Ahead of this year’s training camp, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained that he was looking at his team’s performances in three distinct categories. There is the good, the bad, and, as he called
it, the s—t that gets you beat.
Sunday’s 28-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers saw plenty of all three, with the good naturally winning out in the end. Still, if the coach wants to look at the Patriots through the three categories he established, who are we to disagree? So, let’s break down the Week 10 game in exactly that manner.
The good: X-plays
Even though the Patriots were missing their field stretcher at the wide receiver position, Kayshon Boutte, due to a hamstring injury, they still managed to generate several chunk plays both in the passing and in the running game. In total, New England registered six plays against the Buccaneers that can be classified as “big,” i.e. being runs of 10-plus and passes of 20-plus yards.
Those included three carries by second-round rookie TreVeyon Henderson, who found the end zone from 55 and 69 yards out in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, and who also had a 16-yarder in the first period. In addition, third-round draft pick Kyle Williams scored his first career touchdown on a 72-yard catch-and-run that was the Patriots’ longest play from scrimmage in four years.
“Two explosive plays and then I think Kyle’s play early — we really needed that one,” said Mike Vrabel about the rookies’ contributions. “That was the one that we were talking about, just needing one play and he hit it, and it was great to see him have that success.”
In addition, the Patriots also converted two third downs thanks to big plays. There was a 26-yard pass from Drake Maye to DeMario Douglas to convert a 3rd-and-9 on their touchdown drive in the late first half, and then later a 54-yard connection between the second-year quarterback and wideout Mack Hollins to move the chains on a 3rd-and-14 in the fourth quarter.
And while it does technically not belong in the X-play category as far as yardage is concerned, the Patriots defense also delivered big. Following Maye’s red zone interception in the fourth quarter — more on that in a second — the unit delivered a four-down stand to keep the score at 21-16 inside the two-minute warning.
The bad: Run game consistency
You might be surprised to see the run game mentioned in this category given that the Patriots ended Sunday’s game with a total of 167 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground. However, a significant portion of that yardage was produced by the chunk plays mentioned above. As a whole, New England’s running game and especially the blocking up front was mighty inconsistent versus the Buccaneers.
TreVeyon Henderson, Terrell Jennings and D’Ernest Johnson combined to carry the ball 19 times on Sunday. While, yes, those include the two long touchdowns, the story of the Patriots’ run game would not be accurately told without not also mentioning six stuffed runs and a combined success rate of only 23%.
The left side in particular struggled for New England. Center Garrett Bradbury had a tough go against standout defensive tackle Vita Vea while rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson failed to generate a consistent push in the ground game either.
The consistency issues were not confined to the offensive side of the ball. The Patriots also allowed their first 50-yard rusher of the season — Sean Tucker finished with 53 yards on nine carries — while simultaneously allowing Tampa to average 5.4 per carry, gain nine first downs, and achieve a 55% success rate on the ground.
The s—t that gets you beat: Red zone turnovers
Up 21-16 midway through the fourth quarter, the Patriots had a chance to put some much-needed distance between them and an opponent that entered Week 10 with four fourth-quarter comebacks on its résumé. It looked like they would be able to do so, too, when Drake Maye found Mack Hollins on that aforementioned 54-yard connection to move the sticks on a 3rd-and-14.
However, two plays later, Maye made one of his worst decisions of the season. Drifting to his right, he attempted to hit Hollins in the end zone but instead saw safety Tykee Smith come underneath the pass to pick it off. If not for the defense delivering a stand on the next possession, the play could have been a back-breaker for New England on Sunday.
“Just got to make it him or nobody out there, out wide,” Maye said about the play after the game. “You’ve got to be mad at yourself, but you know that you have a chance either to go into a two-minute drill to win the game or go in a five-minute scenario to win the game. So, that’s this league, just bouncing back from it, flipping the page. You want to throw things on the sideline, but guys are watching me, and I think the biggest thing is just to get back out there and to show these guys we’re ready to go for the next play.”
To their credit, Maye and the Patriots offense were that: they iced the game on Henderson’s 69-yard scamper two plays into their next series. Nonetheless, the fact that it took them so long to do so was in large part due to the interception earlier.
