MORSE: Clearing the Notebook for Patriots' Impressive Win Versus Jets

I was correct when I predicted 9 wins for the Patriots this year! Now the possibility of a 12-win season is very real. Never did I think they would be 9-2 at this point of the season! Taking care of business against teams that are playing Bad football.

PFF grades every player, every week. I always include the PFF grades when I am doing my preview of the opposition every week. I will actually do a review of the Patriots team during the bye week. I just wanted to highlight the Patriots safety group as they head into Cincinnati this week. PFF loves Jaylin Hawkins. He is ranked 6^th in the league amongst all safeties. Craig Woodson is playing nearly all the defensive snaps is ranked 51^st, but he is the #4 Safety amongst all rookies. The big surprise is the #2 rank by Dell Pettus with a 91 grade. He doesn’t have enough snaps yet to be qualified for the ranking. PFF loved him last year too as his ranking was 19^th of 97 safety in 2024. Pettus played a lot of snaps last year with all the injuries.

Pettus received a shoutout from Head Coach Mike Vrabel in the locker room for a 4^th down stop on TE Mason Taylor.

Will Campbell had a good game against Will McDonald. The previous week McDonald had 4 sacks. Campbell did get a holding call but he didn’t allow any sacks. McDonald did have a pressure, but Campbell rode him past Drake Maye as he stepped up and away from pressure. On another pass play, Michael Clemons stepped outside and tried to spin inside, and Campbell buried him into the ground, a pancake block.

Jared Wilson had his best game of the season with new highs in Overall Blocking and Run Blocking grades from PFF. N interesting note was brought up by Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal. He noticed that Wilson was in a 2-point stance the entire game and asked him about it. Come to find out that he has been doing this for a couple of weeks. The interesting thing is this wasn’t a suggestion from the 3 Offensive Line Coaches but came from Head Coach Mike Vrabel. I did notice him in the 2-point stance when everyone else was in 3-point but didn’t realize he did it for the entire game. My son was a O-lineman in High School. Because he had a short and muscular neck, when in a flat back, 3-point stance, he couldn’t lift his head high enough, and he could only see the opposition’s legs. Perhaps this is what was happening with Wilson. It is kind of funny seeing Wilson in this squatting stance with his butt lower to the ground.

Offensive Line Grades

	Season	Tampa Bay Game			Season Stats
	Overall	Offense	Pass Blck	Run Blck	Sacks	QB Hits	Hurries	Pressure
Campbell	71.2 (26)	63.7	62.4	61.4	5	4	15	24
Wilson	46 (79)	39.2	60	40.3	4	6	12	22
Bradbury	59.5 (27)	50.1	39.1	53.7	0	2	6	8
Onwenu	67 (27)	51.8	40.7	54.9	1	1	13	15
Moses	66.9 (38)	60.3	50.7	65.3	1	2	14	17

	Season	New York Jets			Season Stats
	Overall	Offense	Pass Blck	Run Blck	Sacks	QB Hits	Hurries	Pressure
Campbell	71.4	66.5	81.4	51.5	5	4	16	25
Wilson	49.6	74.4*	84.5	67.1*	4	6	12	22
Bradbury	58.7	55.7	56.9	54.2	0	4	13	17
Onwenu	70.1	83	80.3	78.2	1	1	16	18
Moses	69.4	78*	75.4	77.3*	1	2	17	20

Evan Lazar reported that Campbell matched up versus Will McDonald on 19 dropbacks and Campbell didn’t give up a sacks or a pressure.

K’Lavon Chaisson has to be given credit for his recognition and coverage on that throw-back pass trick play the Jets tried to pull off. He was all over Justin Field and knock the pass away.

Josh McDaniels play call on the Henderson 6-yard receiving TD was brilliant. He has Diggs in the backfield and they ran up to the line of scrimmage and ran the play quickly before the Jets could diagnose the fact that Diggs was in the backfield. Split backfield, Henderson at LHB slipped out of the backfield first and Diggs at RHB trailed him and cut out to the flat, Maye wanted to go to Diggs and he pumped the pass fake to him and two defenders went with Diggs leaving Henderson wide open in the endzone for an easy TD.

I didn’t like the play calling as the Patriots closed out the 1^st half. Why they started that drive with a handoff run is beyond me. Maye at that point was 11 for 13 passing.

