FOXBOROUGH – If you wanted to see a lot of Drake Maye, we hope you didn’t blink.
It was mostly an evening of hoping Maye and Jacoby Brissett didn’t get injured, showcasing Bailey Zappe for a likely trade, and seeing what all Joe Milton can do. When the evening ended, Brissett and Maye didn’t get hurt, Zappe perhaps caught someone’s eye, and Milton may be the second coming of Michael Bishop.
One has to remember that whatever Milton and Zappe did was against the bottom players of the NFL’s bottom feeder. The Carolina Panthers were the worst team in the NFL in 2023, and had the top pick but had to surrender the pick to Chicago. So one needs to temper their enthusiasm for the Patriots on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium. The defense missed a shutout by just under two minutes, and the Patriots made Jerrod Mayo’s first game as Patriot head coach a happy one with a 17-3 win.
The game was played in a steady rain during most of the first quarter but eventually the rain let up by the second quarter. That made it inadvisable to try and open the playbook for Brissett and Maye.
Brissett played the first series, and went three and out after Rhamondre Stevenson began the drive with an 11-yard run around right end. Brissett overthrew backup tight end Mitchell Wilcox and could not connect on a deep sideline pass to Tyquan Thornton. One could blame these throws on a slippery ball as it was raining hard when Brissett was in.
Maye made his Foxborough debut on the second offensive series and fared a little better. On third and 12 at the Patriot 27, Maye was able to flip a nice screen pass to new Patriot Antonio Gibson in the left flat for 13 yards and a first down. Maye, who was also playing in a downpour, hit Gibson on a nice dump pass, also in the left flat for six yards, but that pass was on third and 11. That was the night for the number three draft pick.
Zappe came in on the third possession to a smattering of boos at Gillette, and it seemed that the crowd wanted more of Maye and was not so much razzing Zappe. Zappe did take the Patriots across midfield (Carolina did not cross midfield in the first quarter), and hit rookie Ja’Lynn Polk for two passes for 9 yards. But he was called for intentional grounding at the Panthers’ 46-yard line which ended that drive.
Halfway through the second quarter, a nice left sideline 28-yard pass from Zappe to Kayshon Boutte set up a two-yard touchdown run by Kevin Harris. The Patriots led at the half, 7-0.
Zappe began the third quarter with two drives that netted a combined 17 yards and two punts. On the third possession of the second half, in came Milton.
The crowd got suddenly electric, and it really began to look and feel like the Michael Bishop era of about 25 years ago. Milton took charge and drove the Patriots to the Panthers’ 24-yard line as the game moved into the fourth quarter. Joey Slye kicked a 41-yard field goal to put the Patriots up 10-0.
On the next drive, Milton led the Patriots on a six-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a nifty left sideline toss to JaQuae Jackson for 38 yards and a touchdown to make it 17-0. It was Milton’s longest throw of the evening. He was mostly hitting short passes and had two scrambles out of the pocket for 25 yards total. His throws were solid and crisp, but mostly passes under ten yards except for the touchdown. He didn’t exhibit any of the mistakes that were reported at the early practices.
You can’t really glean much from this game other than the Patriots played a solid defensive game against a bad team and didn’t really look bad other than some foolish penalties. Zappe needs more time to provide some potential trade partner to stand up and take notice. Neither Brissett nor Maye could provide anything worth commenting on other than they didn’t get hurt and didn’t screw up.
Next week against the Eagles on the road, perhaps we will see a little more of Brissett and Maye. The teams will hold combined practices next week. And let’s also hope for better weather next week down in Philly.
Meanwhile, Patriot Nation has a new quarterback to dream about. And it’s Joe, not Drake.
That’s okay. Bishop was fun to watch. He had someone behind him on the bench in 2000 named Tom. Wonder if Brady enjoyed watching Bishop as much as the fans did.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
Booing Zappe – he’s essentially still on a steep steep learning curve on being an NFL QB and had no chance behind that o-line his rookie seasons. Booing is lack of class condemnation of a 4 win season that took the whole football operation to realize. Not Zappe.
Can’t wait to hear the boston media article titles “Should Joe Milton start vs Cincy?”. “Is the win a sign the pats are turning the corner?” “Should Maye have played a few quaters -instead of Zappe as Maye needs the reps?”. “Would a WR#1 fix this offense? Someone (Boston.com) already said “given Maye is the #2, the only reason to not play Maye a lot is if the 2nd o-line was in there”. Hmm… Maye and Brissett are getting tons of reps in camp. Basically ALL of them….and with red jerseys on in controlled fashion. They’ll get reps vs Philly’s… Read more »