reads down for a backup quarterback typically isn’t smart — it’s just something that seemingly will be necessary in order to play at the same level they have throughout the postseason.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t come back to bite them in the —.
Will Campbell’s limitations reared their ugly head on Sunday.
Maye was only under pressure 27.3% of the time, but the majority of those came on the left side from either Will Anderson Jr. or Danielle Hunter. Campbell allowed two sacks and five total pressures, while the rest of the offensive line only allowed three total pressures.
“I need to play better. I hold myself to a higher standard than what I put out tonight,” Campbell said following...
