The Patriots just had their biggest win in maybe a half decade. The last few seasons haven’t been overly kind to the Patriots. Over the last two years, they won a combined eight games, and while Mac Jones offered some hope during his rookie season, his second year’s 8-9 record saw the Patriots begin their losing ways. Ever since their win over the Rams in the Super Bowl in February 2019, the Patriots have been looking for their marquee win that would see them get back on track. They’ve had six starting quarterbacks since that win, but it seems the most recent one will be theirs for a long time.
Drake Maye’s performance in New England’s 23-20 win over the Bills on Sunday Night Football was the best of his career. On the surface, it looks strong, but not awe-inspiring: sub-300 yards, no touchdowns and his worst completion percentage since Week 1. Surely his game against Miami with three touchdowns and having completed 82.6% of his passes meant more? Or perhaps last week against the Panthers: a 155.6 passer rating was the best of his career. This game proved there is more to football than just watching the box score.
Aside from Maye’s incredible display, his WR1 put on a show: Stefon Diggs followed his first 100-yard game as a Patriot against Carolina with a ten catch, 146-yard performance against his former team. The two clearly have elite chemistry, and that isn’t a localized belief anymore: the Patriots offense has a bona fide star at both quarterback and receiver.
It’s difficult to describe just how much this game meant to Mike Vrabel and the Patriots’ fan base. While they technically beat the Bills last year in Week 18, a Joe Milton vs. Mitch Trubisky and Mike White showdown isn’t exactly something to gloat about. Sitting at 2-2 going into the game with a pair of bad losses to the Raiders and Steelers, the Patriots needed a big performance against the Bills, and that’s exactly what they got. Had they been blown out, questions would’ve been asked of everyone involved. Thankfully, they’ll avoid that sentiment for the foreseeable future, barring a total collapse over the rest of the season.
Aside from Maye and Diggs, the offense has their ups and downs. The running backs once again struggled, with TreVeyon Henderson leading the group with just 24 yards (4.0 per carry). Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled in the first quarter, one of three across both teams in the opening fifteen minutes. Stevenson also found the endzone for both of the Patriots’ touchdowns with just seven carries for 14 yards. The killer for the offense was Antonio Gibson’s injury: it was revealed he tore his ACL and is out for the season.
Defensively, Marcus Jones may have ascended to be the team’s CB2 over the more highly paid Carlton Davis. Jones has been incredible as a slot man, and his coverage of Keon Coleman early in the game was outstanding despite a height difference of eight inches. His redzone interception was the defensive play of the game. Christian Gonzalez came up with a pair of nice plays when defending Coleman on Buffalo’s penultimate drive, which forced a field goal.
It was interesting to see Jack Gibbens get an extended run at linebacker even with the return of Jahlani Tavai from IR. Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss remained the top two, but Gibbens wasn’t all the far behind. Tavai played five of his fifteen snaps on the defensive line, specifically on the edge.
Could this be his new role as a depth piece?
The main area the team struggled with was penalties. While a pass interference from Gibbens on James Cook was hurt late in the game, three more notable penalties came to mind. Back-to-back unnecessary roughness calls on young defensive linemen Cory Durden and rookie Joshua Farmer cost the team thirty yards, and a false start from Vederian Lowe negated a Maye sneak for a first down on 3 & 1. Thankfully for the three, the Patriots won, and we’ll forget about those penalties soon enough.
The final piece to mention is the special teams: punter Bryce Baringer was crushing the ball, consistently pinning the Bills inside their own 15-yard line. Rookie kicker Andy Borregales has found his groove, as he is 13/13 in his last three games across all his kicks and his 52-yard game winner looked like it might have been good from 65.
Looking forward to next week, the team has little reason not to be as confident as ever. They’ll go down south to New Orleans to take on the Spencer Rattler-led Saints. They are 1-4 but also are coming off their first win of the season after knocking off Jaxson Dart’s Giants.
The Saints as a whole aren’t a very good team, hence their 1-4 record. They played the Bills close in Week 4, but in the end still lost by two scores. Rattler throws for less than 200 per game, Alvin Kamara rushes for under four per carry and Rashid Shaheed leads receivers with 57 yards per game. Chirs Olave leads them in catches with 33.
Defensively, former Wyoming Bison Carl Granderson has been a nice surprise. After having a career best 8.5 sacks in 2023, the defensive end dropped back to 5.5 in 2024. He has 4.5 through five games this year. Bryan Bresee is also a name along that defensive line, as he was a first-round pick from Clemson in 2023. Cam Jordan, at 36-years-old, is still playing too.
Brandin Cooks features as the team’s WR3, one of three former Patriots on the roster. The Saints made some deals with Mike Vrabel and company this offseason, as they sent Davon Godchaux and Ja’Lynn Polk to Bayou country for day late round picks. Polk is ineligible to play due to his being on IR, but Godchaux is doing exactly what he did in New England: take up a roster spot.
The Patriots are favored by 3.5 points, but I’d expect them to play far better than that. Keeping Olave quiet and limiting the deep threats that Shaheed and Cooks will be a task, but I’d expect a dominant Patriots win. A score of 28-10 feels reasonable, but it could easily be an even larger blowout.