It took just three plays for the Patriots to get Stefon Diggs involved Sunday night in Baltimore.
With Diggs streaking across the middle of the field, Drake Maye hit him in stride and the receiver hauled in a 25-yard catch through contact. A hard fall, however, led to the receiver flexing his shoulder and being pulled off the field for a trip to the blue medical tent.
Shortly after, NBC’s Melissa Starks reported that Diggs had to be “physically restrained” in the blue tent before he “escaped out the back.”
“I was blacking out, bro,” Diggs explained after the game. “They were holding me in the tent. They said I had a concussion, but I never touched my head, I never laid on the ground. They monitored me for a concussion. I said, ‘I never had a concussion.’ I was touching my shoulder, so how would y’all say I had a concussion?”
“I was fighting with them to get back out there. It’s the first drive. I’m wired to get back out there to make plays for my team. We had a little stall, so I was like, ‘Damn, I’m supposed to be out there.’ Parts of me feel like I let the team down if I’m not out there. I apologized to them afterwards, but you can’t stop me from being on that field.”
After passing a concussion test and returning to the field, Diggs made his presence felt in New England’s 28-24 victory. Diggs hauled in a game-high nine passes for 138 yards — including a 21-yard fourth-down catch-and-run on the go-ahead touchdown drive — to eclipse the century mark for the fourth time this season.
Three of those games have come in prime time.
“Prime time, my time,” Diggs said. “The world is watching and I always look at it as another opportunity to show the world who I am, and how I’m coming.”
In addition to marching the Patriots offense up the fields, Diggs was seen marching up the New England sideline in the second-half encouraging his teammates as they were trailing.
The veteran’s leadership has made an immediate impact in New England’s locker room, while he is now just 131 receiving yards away on the field to be the first Patriots wide receiver to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark since 2019.
“Diggs, people have no idea what he means to this team,” Maye said. “He’s a leader. He’s been great in the locker room. He wants the football in his hand.”
