Six Thoughts After Patriots Win Over Miami: Redemption For Maye In a Hard-Fought Win
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Some thoughts coming off of Sunday’s win down in Miami:
1) Following a tough loss to open the season last weekend, New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye found himself at the center of the criticism all last week after a shaky performance against the Raiders.
In last Sunday’s outing, Maye looked skittish and unsure of himself, starting off the game erratically and never quite looking in command as the offense managed just 13 points in a 20-13 loss.
On Sunday, this was a considerably better effort. Unlike last week’s slow start, Maye was in control early, and he needed to be against a Dolphins team that made things tough all afternoon.
Following a handoff to Rhamondre Stevenson that went for 3 yards, rookie left tackle Will Campbell was called for a false start that backed them up five yards. Maye then threw an incomplete pass to Hunter Henry, causing them to face a 3rd-and-13, which easily could have derailed the drive.
But Maye then went on a streak that saw him connect on his next 12-straight throws, which started after he connected with Stevenson on a 10-yard pass. He then followed that up with a 10-yard strike to Stefon Diggs after Mike Vrabel elected to go for it on 4th-and-3 at the Dolphins’ 43 yard line.
But Maye wasn’t done. He followed that up with a great throw to Austin Hooper after he rolled right and then threw back up the left sideline, with the tight end hauling in the pass for a 22-yard gain.
Two plays later, Maye threw a perfectly thrown ball to Mack Hollins in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown, and New England grabbed the early lead up 6-0 after Andres Borregales missed the extra point (more on that in a bit).
Calm. Focused. Efficient. That’s what Maye was all afternoon, and he finished missing just four passes, hitting 19-of-23 for 230 yards and two touchdowns.
“I think there’s a lot of good things and a lot of things that we’ll have to fix,” said Vrabel after the game. “The command, the operation, and when he feels that lull, that’s when we got to tighten the screws on these guys and get him set faster, get him out of the huddle faster, and really push him, you know what I mean?”
“He’s a jockey, and he’s got to know what the flow of the team looks like offensively. We had a couple of penalties, and there’s these false starts, and again, things that we really aren’t going to be able to overcome eventually.”
Overall, Maye orchestrated things quite well. New England finished the day 7-of-12 on third down (58%), with Maye completing 7-of-8 of his throws on third down with four first downs, along with that earlier-mentioned conversion on fourth down. He was also 7-of-9 for 101 yards in the second half.
One of his best throws came late in the third quarter. After Morgan Moses was beaten around the outside by Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips on a 3rd-and-3 from the New England 24, it looked like Phillips was going to possibly drop Maye for a sack and kill the drive. Instead, Maye made a nice move to avoid Phillips, who reached for him and missed, and the second-year QB then stepped up into the pocket and delivered a perfectly thrown pass up the right sideline to Stevenson.
The play from @DrakeMaye2 to @dreeday32 that set up the score ⏩
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/F20NTJVCSr
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 14, 2025
That play went for 55 yards, setting New England up at the Miami 21. Two plays later, Maye ran it in from 6 yards out, putting the Patriots on top at 23-20 heading into the final quarter of play.
“It feels good,” said Maye after the game. “It took everybody. I think that’s the biggest thing. It took everybody. Special teams, offense, defense, trainers, everybody helps us out. That one felt good. I’m just proud of our guys for just sticking with it. So many ups and flows of the game, ebbs and flows. Just proud of the guys. That one feels good.”
2) It was a nice afternoon of redemption, especially coming off a week full of chatter and questions about his potential future as the quarterback of this football team. Following last week’s outing, there had been a fair amount of chatter as doubt began to seep in about whether or not Maye could be the right player for this team moving forward.
The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan had some interesting comments leading up to the game during his podcast with Doug Kyed late last week. Callahan explained that while the expectations were high on Maye coming into the season, the club is still treating him essentially as a rookie in Josh McDaniels’ system.
