Leftovers from the Sunday Night Football victory over the Ravens.
1) How good was the 4th Quarter comeback by Drake Maye? He was 12 of 14 in the last two drives while under pressure. One of those incompletions was the Boutte blown call. The other was a ball thrown behind Kyle Williams.
The Patriots WRs have had trouble with Man Coverage the last few games before Sunday. They torched the Ravens secondary in Man Coverage. Per Evan Lazar of Patriots.com, the Ravens played Man on 14 dropbacks. Maye was 9 of 13 (69%) for 131 yards and a TD. He was also 4 of 5 on passes of 20+ Air Yards for 111 yards and a 62.6 EPA which is #1 in the league.
The Offensive line had trouble with the Ravens Defense. The Ravens pass rush had Pressure on Maye on 43% of his dropbacks.
Here are the Offensive Line stats the last two games and the season totals.
| Season | Buffalo Bills | Season Stats | ||||||
| Overall | Offense | Pass Blck | Run Blck | Sacks | QB Hits | Hurries | Pressure | |
| Lowe | 57.4 | 61.8 | 61.5 | 68.5* | 0 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| Wilson | 49.8 69 | 58.7 | 82 | 50.4 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 22 |
| Bradbury | 59.8 29 | 69.3 | 77.8 | 66 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 18 |
| Onwenu | 75.5 11 | 79.5 | 57 | 82 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 22 |
| Moses | 70.6 34 | 70.5 | 65.3 | 71.8 | 1 | 4 | 19 | 24 |
| Season | Baltimore Ravens | Season Stats | ||||||
| Overall | Offense | Pass Blck | Run Blck | Sacks | QB Hits | Hurries | Pressure | |
| Lowe | 61.5 | 68.1 | 64.9 | 67.8 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 13 |
| Wilson | 50.2 68 | 53.3 | 67.3 | 44.1 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 28 |
| Bradbury | 61.1 27 | 67.7 | 76.2 | 63.2 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 19 |
| Onwenu | 77.1 8 | 79.7 | 86.4* | 72.7 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 21 |
| Moses | 71.7 29 | 67.8 | 39.3 | 63.3 | 1 | 5 | 21 | 27 |
*Onwenu had his finest pass-blocking grade this season, and he gave up just 1 Pressure.
2) Not much has been said about Stefon Diggs having no part of NFL Concussion specialists on the sideline. When he came out of the game he was flexing his shoulder. Some people are now saying that Diggs did that to throw off the eyes in the sky that determine if the players needs to be examined in the blue tent for a concussion after the play. The NFL Official took his helmet and tried to escort him to the blue tent. Diggs threw an elbow at him and had to be forced into the tent. Melissa Starks the NBC sideline reporter, stated that Diggs escaped out the back door of the tent. I don’t think there is a back door? It just shows how much Diggs wants to be out there in a big game. Diggs was heard saying “Prime time is My time.” Diggs 70+ receptions triggered a $500K bonus.
3) I didn’t give Mack Hollins his props after the game, but he was critical, catching 7 receptions on 10 targets. I loved seeing him climb the ladder to make those high catches.
4) Rhamondre Stevenson had 8 carries for 51 yards for 6.3 Yards per Carry and a TD. He also just barely missed a long pass from Maye in the endzone.
5) Heading into the locker room, K’Lavon Chaisson was heard screaming “Road Warriors”! The Patriots are 7-0 on the road this season. Also, Stefon Diggs breaking down the team in the Locker room was heard shouting “We’re All We Got” and the team responding “We’re All We Need”.
6) I also failed to mention Kyle Williams downfield block that helped spring Rhamondre Stevenson for his 21-yard TD run.
7) Many Patriots players in the locker room after the game didn’t know the Patriots had made the playoffs until the media told them.
8) Drake Maye lauded the Patriots fans after the game. They were loud and they are everywhere. They travel well. Maye stated that he didn’t know if it was a good play or bad play because the Patriots fans were so loud.
9) NBC Sunday Night Football Officiating Expert Terry McAuly, a former 20-year NFL Referee stated, McAulay told NBC broadcasters Mike Tirico and Chris Collinsworth. “It’s not really hard, that’s pass interference. That’s obvious pass interference. That’s not a hard question at all.” Chris Colingsworth stated that Humphrey tackled Boutte before the ball arrived. Humphrey even sat on the ground looking around for the flag. How can they miss a call like that? Drake Maye could have folded after getting screwed on that call. He didn’t and led the Team to the go-ahead TD.
10) The Patriots re-signed one of their potential Free Agents in Ben Brown. He signed a two-year $6.6M contract to return to the Patriots.
11) PFF released an interesting analysis of the last 9 Super Bowl Winners. The common thread that each team had was a Top 11 Offense and a Top 13 Defense. Five teams in the playoff hunt fit this criteria:
LA Rams 2nd Offense – 3rd Defense
NE Patriots 3rd Offense – 10th Defense
Jacksonville Jaguars 10th Offense – 8th Defense
Chicago Bears 9th Offense – 12th Defense
Buffalo Bills 5th Offense – 13th Defense
Comings and Goings
Joshua Farmer placed on IR with a Hamstring injury. Interesting, the Patriots didn’t add a DT to replace him. Instead, they signed C/G Brenden Jaimes from the Practice Squad. They also made three transactions on the Practice Squad adding veteran RB Elijah Mitchell and WR Brendan Smith. In order to make room on the Practice Squad, the team released OT Sebastian Gutierrez.
Mitchell, the 27-year-old RB ran for a career-high 963 yards with the San Francisco 49ers in 2021, his rookie year. He stands 6’1. 218-pounds and was clocked at 4.38 coming into the draft. San Francisco took him in the 6th round of the 2021 Draft. He’s played in 28 NFL games with 12 starts. He was most recently in Kansas City, where he played in one game this season. Mitchell was released on Dec. 20 and signed with the Patriots three days later. Mitchell has great speed but doesn’t seem to use it to breakaway from tacklers. He is also a decent receiver out of the backfield.
Smith, the 27-year-old was most recently with the New York Jets. He played in two games this season after making his NFL debut in 2024. Smith also spent time in Dallas and Arizona. He was an UDFA in 2021 out of Iowa. The 6’1”, 218-pound receiver played at Iowa and finished his career with 88 receptions for 1,031 yards and nine touchdowns. He is rather slow for a WR with just a 4.68 40- yard dash.
Jaimes, the 26-year-old has 46 games, 258 snaps and 3 starts for Los Angelas Chargers under his belt. He has also played 8 snaps each at Left Guard and Right Guard. The 6’5” 300-pound lineman played at Nebraska was a 2021 5th round selection (159) by Los Angeles Chargers.
On Sunday the team announced that their International Pathways Program (IPP) player TE Thomas Odukoya was placed on the teams Practice Squad IR list. It is unclear if the team can replace him with another IPP player. They cannot replace him with any other player that is not part of the IPP.
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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.
