Patriots News, 10-26, All Eyes Will Be On Maye Today
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Good morning. Here is your Patriots news, 10-26, and NFL notes this week. The Patriots return home after a long, very profitable road trip, with the opportunity to improve to 6-2 with a win over the Browns and maintain a game advantage over the Buffalo Bills.
Cleveland’s defense has been very stingy thus far this season, and its game plan will center around stopping the torrid start of Maye. Can he continue his streak of outstanding play? However, Cleveland’s offense has not been good. They are still struggling to find an offensive identity.
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel probably isn’t the answer to their long-term question as their franchise QB. He’s played in three games and has yet to turn the ball over, as the Browns opt for short, quick passes and haven’t asked him to do too much yet.
But Cleveland has some youth in place on offense with Gabriel, running back Quinshon Judkins, tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. If Gabriel can develop, they have a youthful core that they can build around.
Lawrence Guy: The Patriots’ former defensive lineman signed a ceremonial one-day contract to retire as a Patriot after a 13-year NFL career that was defined by an almost Mike Rowe-like approach to his craft. Guy did the dirty jobs on the interior of the defensive line.
He was an outstanding run stuffer who earned the respect of his teammates, coaches and the fans for always having a team first mentality. He came to the Patriots in 2017 and earned All Decade honors as well as a Super Bow win over the Rams after the 2018 season.
“I want to thank the Patriots organization and Robert Kraft, it’s a full circle moment,” said Guy. “I wanted to retire in New England because New England was my home. It’s a blessing that I get to be here to do this.”
He was very durable over his seven years in Foxborough, starting 103 of 110 games. He was dependable, and a leader on and off the field, becoming a team captain in 2020, as well as a member of the Patriots All-2010s Team.
“It shows that a lot of hard work and dedication can lead to a lot of ways. It shows other people that were in my shoes… that they can achieve something if they put their mind to it,” Guy said.
Jaylinn Hawkins The Patriots’ safety will return this week from a hamstring injury which forced him to miss the games in New Orleans and Tennessee.
And it couldn’t come at a better time. Cleveland’s offense runs through its two tight ends Harold Fannin Jr. (32 catches, 290 yards) and David Njoku(23 catches, 223 yards). Njoku is questionable to return this week from an injury, where he has been limited all week.
Kevin Stefanski said that he hopes that Njoku will be ready to go today. I think he’ll play, which means Hawkins and the other members of the defense have to be ready for a steady dose of passes across the middle.
NBA Gambling Scandal: The NFL should be very nervous about what just came down around the NBA’s shoulders in this gambling scandal.
On Friday, the NFL sent a memo to its 32 teams, reinforcing players, coaches, staff, and league and club personnel to adhere to the NFL’s gambling policy.
And don’t believe for a second that this was an isolated incident. But the greed of the NFL and other sports leagues have invited the wolf into the henhouse, and this is what happens when the leagues not only tolerated but embraced sports betting on their platforms.
Remember what Goodell said about gambling back in 2012?
“If gambling is permitted freely on sporting events, normal incidents of the game such as bad snaps, dropped passes, turnovers, penalties and play-calling inevitably will fuel speculation, distrust and accusations of point-shaving or game-fixing. … It creates more gambling, it creates more gamblers and it creates the more likelihood that people are going to perceive it as being an influence.”
Why the flip-flop?
That tune changed as the NFL wanted to reap in the untold cash that the sports betting sites have delivered. This is the one way that will erode the growing NFL fan base if something like what happened in the NBA happens in the NFL.
Maybe not an “IF” but a “When.”
Patriots No Huddle Podcast: Derek, Mike, and I broke down the win against Tennessee on our Sunday night postgame podcast. Later in the week, the three of us broke down the upcoming Browns’ game, focusing on key matchups and key strategies for success.
Mike and Derek hosted Jeff Lloyd of “The Orange and Brown Report.” You can find our podcasts on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify. Please take a look and leave us a review.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed how teams used the tight end position.
This will be displayed in our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t even in the team’s HOF.
The Patriots are looking to win their fifth game in a row and sixth game of the season at home against the Browns. Although Cleveland is 2-5, they are coming off a big 31-6 win over Miami last week, turning four turnovers into 21 points.
That is the key from a Patriot’s perspective, protect the football. Cleveland is offensively challenged and without turnovers to help out their offense. If the Patriots play a clean game, they should win this game.
From a Patriots perspective, what must be done to win the game this week?
The Browns have rookie Quinshon Judkins, who is off to a very good start in his career (467 yards rushing, 420 after contact), but while everyone is talking about the Browns defense (and rightfully so), the Patriots’ defense has actually been better against the run.
If Cleveland is going to pull the upset today, Judkins will have to be the offensive catalyst that everything works from. The Patriots rank in the top of nearly defensive run metric, despite playing the 9th most light boxes (six defenders or fewer). Why? The big men in the middle Christian Barmore, Milton Williams, and Khyiris Tonga, penetrating and disrupting things at the point of attack.
If they can win the battle in the trenches, with the big men going against the Browns’ Joel Bitonio, Ethan Pocic, and Wyatt Teller, this would force the Browns to rely on Gabriel throwing the ball to win.
This is where the big men crash the pocket and don’t give the shorter Gabriel the room to step up in the pocket, where edge rushers Harold Landry and K’Lavon Chaisson can clean up and force Gabriel into holding the ball and creating turnovers. Jerry Jeudy and Christian Gonzalez will be a fun matchup to keep an eye on today as well.