“There are some people in the building who see him as a little bit closer to a rookie than a year two player, which I only knew as of late last night, and I think that’s really important context for how they’re treating him and seeing him,” said Callahan. “We all know he needs to play better, but you even heard it from Josh McDaniels [Thursday]. He’s a young quarterback. It’s year one in the system.”
“I don’t know where I personally land on that. I call this year 1.5 of the rebuild. Maybe that’s the best way to see Drake Maye. But he’s not going to be extended the excuses publicly that they might internally. So, I think that’s just the context of where they just say, ‘Hey, look, he’s not played a lot of football, this even goes to UNC, it’s going to take some time.’ And when his play is what it is, his response and his reaction afterwards is going to matter a lot.”
Given all the discussion about his play, that certainly provides some context in terms of how they’re looking at it.
Still, one thing that was evident this week was that Maye’s confidence was at a different level, and despite everything the Dolphins threw at him, he never once looked rattled.
That’s a massive positive to take away from this one as Maye continued laying the foundation for what appears to be a much more promising 2025 season.
3) Anytime a team runs back a kick for a touchdown, whether it’s a kickoff or a punt return, it can certainly be one of the more demoralizing plays in football.
That’s what happened to the Patriots midway through the fourth quarter after a terrible snap by Garrett Bradbury slipped by Maye on a 2nd-and-13 and put them back in a 3rd-and-26 from their own 8 yard line.
Two plays later, Bryce Baringer boomed a 65-yard punt down the field, and after Brendan Schooler narrowly missed Malik Washington after the Miami receiver caught the football, Washington managed to get outside and slip past a diving Baringer, taking off for a 74-yard touchdown.
That play put the Dolphins up 27-23 and seemed to potentially be the knockout blow to a Patriots team that is no stranger to plays like that in South Florida.
But Vrabel’s team hit right back. Antonio Gibson ran the ensuing kickoff into Miami’s kickoff coverage and slipped through himself, with Gibson then kicking into high gear and accelerating away as Miami couldn’t catch him.
The only person near him was Vrabel, who was also running alongside him on the sideline with his arms in the air as the veteran running back took the kick 90 yards into the end zone.
“I just was watching at about the 50, and I’m just excited for these guys,” said Vrabel. “I’m really excited that they could fight and compete, come on the road, be in a game, get off to a good start, not be front-runners, everything that we talked about.”
Gibson’s return put New England back on top at 30-27 and it ended up being the pivotal play they needed to take the wind out of Miami’s sails.
The Dolphins then fell apart. Despite a couple of completions, including converting a 3rd-and-7 to move the chains, they then committed a delay of game and false start penalty, causing their last gasp to fall apart before Marte Mapu ultimately capped it off by picking off Tua Tagovailoa on a 4th-and-9 play that helped kill any remaining momentum they had.
The Dolphins’ problems carried over into their next possession, with two more untimely penalties before the Patriots defense sacked Tagovailoa on Miami’s final two plays to close out the game.
Before the game, a banner flew overhead calling for both head coach Mike McDaniel and GM Chris Grier to be fired, and it was obvious after the game that McDaniel is feeling the pressure. With his team sitting at 0-2, McDaniel certainly made some questionable comments after it was over, which likely won’t help his cause. Despite saying the responsibility for the loss fell on him, it didn’t stop him from pointing fingers.
“I think that ultimately, I look at absolutely everything falling on me,” said McDaniel. “I don’t see that’s the responsibility of a head coach that you go into knowing that. That being said, I’m very frustrated with some, basically, coaches and players that did not execute communication in a very dire period of the game. With the game on the line, our communication and our substitution was not up to par.”
The Dolphins won’t have much time to lament this loss, and they potentially face the prospect of dropping to 0-3 with a trip to Buffalo up next on the Dolphins Schedule on Thursday night.
4) New England’s secondary had a rough time as Christian Gonzalez continues to miss time.
