One of the biggest discussions during the New England Patriots’ winning streak has centered around the fact that before anyone can make a real evaluation on this football team, we needed to see how they fared against a better opponent.
On Sunday, the Patriots faced a 6-2 Buccaneers team on the road, and the result ended up as the club’s 7th consecutive victory as they improved to 8-2 on the season.
This one also played out similar to what we’ve seen over the last month or so as this winning streak has continued. New England got down early, settled in, and then made play after play before ultimately walking away with the victory.
It didn’t matter if they were playing a hapless Browns team or a potential NFC playoff team in the Buccaneers. Drake Maye and company battled and kept coming at them until they broke a couple of big plays and ultimately ended up on the right side of the scoreboard.
While some will argue that Tampa Bay was significantly depleted by injuries, it also doesn’t change the fact the Patriots had their own issues. With Kayshon Boutte sidelined, the question heading into this one was whether or not New England would be able to make some explosive plays down the field and keep pace with a Buccaneers offense that is also in the top half of the league in points per game.
They ended up doing just that. The Patriots finished Sunday’s contest with four plays of 50+ yards, with two coming on a couple of great throws by Maye, while TreVeyon Henderson broke off two unbelievable long touchdown runs. The rookie kicked things off with a 55-yard touchdown run on just the second play of the third quarter, and then essentially sealed the win on a 69 yard scoring run with just under two minutes remaining. On that second touchdown, Henderson showed what a smart and unselfish player he is as he looked to the sideline asking if he should score, before finally taking it into the end zone.
Henderson ended up finishing with 14 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns, and he carried the day with Rhamondre Stevenson sidelined.
“We’re going to need everybody throughout this season,” said head coach Mike Vrabel after the game. “We’re going to need everybody as this thing goes on. With Kayshon being out that was an opportunity for Kyle [Williams] with Rhamondre being out. It led to more opportunities for TreVeyon. They battled through. I got wore out running out there to see how our guys were doing as many times as I did. But I’m proud of the guys that battled and competed and laid it on the line.”
Maye made two huge throws in this game, with his first big throw getting them on the scoreboard. On the play, rookie wideout Kyle Williams finally got some space up the right sideline, with Williams getting a step behind his defender as Maye lofted it in, allowing Williams to head off to the races for the 72-yard for a touchdown.
That play was significant because it knotted the score at the time at 7-7 to end the first quarter, and it seemed to give the Patriots a little bit of confidence after what had been somewhat of a slow start on both sides of the football.
But one of the more impressive parts of the first half was the final drive to close things out, with New England holding the football for the final 7:16. That saw the team take things down to the one yard line, with Maye going down on the first play, which ran the clock down to the one-minute mark.
Despite failing to punch it in on the next two plays, they pulled it off on the final play of the half after Maye made an unbelievable throw to Stefon Diggs on 4th-and-1, with the veteran snagging the high throw and then getting both feet down for the score.
“First and goal from the one? Yeah. Shoot, we didn’t get in the first three times,” said Maye during his postgame press conference. “And called a play to get our guys involved and Stef made a great play. I think Hunter was open as well. Stef did a great job of getting two feet down. That was a toe tap extraordinaire.”
Maye’s second big throw came midway through the fourth quarter after throwing a dime to Mack Hollins up the sideline, with that one going for 54 yards. But unfortunately, that drive saw Maye make one of his few mistakes of the day. The second-year QB ended up making a crucial fourth quarter red zone interception on third down. That play came as he was forced out to his right and Maye tried to hit Hollins coming across in the back of the end zone, but safety Tykee Smith made a leaping grab to snatch away the football for the turnover.
Vrabel talked recently about the benefits of being able to learn from bad football in a win, and that will likely go down as one of those moments. But in a game that was a pretty tough battle for most of the afternoon, he’s been happy with the way his team has kept its poise, with Sunday being another great example of that.
“I always love the fight. That’s why I love coaching them, is that they fight and they compete,” said Vrabel. “It’s not always perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. But I love the way that they compete. You’re going to have some time when if you strike out, you got to go to the dugout and be pissed for a couple of seconds, and then you got to go play the rest of the game. We tell them, ‘Take 30 seconds, be pissed, but we got to go play.’ It was a long game. It was a tough place to play. It was warm, and they’re good.”
For now, the Patriots are way ahead from where they were a year ago. Through 10 games, they’ve scored 265 points, which is 105 points better than they scored at this time in 2024. That currently has them 4th in the NFL behind the Colts (321), Lions (283) and Seahawks (275).
Up next is the Jets on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium. While the Jets are currently 2-7, they’ve been playing somewhat better as of late, having beaten the Browns 27-20 on Sunday.
If the Patriots can keep things going, they’ll get a mini bye with 10 days off before they travel to Cincinnati for a game against the Bengals on November 23rd.
Maye said on Sunday that they’ll watch some tape and turn the page, shifting the focus towards getting another victory in front of the home crowd just a few days from now.
“We’ll probably watch some tape of New York. We got to flip the next page,” said Maye. “It’s a quick turnaround. We got one at home, though, so looking forward to playing with our fans.”
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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.