The Patriots’ quarterback has been outstanding at throwing the deep ball this season, with Kayshon Boutte becoming a favorite target. While the Browns’ pass rush has been excellent this season, look for Josh McDaniels to scheme up a rollout or bootleg to take a shot or two down the field.
Cleveland doesn’t move CB Denzel Ward from side to side, so Stefon Diggs will probably be matched up with physical corner Tyson Campbell. Campbell’s kryptonite has been the deep ball. This is an area where the Patriots can target either Boutte or Diggs in one-on-one battle to take a deep shot.
This seems like a big week to Diggs targeted a lot, as he excels against man coverage.
The Browns’ Myles Garrett has been getting the majority of the laurels thrown his way this week, and it is well-deserved, he’s one of the best defensive players in the league and will one day reside in Canton when his playing career is done. He and rookie Will Campbell will see a lot of one another this week.
But the Browns also have Maliek Collins, who is playing the best football of his career inside and Mason Graham. The defensive line doesn’t need much help with blitzes, they can, and do bring pressure with the front four. Collins will see rookie Jared Wilson today and this will be a key matchup as well.
Teams have had success against Cleveland by rolling the quarterbacks out to get away from Garrett’s pass rush. Last week, the Browns reacted to this by blitzing a safety on the rollout side. The protection of Maye will loom large this week.
The Patriots ran for 175 yards last week against the Titans. While we don’t expect those kind of numbers this week, the running game will loom large as if the Patriots can generate any kind of success on the ground, it will keep the defense honest and open up play action.
Cleveland’s run defense is nearly as stout against the run as the Patriots’ defense is, so it won’t be easy, but this is again, a question for the Patriots’ offensive line. Look for Josh McDaniels to try to throw some wrinkles against Cleveland’s front seven.
This week may see more of TreVeyon Henderson in both the running and passing game as McDaniels tries to take advantage of Henderson’s speed. It would be nice to see the rookie break out a bit this week.
The Chargers dominated the Vikings on Thursday night because Justin Hebert handled the blitz extremely well, and Carson Wentz couldn’t. I found it curious, however, that the Vikings’ coaches left Wentz in the game while he was in a lot of pain and obviously injured.
It will be interesting to see if getting Lamar Jackson back can propel Baltimore back into the win column this week against the Bears. Baltimore’s struggles have also been defensively this year, as injuries have taken their toll on the Ravens’ defense.
Now we’ll see how the rest of the schedule goes.
Thursday Night Football:
LA Chargers over Minnesota 1-0
Sunday Day Games:
Atlanta over Miami
Cincinnati over NYJ
New England over Cleveland
Philadelphia over NYG
Buffalo over Carolina
Chicago over Baltimore
San Francisco over Houston
Tampa Bay over New Orleans
Dallas over Denver
Indianapolis over Tennessee
Sunday Night Football:
Green Bay over Pittsburgh
Monday Night Football:
Kansas City over Washington
BYE WEEK:
Arizona, Detroit, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Last Week 13—2
2025 Season 73—34—1
2024 Season 204—68
2023 Season 178—94
2022 Season: 178—92—2
2021 Season: 183—88—1
2020 Season: 169—86—1
2019 Season: 162—93—1
“We just have to do a better job of transitioning some of the play actions, and recognizing the opportunities to rush and to affect the quarterback.
“We haven’t given up the amount of X plays that we have but we probably have given up – the quarterback’s probably not held onto the ball as long, and so when you create longer yardage situations on third down – and sacks can be funny.
“I mean, we have however many we have on offense for like 25 yards. Our sack numbers, if you just looked at the numbers, aren’t great, but the amount of yardage that we’ve actually lost – because if the quarterback runs out of bounds for no gain, apparently sometimes it goes down as a sack.
“I wish I had more of those 20 years ago, but I didn’t. And so, we just have to transition, we’ve got to get into the pocket and recognize those opportunities to rush on first and second down that are there when we see that, and there’s indicators.“
Mike Vrabel on the Patriots’ pass rush being more effective on third down rather than first or second.
“Well, I think that you have to kind of trust what you’ve called. And again, if you live in the world of man, then you can sit there, hug and add on against bigger people, which we’ve done at times. And again, just trying not to give up big plays.
“I think that sacks come in bunches. We have to do a better job of affecting the quarterback. I’m not going to say that we need a certain number of sacks. I think we need to, when they throw checkdowns, be ready to come up and tackle so that checkdowns aren’t eight-yard gains.
“Much like that series that we referenced the other day, it was second-and-whatever it was, [Robert] Spillane makes a good bang-bang tackle coming out of zone coverage, makes it third-and-1, we do a good job on the coverage on short yardage, and then we get a sack.
“So, it kind of just is all going into letting each other help, and when the ball gets out quickly and we are in zone coverage, we’re trusting the quarterback look in and the quarterback read. What we can’t have is the quarterback looking over here, patting it, coming back over here.
“That system, that can’t work. So, that would be one where we would, if we start to see that, then we have issues with basically marrying the rush and the coverage up if the quarterback could sit there, stare it down, pump it, come back and do something over there.”
Vrable asked about the pass rush having to deal with opponents keeping guys in to block and chip, and if it affects his game-planning
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“Somebody asked me what success looks like, and I said, ‘Yeah, you can judge it by wins and losses during the season, but success for me in the offseason is going to be that the players believe in what we’re doing, and they believe in the message, they believe in the teaching, and they believe in the connections that we’re making.’” — Mike Vrabel
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Just an FYI that people seem to be missing as they tour the brown’s defense. Their defense, outside of one game, on the road simply has not been very good.