Sunday saw them battle to keep up with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, as Tagovailoa completed 26-of-32 for 315 yards and two touchdowns, with both Hill and Waddle finishing with 109 and 68 yards, respectively.
Waddle made the first big play of the afternoon, beating Alex Austin for a touchdown, while Hill later got Austin on a 47-yard completion that ultimately led to a field goal.
With those two guys grabbing a considerable amount of attention, that ultimately led to De’Von Archane to take advantage as he caused problems after hauling in 8 catches for 92 yards, as well as 30 yards for 11 carries on the ground.
As the Patriots tried to give safety help to deal with Miami’s two receivers, Archane found himself in some favorable match-ups against New England’s linebackers, including a 29-yard touchdown where he beat Robert Spillane on the play before breaking three tackles at the goal line and ending up in the end zone.
While New England won the game, it was a reminder that not having their key defender on the edge opposite Carlton Davis put their second and third depth players, Austin and Marcus Jones, in some difficult positions.
Vrabel explained after the game that he knew going into it that Miami would have their moments.
“I told you that we had to be willing to give up some of those plays outside the numbers. They hit a couple off us. They hit a couple of those sevens and those corners. I told the team that that was what going in, we were going to make them hit him, and they probably hit too many, but again, we’ll be okay.”
Tagovailoa didn’t make it easy. He had two stretches where he hit 9 straight passes, and then another where he hit another eight in a row. Fortunately, he made the critical mistake at the end, which was obviously the difference in the game.
Give the Patriots credit for doing enough to come away with the victory. But the sooner Gonzalez returns, the easier things will likely get for a secondary that definitely looked like it was stretched pretty thin on Sunday.
5) Borregales had another tough day Sunday. Much like last week, he struggled early, this time missing his first two extra point attempts, which is strange considering he played football in college at that stadium and it was essentially like a sort of homecoming for him.
He got a little redemption later on after hitting a 22 yard field goal near the end of the half, while also drilling a 53-yard kick that kept the pressure on Miami late in the contest and ultimately iced the win.
But one play after hitting that long field goal, Borregales made a critical mistake where he kicked the ball short of the landing zone on the ensuing kickoff, which gave Miami good field position.
Fortunately, they didn’t take advantage and New England walked away with the victory, but his early season struggles remain an area of concern.
Vrabel took a chance on him, and so far Borregales has yet to reward him for it. It also doesn’t help that John Parker-Romo has gone on to have success in Atlanta, with the former Patriots kicker finishing Sunday night a perfect 5-of-5 on field goals, along with 1-of-1 on extra points in a win over Minnesota.
Still, Vrabel was pleased with the way Borregales did manage to bounce back after his rough start Sunday.
“Yeah, got to have a lot of confidence in him, and I do have a lot of confidence,” said Vrabel. “I didn’t waver. Was going to go for the fourth and five to try to get it there. Then when we got backed up, I immediately just kicked the field goal.”
“I’m happy for Andy. That’s why he’s here. Thought after the first two, [he] really settled down. That’s what we’ll have to have.”
6) Rhamondre Stevenson certainly came away with a little bit of redemption on Sunday.
One week removed from a rough outing against the Raiders, Stevenson looked like a different player yesterday.
He ran for 54 yards on 11 carries, with Stevenson making a couple of nifty moves on more than one occasion to slip through tackles and pick up yards.
He also led all receivers with 5 catches for 88 yards, including his 55-yard catch that led to a touchdown. That play was the club’s longest since the 58yd touchdown pass by Mac Jones to Pharaoh Brown back against the Jets in Week 3 of 2023, and it was longer than last year’s 50-yard pass to Gibson in Week 4 in San Francisco by Jacoby Brissett.
Coming off the loss against the Raiders, Stevenson didn’t look at all like himself, which was tough to watch. This week, it was a different story, and as Maye said, they’ll need everybody this season if they hope to continue toward working their way to becoming contenders in the months ahead.
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