The New England Patriots secured a decisive 33-15 victory over the New York Giants Monday Night, showcasing strong performances in all three phases of the game. The game was marked by the Patriots’ efficient offense, opportunistic defense, and a well-executed game plan that left the Giants struggling to keep pace.
The Patriots set the tone early, scoring on their opening drive with a mix of short passes and effective rushing plays. Drake Maye was sharp, spreading the ball to multiple receivers and keeping the Giants’ defense off balance. New England’s defense also made an immediate impact, forcing a turnover that led to a quick touchdown, pushing the Patriots ahead in the first quarter.
The Good
Special Teams set the tone for the game with an opening kickoff return by Terrell Jennings of 39 yards. Marcus Jones ignited the crowd with an electrifying 94-yard Punt Return for a TD. Christian Elliss (Player of the Game) nailed Gunner Olszewski on a Kickoff Return and forced a fumble recovered by Elijah Ponder.
Drake Maye delivered a clean game, throwing multiple touchdown passes and avoiding turnovers. He completed 2 of 31 passes, for 282 yards, 77.4 Completion % and 2 TDs, and his QB rating was 126.0.
TreVeyon Henderson ran 11 times for 67 yards and a 6.1 YPC. Many of those yards were in the 2nd half when the Giants were loading the box trying to stop the run.
Defense held Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart to 139 yards passing yards and limited the Giants to 111 rushing yards. This total was aided by the bizarre Field Goal attempt by the NYG kicker Younghoe Koo who took a divot in the turf and never reached the ball, forcing holder Jamie Gillan to try and scramble. He was listed as sacked and lost 13 yards on the play. On 3rd down they held the Giants to 4 for 11
The Defense came out hot I loved the hard hitting by the Defense. They held the Giants on their opening series and then turned that into a Punt Return TD. Christian Elliss had a clean and devastating hit on Dart trying to stretch for a 1st The hit was a de-cleater when the opposing player’s legs fly up in the air and you can see his cleats. Marte Mapu was only credited with 1 Tackle, but he had a big pass breakup when he leveled Theo Johnson. Elliss led the team with 10 Tackles and had a very athletic pass breakup on the Giants last possession.
Craig Woodson had two great open field tackles among his 6 Tackles which was 2nd on the team.
Cory Durden filled in adequately for Khyiris Tonga with two rub stuffs.
Carlton Davis had another good game with two Pass Breakups.
Maye was outstanding in distributing the ball to his receivers. He completed passes to 8 different receivers. Maye completed 4 passes each to Hunter Henry and Kayshon Boutte. Five other receivers had 3 catches each. The only receiver to have just one catch was Kyle Williams with a beautiful pass and catch for a 33-yard TD. Williams did an outstanding job keeping his feet inbounds. Kayshon Boutte’s TD catch was on a perfectly thrown fade pass from Maye. Both receivers tracked the ball very well.
Maye’s TD pass to Williams was against the blitz for his 11 TD pass against the blitz, ties Tom Brady’s from the 2016 season for a season.
Marcus Jones punt return, for his 2nd TD in a season ties Troy Brown, Irving Fryar, and Mike Haynes. His 13.6 Yards per Punt Return (on 75 or more PR in a career) leads the NFL All-Time.
I thought the Offensive Line played well and had a clean pocket for Drake Maye. Vederian Lowe did a great job on Brian Burns who came into the game with 13 sacks. Burns didn’t have a sack in the game. There was one sack in the 2nd half where the Giants blitzed, both Ben Brown and Garrett Bradbury double teamed Dexter Lawrence and allowed a free rusher to get to Maye.
The Bad
The Pats had trouble with Red Zone Offense. They were 1-5 in the Red Zone, settling for 4 Andy Borregales FGs. They left 16 points on the table and Borregales missed a 45-yard Field Goal.
Although Josh McDaniels had good game calling plays, I didn’t like the play calling in the second half. When you see a stacked 10-man box of 5 lineman and 5 backers with 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, don’t try and run into them.
Devin Singletary carried 12 times for 68 yards and a 5.66 YPC. Considering they were down two of their best run stoppers, the overall yards given up were not bad but 68 and 5.66 YPC, is not good.
The Ugly
Ben Brown had a tough day. He was called for holding, allowed a QB Pressure on an awful double team I mentioned earlier. The most egregious play was lazily getting down into his 3-point stance when Stefon Diggs started in motion. By being in motion to get into his 3-point stance, the Patriots were called for Illegal Motion. The penalty wiped out a 30-yard TD pass to Hunter Henry. This completion would have given Drake May 315 yards passing, his 1st 300-yard passing game of his career.
Bryce Barringer was brutal today with two punts that averaged 27-yards per punt. We need a new punter!
This 33-15 win established the Patriots as the Top Seed in the AFC. Their 10 Game winning streak is incredible. The rest of the country saw tonight just how good Drake Maye is. This game, alibi against a 2-10 team should keep Maye in contention for MVP honors.
The team finally gets the bye week and a break they so badly need. Hats off to the players for gutting through 13 weeks of NFL play without a break. There are a lot of players that need this break to heal up and get ready for the stretch run.
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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.
Interesting to me in this game is the Pats defensive plan was highly successful. The Pats had 7-8 guys at the line of scrimmage a lot, and then either did blitz or pulled people back in coverage at the snap. I assume to fool a rookie QB in Dart. The Pats D did heat up Dart and got him running around quite a bit. Secondly it seemed the Pats D played a bunch of man coverage, where Dart’s YTD stats are poor vs man. By the third quarter, the NYG offense started running the ball as passing was not productive.… Read more »
Swinson is on the active roster now and you didn’t mention UDFA Elijah Ponder who has 3 sacks this year as compared to #3 overall pick Abdul Carter who was gifted a sack, his 1st full sack of his rookie year.
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Interesting to me in this game is the Pats defensive plan was highly successful. The Pats had 7-8 guys at the line of scrimmage a lot, and then either did blitz or pulled people back in coverage at the snap. I assume to fool a rookie QB in Dart. The Pats D did heat up Dart and got him running around quite a bit. Secondly it seemed the Pats D played a bunch of man coverage, where Dart’s YTD stats are poor vs man. By the third quarter, the NYG offense started running the ball as passing was not productive.… Read more »
Jim,
Swinson is on the active roster now and you didn’t mention UDFA Elijah Ponder who has 3 sacks this year as compared to #3 overall pick Abdul Carter who was gifted a sack, his 1st full sack of his rookie year.