New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots are legit.
I’ve been cautious when predicting just how successful the organization can be in the immediate future, as conventional wisdom would suggest this is just the first step to a prolonged rebuild.
Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye have other ideas…
The Patriots kept themselves in the driver’s seat in the AFC East, securing a gutsy 28-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. I’ve got your takeaways:
Drake Maye is the odds-on favorite to win MVP — but he’s nothing if not flawed.
Maye not only tossed a careless end-zone interception late in the fourth quarter — which kept his opponent in a position to score the game-winning touchdown — but also had multiple instances where he straddled the sideline and took unnecessary hits that could have led to an injury.
The Patriots will ride the highs and lows, especially if he continues to play like a top-five quarterback, but the unnecessary nature of those mistakes are pretty frustrating.
Kyle Williams and TreVeyon Henderson, take a bow.
The Patriots rookies combined for three explosive touchdowns on Sunday — with Williams’ 72-yard catch-and-run serving as the club’s longest passing play of the season and Henderson’s 55-and 69-yard scampers serving as the club’s longest rushing plays of the season.
New England selected those two with the express intent of adding an explosive element to the offense, and finally saw that investment pay off as their roles expanded following injuries to wide receiver Kayshon Boutte and running back Rhamondre Stevenson.
The Patriots must have done something to irk mother nature, who displayed her wrath early in what ended up being an alright afternoon in Central Florida.
New England’s first offensive drive was pretty ugly, as sudden rain had an obvious impact on back-to-back run stuffs that forced an early fourth-down conversion and three straight misfires from Drake Maye. Tampa Bay’s first two drives — which included a touchdown — were played under clear skies.
CBS’ Jim Nantz and Tony Romo joked that an investigation would have been opened had that odd trend continued.
Mike Vrabel got entirely too cute at the end of the first half…
The Patriots purposely didn’t score from the one-yard line, electing to burn some clock despite earning a new set of downs at the goal line following the two-minute warning. The Buccaneers, of course, contributed to that decision, calling their third and final timeout to stop the clock at 1:44.
Maye essentially kneeled on the ball to start killing clock, before Henderson was denied on back-to-back plays to set up fourth down — where Stefon Diggs bailed everyone out with a spectacular touchdown catch as time expired in the second quarter.
K’Lavon Chaisson, Khyiris Tonga and Mack Hollins have been absolutely fantastic this season — which is a decent reminder not to make sweeping assumptions about depth signings.
Chaisson continued adding to...
