MORSE: Good, bad and Ugly of Patriots' Victory in Tampa Bay

The Patriots are contenders! They went into Tampa Bay, who were playing at home, on natural turf, had their bye week and two weeks to prepare for the Patriots, played in the heat (and rain) and the Patriots still beat them.

Good

This was the Patriots Rookie Showcase on the National Game of the Week. TreVeyon Henderson 147 yards rushing, 2TDs on 14 Attempts; Kyle Williams 72-yard TD; Craig Woodson 4 tackles, 2 PBUs none better than the 4^th Qtr breakup on Cade Otton; Elijah Ponder 1 sack in 4^th Quarter; and Will Campbell 0 sacks.
Drake Maye was facing what I consider to be the best secondary he has faced all year. He was 16 of 32 for 270 yards, 2 TDs and an INT. His ESPN passer rating was 89.4. In the 1^st half he was 4 of 5 against the blitz for 116 yards.
Henderson is the first player in team history to record 140+ rushing yards and 2 rushing TDs on at least 10 yards per carry in a single game.
Swept the NFC South
7 in a row and 5-0 on the road
K’Lavon Chaisson had a sack and should have two others that should have been sacks. He was a problem all day for All-Pro Tackle Tristan Wirfs.
Stefon Diggs’ TD catch was ridiculous. Great catch and got his feet down. He had 5 catches on 8 targets.
Mack Hollins had 106 receiving yards on 6 catches on 10 targets.
Jack Gibbens with 10 Tackles, filling in for Christian Elliss.
Drake Maye really stood in the pocket and took hits (none worse than the Vita Vea hit).
Patriots scored a TD on the last play of the 1^st Quarter and then scored on the last play of the 2^nd I have never seen that before.
Speed kills! Henderson was 22.01 MPH (5) and Williams 21.7 MPH (4) this week in the NFL.
Henderson looked to the sideline on whether or not he should just go down. It was funny watching Drake Maye waving his hands signaling for Henderson to go down.
Maye checked off the on the play in which Williams scored his big score.
This was the 1^st game with a 100-yard rusher and a receiver with 100 yards since Week 5 of 2022.
Patriots lost the turnover battle 1-0. The Bucs coming into the game were +7.
Maye evading Bucs Vita Vea in the pocket and resetting his feet and completing the pass to Mack Hollins was a thing of beauty.
The Patriots had 454 yards of total Offense. That is mostly because of the 4 Big plays of 55, 63, 72 and 54 yards. They lost the Time of Possession 27:35 to Tampa’s 32:25 and lost the 1^st downs 16 to 24.

Bad

Drake Maye made a very poor decision to try and thread a pass into the end zone that was intercepted. Throw it away and take the 3 points, which would have made it an 8-point lead. You need to know the situation. Another young QB bad decision.
Decision by Mike Vrabel to play the clock at the end of the 1^st half and have Maye just go down on 1^st down and take time off the clock. It nearly backfired until Maye hit Diggs with an unbelievable catch for a TD.
O line was pretty good in pass protection. Tampa had pressure on 47% of the Maye drop-backs. Yaya Diaby had 5 pressures on 18 rushes against Will Campbell. However, the one sack by Roberts was Maye trying to escape the pocket. That was only a one-yard loss.
The decision to go for it on 4^th and 5 from Tampa Bay 48. I thought they should have punted and pin the Bucs back in their end. It worked out OK as the defense stifled the Bucs, and they punted after 6 plays.
Bryce Baringer had 5 punts for a 49.6 average. However, his 1^st two punts were net 35 and 39 yards. Only one punt was inside the 20. I believe the Pats need to look into getting a new punter.
Marcus Jones had a bad day returning punts. He had three returns for just 3 yards and a fumble, which he recovered. He also got hurt on that fumbled Punt Return Fumble recovery.
Tampa Bay ran for 113 yards on 21 carries for 5.4 YPC. Sean Tucker was the 1^st back to run for 50 yards against the Patriots with 53 yards on 9 carries for a 5.9 YPC.
The Patriots’ Defense let another team go right down the field and score a TD on their 1^st possession. I can understand this a little because Tampa Bay had the bye week to prepare for the Patriots. Thank goodness the Patriots coaches have been able to adjust, and the Offense has awakened and put them in the lead. The Patriots haven’t been tested trying to come back from a deficit in the 4^th Quarter.
The Patriots seemed to have had problems with the rain (3 consecutive overthrows by Maye) and the slippery (torn up) natural turf.

Ugly

Injuries are mounting. At one point, they were down to D’Ernest Johnson as the only back. Terrell Jennings injured his knee and didn’t return. Christian Barmore hurt his back and tried to come back but was out the remainder of the game. Henderson hurt his knee in a pileup on the sideline but came back to rip off a 69-yard TD run. Marte Mapu was injured but came back and as did Marcus Jones. How will that affect playing on a short week Thursday Night?
Penalties: 2 on Special Teams and 2 False Starts on the O-line, one in the Red Zone.

Patriots Quotes After the Game

Robert Spillane: “We still have so much left to prove. We have yet to play our best game as a team, as a defense.”

Drake Maye: “Our fans were out there today. It was cool, I feel like our whole side was Patriots fans.”

Kyle Williams: Wash, rinse, and repeat. See ya’ll next week!

Robert Spillane: “It’s huge to come down to South Florida and get the win against a great football team that’s got a lot of wins this year.”

Christian Gonzalez: “It was a good battle… They made some plays. We made some plays. That’s how football goes.”

Gronk announced before the game that he is signing a one-day contract with the Patriots in order to retire as a Patriot.

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About Mark Morse

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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