Some thoughts coming off of Sunday’s win over the Saints:
1) Drake Maye was outstanding on Sunday, finishing Sunday’s game 18-of-26 for 261 yards and three touchdowns in a 25-19 win down in New Orleans.
He put together a solid performance as the club ended up taking some deep shots downfield that certainly yielded some big results.
The first came early in the first quarter when Maye found himself under some pressure, but stepped up and fired a 53-yard pass downfield to a wide-open Demario Douglas, who took the pass into the end zone for a touchdown.
That 53-yard grab for Douglas was the second-longest pass play of the season and was a career-high catch for Douglas, whose previous long had been a 42-yard reception in Week 4 against the Cowboys in 2023.
Maye nearly had another big touchdown throw to Douglas on the ensuing drive that would have been a 61-yard scoring strike, but the officials flagged Stefon Diggs for a questionable offensive pass interference call that negated the play.
Maye later finished the drive with a nice strike to Kayshon Boutte for 25-yards, with Boutte out-muscling a defender to come up with the touchdown.
That throw was terrific, with Maye sliding up in the pocket and dropping the ball into Boutte, who was well-covered, but Maye put the ball over defensive back Kool-Aid McKinstry, and Boutte did the rest and held onto it as he and the two battled out on before they hit the turf.
Maye said that the offensive pass interference penalty on that drive caught him off guard, but he was glad they were able to finish it off.
“I think it was huge,” said Maye on Boutte’s touchdown. “It was a really late call. We were almost on the sideline. I was about to sit down. But I think just coming back and battling and picking up a couple of consistent drives in the first half. Then Boutte with a great play in the back of the end zone, just trying to give him a chance on one-on-one. One-on-one is open in this league, and you got to know that. We left some out there coming out of the half in the second half, first drive. That was a bummer, but you got to keep going.”
Maye came up with a clutch play late, with the quarterback facing a 3rd-and-11 with 2:40 left to go in the contest. Rather than play it safe and run the football and risk kicking it back to New Orleans, Maye made a terrific throw again to Boutte up the left sideline that saw the wideout make a terrific 21-yard catch, while also staying in bounds.
While he was initially ruled out, head coach Mike Vrabel challenged the call and that play allowed the Patriots to kneel on the football and run out the clock for the win.
2) The officiating was pretty horrific on Sunday, potentially the worst I’ve ever witnessed in 25+ years of covering the NFL.
Granted, there weren’t necessarily any historically bad calls, but it might be safe to say that it was collectively the most poorly officiated game I’ve ever seen.
It started with a questionable call on the second deep ball to Douglas that would have been a 61-yard touchdown on the Patriots’ second series. Looking at the replay, the contact took play within the five yards and was incidental at best, but it drew the flag and negated the touchdown.
They also made a questionable defensive holding call on Carl Davis late in the third that extended a drive, but an offensive pass interference penalty on what would have been a 51-yard reception to Diggs was probably the most puzzling. On the play, Diggs had his right hand on the defender’s shoulder to measure where he was, and then pulled both hands in and made the play.
There wasn’t a push off or anything flagrant that should have drawn the flag.
There were also multiple missed calls that were corrected by replay, and it felt like that entire crew was completely out of its depth. Mike Reiss pointed out via ESPN research that the Patriots had 113 yards and a touchdown wiped out by pass interference calls.
Perhaps they’ve heard some of the talk by Vrabel recently about the officiating in recent weeks, and maybe that quietly put them in a mindset to call things close.
Fortunately, the Patriots made enough plays and video corrected a couple of calls that ultimately allowed New England to overcome that and improve to 4-2 on the season.
3) New England caught a couple of breaks on Sunday from an injury standpoint.
They saw Harold Landry, who leads the team in sacks, go down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury early in the first quarter.
Landry eventually walked off the field and went straight into the blue medical tent, and then caught everyone by surprise when he came out and immediately went to the bench and started getting ready to come back in.
He eventually returned and finished the game.
Marcus Jones also seemed to suffer an injury after knocking away the football on a deep throw to Saints wideout Chris Olave. Jones hit the turf hard and stayed down before eventually coming off the field.
Jones ultimately returned, which was good news because he played a big role in trying to keep Olave in check. Olave kicked things off on Sunday with a 53-yard reception on the first offensive play of the game by the Saints, with Olave getting behind Kyle Dugger for a big gain. However, New England adjusted and held him to 45 yards the rest of the way, with Jones playing a big role there.
“He’s one of our captains,” said Vrabel on Jones. “He’s a team leader. Very comfortable with him back there. He’s challenged. He challenges. Most of the time, those matchups are a bigger player, but him being able to go up there, contest the catches, get some PBUs, being able to hammer the ball out, whether it was Christian [Ellis] or [Charles] Woods there at the end, that was another one that was probably close to being challenged.”
Carlton Davis also got nicked up and left the game briefly, but he also returned.
4) Sunday saw changes on the kickoff team, with the club altering things with Antonio Gibson having been placed on injured reserve.
With the Patriots down to just Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson as starters at running back, they took Henderson off of kickoff returns, with both Efton Chism and Terrell Jennings each being active for Sunday’s contest and filling in as the two return men for New England.
Chism handled the bulk of the kickoff duties on Sunday, with the rookie looking a little tentative. He was clearly focused on ball security during each of his run backs, not showing quite the same acceleration or explosion we saw at times this preseason, likely to ensure he didn’t turn it over.
It’s a notable change, as both Henderson and Gibson had carried the load up to that point, with Gibson having broken off a kickoff return for a touchdown a couple of weeks ago.
For now, the Patriots will instead focus on keeping their offensive depth intact as Henderson carried 9 times Sunday for 27 yards, the second-most carries he’s had all season.
5) It was a tough day for Kyle Williams, who the Patriots tried to involve in the offense a little more than we’ve seen up to this point.
Coming into Sunday’s game, Maye had been 2-of-2 targeting him for 20 yards, and Mike Vrabel had said recently, “The ones we’ve thrown to him, he’s caught. And just keep building a role for him and get everybody some opportunities and let the quarterback throw to the guy that’s open.”
Unfortunately, Maye targeted him twice, and it didn’t work out. One attempt came when Williams was pretty well covered on a deep sideline throw, and the second came when it looked like Maye expected him to drift back, and Williams instead stayed inside, and the throw went incomplete.
For a team looking for another weapon to get involved in the offense, it didn’t quite go the way they hoped.
6) The rushing game was brutal on Sunday, and that remains an area of concern.
They finished Sunday’s game with Henderson rushing for 27 yards on 9 carries (3.0 avg), while Stevenson rushed for 18 yards on 13 carries (1.4 avg). But the biggest frustration came when New England got down to the goal line and couldn’t punch it in.
Stevenson was dropped for a 3-yard loss early in the third quarter, which took the Patriots from 2nd-and-1 at the Saints’ 1-yard line to ultimately 3rd-and-9 after he was dropped and they added a delay of game penalty. That sequence forced them to settle for a field goal.
He was also dropped for another three-yard loss during their second-to-last possession, which again contributed to the drive stalling.
“Probably one guy away, like always,” said Vrabel on their struggles blocking in the ground game. “But had some positive runs, and we’ll keep practicing it, and we’ll keep working it.”
However, it remains an area of concern and a problem they have yet to solve.
For now, the Patriots will get to enjoy this one before they come home and prepare to head out on the road for the third consecutive week. Up next will see Vrabel head home in what’s likely going to be a game with some meaning down in Tennessee next Sunday.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
