That’s the way … ah-huh, ah-huh I like it, ah-huh ah-huh!
In what could be considered a must-win game, the Patriots blew out the Carolina Panthers 42-13. I don’t know how the Panthers shut out the Falcons last week. I think all the stars had to align for that to happen. They were awful. Bryce Young is one of the worst QBs in the league.
I would also add that the Steelers’ upset win in Ireland makes the Patriots’ play last week look even better. The Patriots dominated the game, and without the 5 turnovers, would have won that game. Fumbling inside the 5-yard line and an Interception at the two was the difference. Lots of good stuff to highlight from Sunday.
The Good
Marcus Jones shifted the momentum with an 87-yard punt return touchdown in the first quarter. The Panthers scored first but missed their extra point. After a Patriots three-and-out, Carolina was stopped at New England’s 43 and opted to punt, resulting in a short kick to the 13-yard line. Expecting a fair catch, Carolina watched as Jones made a decisive move and ran it back for the score. Jones later returned another punt for 61 yards before being tripped by the punter, narrowly missing another touchdown. He set a new Franchise record with 167 yards in Punt Returns in a single game. That was on just three returns. The record of 154 yards in a game was held by NFL Hall of Famer Mike Haynes and set in 1976.
Milton Williams, despite being the highest-paid player, was playing on the Punt Return team and accidentally injured teammate Charles Woods on the play.
Drake Maye missed his initial pass in that first series, throwing the ball high and behind Kayshon Boutte. Maye and the offense sat for about 20 minutes because of the Jones Punt Return. He calmed down and then reeled off 8 completions in a row. He finished 14 of 17 for 203 yards with 2 passing TDs and 1 Rushing TD. His QB Rating was an outstanding 155.6. The one sack was Maye tucking it and not trying to do too much, and just took the sack and lived to play on. Maye managed the game well and maybe had just one turnover-worthy play. For the day, he had 3 TDs and 3 Incompletions.
Stefon Diggs had 6 catches on 7 targets for 101-yards. This was his first 100-yard game since October 15th, 2023 against the Giants. Mike Vrabel was asked if the game plan was to get Diggs the ball, and he emphatically said they were throwing to the open man. His highlight was a 30-yard back shoulder catch on 4th and 3 late in the third quarter, leading to their final touchdown.
The Offensive Line had a very good game. They gave Maye a tremendous amount of time, as was evident by the long developing crossing route by Stefon Diggs for a 22-yard catch. The Pats ran for 104 yards, but they were able to establish the run early, and it set up the play-action passing game. Carolina had only 1 sack (Maye’s fault) and one QB hit. Ben Brown filled in for Jared Wilson, and there was no reduction in efficiency. I also noticed the lineman getting downfield with the runner, trying to extend the play. This is something they didn’t do last week, and were not in a position to recover a fumble.
Hunter Henry had another good game with a nice catch and run for a TD. He had two catches for 39 yards and the TD. Mike Vrabel made a point at his press conference to praise Pop Douglas for making the downfield block that sprung Henry for the TD.
Austin Hooper had a nice screen pass for 24 yards to get the Pats on their way to a 6 play 80-yard drive for a TD. Hooper also had two very good downfield blocks in the game as well.
The Patriots unleashed their own version of Cerberus, the mythical Greek three-headed dog. Their running backs split the carries with Rhamondre Stevenson (9-38), TreVeyon Henderson (7-32, TD) and Antonio Gibson (6-27, TD). All three averaged over 4 yards a carry. An interesting note is that Rhamondre Stevenson started the game and took the 1st carry. This was a clear message from Mike Vrabel that he is backing Stevenson and not benching him over his fumbling issue. It was also Vrabel thumbing his nose at the media, which called for accountability and the benching of Stevenson, including me.
Josh McDaniels had a great day calling plays. He used jet sweeps and motion to confuse Carolina. They had 7 explosive plays of 20+ yards, and he only threw the ball deep downfield on that Diggs play on 4th and 3. Carolina usually plays three high safeties, and they have two excellent Cornerbacks. The Panthers don’t give up too many big plays. In this game, he added a TE screen, a Counter Bash, and a Jumbo Package near the goal line with Vederian Lowe as a 3rd TE and Jack Westover at Fullback.
Jack Gibbens came in during the 2nd defensive series and seemed to settle things down. He ended up leading the team in tackles with 12.
The Patriots were 4 for 4 in the Red Zone against one of the best Red Zone Defenses in the league through 3 games.
Sometimes stats are misleading. With the two big punt returns the Patriots and two 4th Down stops, the Patriots lost the Time of Possession 35:14 for Carolina to 24:46.
Christian Gonzalez looked a little rusty out there. However, he and his secondary mates held Tet McMillan to 4 catches and 68 yards. He was 1 for 3 against Gonzalez when matched up one-on-one. McMillan was targeted 8 times. I thought that Gonzalez was hesitant to come up and tackle, and Carolina didn’t try to run his way very often.
Dell Pettus had a Forced Fumble late in the game when the subs were in. I was very disappointed that Kyle Dugger made no attempt to dive for the ball and keep it in bounds. I know the game was already won.
The Defense had 5 Tackles For Loss and held the Panthers to 5/13 on 3rd down and 1/3 on 4th
Mike Vrabel gets his 1st win at home.
Loved the T-Strong shirts the players wore before the game. Nice to keep Coach Terrell Williams in their minds. Coincidentally, and perhaps fittingly, the game was the Patriots’ “Crucial Catch” game. Each NFL team has one home game where the team promotes prevention and early detection of cancer and advocates for cancer screenings.
No Turnovers
Bad
The Defense’s tackling remains to be a problem as they were very bad in that 1st TD drive by the Panthers.
Christian Ellis was benched after his poor start. He even picked off Marcus Jones on the 1st Panthers TD. To Elliss’ credit he had 9 tackles in the game.
Too many penalties again for the Patriots. They had 7 for 54 yards. A couple of those were very questionable calls. I particularly didn’t like the holding call on TreVeyon Henderson. To start the game, there were five straight calls against the Patriots and none against the Panthers. Later in the game, Mike Vrabel was visibly upset over a non-call of holding against the Panthers. If you can read lips, you could clearly see the expletive that Vrabel was spewing.
Panthers TEs made 11 catches against the Patriots, and they were missing their starter, Ja’Tavion Sanders.
Carolina was the 1st team to run for over 100 yards on the Defense (129 yards) this year. A lot of those running plays came early in the game and late in the game when it didn’t matter.
On Stevenson’s 22-yard run, if Will Campbell had made his block sealing the LB inside, Stevenson would have taken the rock to the house.
Jaylinn Hawkins appears to have a Hamstring Injury.
Ugly
You aren’t going to believe this, but I am so euphoric after this win, I can’t find anything that I would consider Ugly!
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Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.
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You date you, and me, with that song! LOL.