The Patriots overcame Saints and the game Officials of Adrian Hills crew. The league needs to look into the possibility that there was a fix in for this games that came in just under the O/U 45 points (25-19). The Patriots answered the bell on the field with an impressive win in New Orleans. The question all week was whether the Pats could follow up their big win against Buffalo with a victory at New Orleans. The Patriots have a historically easy schedule the remainder of the season. Now they are looking forward to potentially three consecutive road wins in a row.
Good
Drake Maye really showed that he has arrived as an NFL QB. Last week the Bills blitzed 10 times and Maye completed 8 on those to the point where they stopped doing it. New Orleans sat back and played zone and the Patriots Offensive line gave Maye time and he completed 18 of 26 for 263 yards and 3 TDs. His Passer Rating was 140.1. I liked Maye’s left-handed pass when rolling left out of the pocket. He threw the ball beyond the Line of Scrimmage, and since he was out of the pocket it wasn’t intentional grounding. Later in the game he scrambles and takes a sack rather than force the pass and possibly make a turnover. That was the only sack of the game. A couple of incompletions were on Kyle Williams and Pop Douglas who ran the wrong routes in the 4th
Kayshon Boutte had the game of his young career. In my preview of the Saints, I said to look out for Boutte today. My thought was that the Saints were going to double Stephon Diggs, leaving Boutte open. That’s 5 catches for 93 yards and 2 TDs. He averaged 18,6 YPC. He is very good with contested catches. He had two of his receptions in the final drive including the 21-yarder on the sideline where he got his feet in bound and was ruled down in-bounds. Boutte has had 16 of his 18 catches been for 1st downs. His last 10 in a row are for a 1st down (or TD).
That was a smart challenge Stretch Streicher and Vrabel. The Patriots challenged the Boutte catch with 2:36 left in the game. The Pats said he was downed in-bounds, which would, keep the clock going. The Saints were out of timeouts, and the Patriots won the challenge and were able to run the remainder of the clock out. On that play, Rhamondre Stevenson had a big blitz pickup that allowed Maye to complete the long developing play.
They also challenged the fumble of Juwan Johnson with the punch out by Jahlani Tavai and recovery by Craig Woodson. They won that one too!
Drake Maye and Pop Douglas finally got on the same page. He had 3 catches on 4 targets, 71 yards, 23.7 YPC and a TD. He also had another 51-yard TD called back on a bogus penalty. His running and yards after catch were tremendous. You also have to give Douglas credit for his downfield blocking.
The Offensive line was clean on Pass Blocking – No Sacks. Will Campbell was tremendous and much better in Pass Blocking than I thought he would be after the pre-season and Training Camp.
The Patriots won the turnover battle 1-0. Drake Maye had 2 fumble recoveries (his own and Garrett Bradbury’s). Craig Woodson had the other Fumble Recovery.
The Run defense was outstanding again. None of the Saints runner got 50 yards rushing and kept them to 73 yards total.
Robert Spillane led the Defense with 11 tackles. Christian Ellis chipped in with 7 Tackles and a Peanut Punch Forced Fumble on Juwan Johnson. Craig Woodson had 6 tackles. You also didn’t hear his name as getting beat. Charles Woods had a punch out on Olave’s fumble that the officials mistakenly ruled incomplete.
Marcus Jones had a terrific game on Defense. He had 5 tackles, a sack, and 3 Pass Breakups. He also came back from being injured to complete the game. Jones is the 1st Patriot since 2003 to have 3 PBUs and a Sack in the same game. Th last was Richard Seymour with 4 PBU and a Sack on Nov 23, 2003.
(PHOTO: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images)
Bad
Rhamondre Stevenson has to go. He made only one carry for more than 4 yards and that was 7 yards. I noticed on the play that Stevenson insists on carrying the ball with his arm under the ball and not gripping it up tight next to his shoulder. He is begging for the ball to be knocked out. He had 13 carries for 18 yards, a 1.4 Yards Per Carry (YPC). He has no vision and badly missed on open hole to his right. I was furious that he was in the game with the ball at the two-yard line. I wanted Henderson in the game in the Red Zone. Overall, the run game is awful, and they were 2.4 YPC on 31 carries.
The line isn’t doing the job either in the run game as they only had 73 yards total with Maye accounting for 28 of those yards.
Drake Maye is not a good short yardage runner on QB sneaks. I also didn’t like how he ran out of bounds at the two-yard line after a 20-yard run. He didn’t take on the DB and launch himself into the End Zone. I think he is a little soft.
We made Spencer Rattler look like an All-Star. He completed 20 of 26 passes for 223 yards but no TDs. Neither team was good in the Red Zone.
Blake Grupe was 4 for 4 on Field Goals, not what I expected for a Kicker that only made 10/15 of his kicks coming into the game.
Ugly
This Officiating crew was absolutely abysmal. They threw the 4th most flags coming into the game. They need to be disciplined or fired. Adam Archuleta, the former NFL Safety and color analyst for the game was appalled at the Offensive Pass Interference call against Stephon Diggs that took away Po Douglas’ TD. The initial contact was beyond 5 yards was initiated by the Defensive player. Gene Steratore, the CBS Rules Analyst and former NFL Referee, even agreed with Archuletta. Steratore notoriously sides with the on-field officials.
Archuleta will surely be reprimanded because of his reference to disgraced NBA Referee Tim Donaghy. He compared the refs in this game to Donaghy who bet on games that he officiated. This single call was the worst I have ever seen. The call was made so late that the TV Analysts didn’t even know about it. It gets worse. The Olave catch and punch out fumble was another call that both Archuleta and Steratore both agreed that it was a fumble. The pass was called incomplete. The Official could have called this a fumble and reviewed the call because all turnovers are reviewed automatically by the booth. Instead, they make the wrong call. I would have challenged the call, but Vrabel didn’t since it was 4th down and they would get the ball back at about the same position on the field after a punt.
Later in the game the ref on the sideline called Stephon Diggs for Offensive Pass Interference. I can’t argue that call because Diggs did push off slightly like most veteran receivers do. However, on the very next play the Official allows Saints defender Quincy Riley to maul Mack Hollins right in front of him.
The Patriots had 11 penalties for 93 yards. The Patriots eventually scored on that drive.
Who thought it was a good idea to run a corner blitz on the 1st defensive play of the game. The corner, Carlton Davis, showed the blitz before the snap and gave it away. That left Kyle Dugger, (who couldn’t cover my mother – and she is dead) in one-on-one coverage. If I know that Dugger can’t cover and has no football instincts, why doesn’t the Patriots coaching staff know this. To make matters worse, they run this play three more times. Rattler gets the ball out in 2.63 seconds. It’s amazing that we got two sacks.
Fourth and 7 at the Saints 39-yard line with 6:29 left in the half, and Garrett Bradbury snaps it wide left, and I mean wide. Maye jumped on the ball for a 14-yard loss which set up a New Orleans’ go ahead Field Goal. Maye also fumbled on a QB sneak and recovered his own fumble.
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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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