The Patriots left 11 points on the field not converting the Fields fumble into a TD and coming away with nothing at the end of the half. They cannot do that against good teams.

Watched the replay of the game on Prime Vision. I don’t get the All-22 film of the game but watching the Prime Vision Sky Cam angle of the game from above and behind the QB, you get to see all the players on the field. It’s a great way to watch the game. If you can still get it on Prime I suggest that you take a look at it. They also have Sam Scwartzstein break-ins with Next Gen stats providing interesting statistics.

On the Prime Video coverage post-game you could see Vrabel congratulating each player before they entered the locker room. What most people didn’t see was Milton Williams in street clothes doing the same thing right behind him. That’s a little thing but an important ingredient showing how this team is so close, and winning for each other.

Henderson was only the 2^nd rookie in Patriots history with three TDs in a game. The other was Gronk.

Henderson also had 70 yards after contact in the game. He also looked a little like James White as a check down receiver. On the deep pass breakup against Mack Hollins, I saw in the Prime Vision replay that White was wide open underneath with lots of room to run. This is the 1^st time that I saw Maye check down in a game to a back.

In Mike Vrabel’s address to the team after the victory in the locker room, he gave credit to the Offensive Line for the Power Push into the end zone on Henderson’s 1^st TD and another shoutout to Dell Pettus for the 4^th down pass breakup. He also gave another shoutout to the support staff within the building for everything they do to get these players ready to play each week and especially on the short week..

Chase Suspended for Patriots Game

Ja’Marr Chase has been suspended by the NFL for spitting on Jaylen Ramsey. The video clearly shows Chase spitting on him. Chase will appeal, so he might play against the Pats on Sunday. There is a distinct possibility the Bengals will be without Chase, Burrows and Hendrickson for the game versus the Patriots. The early betting line on the game has the Patriots as 8.5 favorites. They also lost starting CB Cam Taylor-Britt with a Lisfranc foot injury.

Milton Williams’ Injury Places Him on IR

The friendly fire injury to Milton Williams was a high ankle injury from a leg whip by Christian Barmore. This will give Cory Durden and Khyris Tonga more playing time. Also, Christian Barmore will be leaned on to play a bigger role. The Patriots quickly added Bradyn Swinson to the roster. Rumors were that Swinson had received inquiries from other NFL teams to join their 53-man rosters. Mike Vrabel addressed this in his Monday morning press conference. He confirmed that it was a factor but that Swinson also earned the opportunity. Swinson was cited earlier in the season by Vrabel for his work on the Practice Squad. I would like to see him get some reps in passing situations since Harold Landry’s play has been severely diminished since his ankle injury in the Tennessee game.

Spillane Get PFF Team of the Week Nod

Robert Spillane has played very well after a slow start in the 1^st two games. He has 90 tackles on the season and is well on his way to another 150 Tackle season. In looking up his stats I notice rookie Safety Craig Woodson is 3^rd on the team with 51 Tackles.

Comings and Goings

TE CJ Dippre was signed to the 53-man roster and S John Saunders was released. LB Darius Harris was placed on Practice Squad IR and the team signed LB Otis Reese to the Practice squad. This means the team still has a open Practice Squad spot should Saunders clear waivers. Evan Lazar reported another team had offered to sign Dippre to their 53-man roster.

Reese, is a 6’3”, 225-pound LB who played at Georgia and Mississippi. He went undrafted in 2023 but signed with Tennessee. He made the team and played for the Titans in 2023 and 2024. This season he was on Bills Practice Squad but was released on October 7th. In his career he has 38 tackles and 1 Interception. He is a former safety and has 4.5 speed. In his 2+ years at Mississippi he had 198 total tackles. Reese played for Vrabel at Tennessee. I expect Reese to be elevated just like Harris to play Special Teams if Christian Elliss can’t go on Sunday.

Harris used his 3 elevations from the Practice Squad and could not be elevated again. He would have to be signed to the 53-Man roster but is on IR now.

Supporting Cast Rating

This from Ian Hartitz – NFL ranks in “Supporting Cast Rating” which is the average team PFF grades in rushing, receiving, pass blocking and run blocking (everything except passing):

Rams #2

Patriots #18

Who should be MVP, Drake Maye or Matthew Stafford?

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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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