Pats Pulpit
On the first night of December, the New England Patriots became the first team around the NFL to reach 11 wins.
Head coach Mike Vrabel’s side defeated the New York Giants by a score of 33-15 to get there at Gillette Stadium.
Here’s a glance back on Monday’s 8:15 p.m. ET kickoff as the bye week awaits.
The road to an 11-2 record required a 10th win in a row. It also required Drake Maye.
The Patriots quarterback completed 24-of-31 passes for 282 yards against the Giants. Making the difficult appear easy, his night brought two early touchdowns and no turnovers.
Taking the field “11” personnel, New England’s opening drive stretched a dozen plays. It ended with a third-and-goal incompletion on a corner route and a field goal. That had been an all-too-familiar outcome in the red zone for a team ranked in the middle of the pack there entering Monday. But quickly back on the field with a 10-0 lead in hand, a fading goal-line touchdown to wide receiver Kayshon Boutte was the result next time out. With that, the Patriots stood with 17 points through only 16 offensive snaps.
The 23-year-old MVP candidate under center kept cruising. Against the blitz, Maye connected with rookie wideout Kyle Williams’ track speed on the perimeter. A clean release off the line of scrimmage was met by perfect ball placement for a 33-yard touchdown strike to the Washington State product.
The score read 30-7 at halftime. Maye had a 143.1 passer rating as well as 10.4 yards per pass attempt by then. Heading out of it, he added a fourth-and-6 conversion to veteran wideout Stefon Diggs and spread the wealth to eight different targets by game’s end.
Fellow captain Hunter Henry again led the aerial attack with 73 receiving yards. A 36-yard pickup on a sail route was among them for the tight end, who had a touchdown nullified by offsetting penalties.
The Patriots had been healthy enough to start the same offensive linemen for 10 of the season’s initial 11 games. But that run reached its end. With left tackle Will Campbell on injured reserve due to a knee injury and left guard Jared Wilson ruled out due to an ankle injury, a new combination was unlocked for Monday.
Without the rookies from LSU and Georgia, New England turned to 2024 starters Vederian Lowe and Ben Brown on the blindside. And while center Garrett Bradbury became a late addition to the questionable list because of an illness, the ironman of 778 offensive snaps remained next to right guard Mike Onwenu and right tackle Morgan Moses.
The Giants went on to notch three sacks during the visit to Foxborough. The latest No. 3 overall pick, Abdul Carter, got the first for no loss to force a punt. Zaire Barnes and Dane Belton also got in the column for New York.
Rookie swing tackle Marcus Bryant would be a...
