Pats Pulpit
Ahead of this year’s training camp, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained that he was looking at his team’s performances in three distinct categories. There is the good, the bad, and, as he called it, the s—t that gets you beat.
Sunday’s 28-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers saw plenty of all three, with the good naturally winning out in the end. Still, if the coach wants to look at the Patriots through the three categories he established, who are we to disagree? So, let’s break down the Week 10 game in exactly that manner.
Even though the Patriots were missing their field stretcher at the wide receiver position, Kayshon Boutte, due to a hamstring injury, they still managed to generate several chunk plays both in the passing and in the running game. In total, New England registered six plays against the Buccaneers that can be classified as “big,” i.e. being runs of 10-plus and passes of 20-plus yards.
Those included three carries by second-round rookie TreVeyon Henderson, who found the end zone from 55 and 69 yards out in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, and who also had a 16-yarder in the first period. In addition, third-round draft pick Kyle Williams scored his first career touchdown on a 72-yard catch-and-run that was the Patriots’ longest play from scrimmage in four years.
“Two explosive plays and then I think Kyle’s play early — we really needed that one,” said Mike Vrabel about the rookies’ contributions. “That was the one that we were talking about, just needing one play and he hit it, and it was great to see him have that success.”
In addition, the Patriots also converted two third downs thanks to big plays. There was a 26-yard pass from Drake Maye to DeMario Douglas to convert a 3rd-and-9 on their touchdown drive in the late first half, and then later a 54-yard connection between the second-year quarterback and wideout Mack Hollins to move the chains on a 3rd-and-14 in the fourth quarter.
And while it does technically not belong in the X-play category as far as yardage is concerned, the Patriots defense also delivered big. Following Maye’s red zone interception in the fourth quarter — more on that in a second — the unit delivered a four-down stand to keep the score at 21-16 inside the two-minute warning.
You might be surprised to see the run game mentioned in this category given that the Patriots ended Sunday’s game with a total of 167 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground. However, a significant portion of that yardage was produced by the chunk plays mentioned above. As a whole, New England’s running game and especially the blocking up front was mighty inconsistent versus the Buccaneers.
TreVeyon Henderson, Terrell Jennings and D’Ernest Johnson combined to carry the ball 19 times on Sunday. While, yes, those include the two long touchdowns, the story of the Patriots’...
