The New England Patriots went into their game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday severely shorthanded and missing starters on both sides of the ball. It wasn’t a problem for them, though, as they cruised to a 45-17 win at Gillette Stadium.
Let’s get into our lessons learned from the Patriots’ third win of the season.
Drake Maye is back
The Patriots’ starting quarterback started this season looking bad, but, similar to last year, it seems like the game against the Bills was the start of the turnaround for him. On
Sunday against the Raiders, he was impressive, making some gorgeous throws, some excellent off-schedule plays, and, maybe most importantly, great decisions all day long.
This is the Drake Maye that we’re used to seeing, if he can play like this moving forward, the Patriots are going to be in just about every game this season.
Elijah Ponder is a problem
The Patriots found a diamond in the rough when they signed outside linebacker Elijah Ponder as an undrafted free agent out of Cal Poly last year. He’s already up to 4.5 sacks this season, and almost gave his team a field goal on Sunday. when he strip-sacked Kirk Cousins at the end of the first half.
He’s been a demon since midway through the season last year, and he’s been consistently getting even better as time went on. If he can continue to grow, the Patriots might have a guy who will be a force for years to come on this defense — and a viable long-term replacement for Harold Landry on the edge.
Injury concerns continue
As noted above, the Patriots came into Sunday’s game rather short-handed, and they lost some key contributors during the game as well.
Will Campbell went down with a knee injury, and is reportedly expected to “miss some time” after suffering a sprain on the same knee he tore his MCL on last season.
In addition, TreVeyon Henderson went down with an ankle injury, while Dre’Mont Jones and Cory Durden both were banged up. as well. It remains to be seen how bad these injuries are, but, with the depth already being tested, losing more guys could be a problem for the Patriots moving forward.
Rhamondre Stevenson looks great
The final stats may not look gaudy — 64 yards and a. touchdown on 13 carries — but Rhamondre Stevenson ran the ball well on Sunday. His wiggle is impressive, and he was able to continuously break the first tackle and pick up extra yards; he forced five missed tackles during Sunday’s game.
The Patriots might need to add another back with Henderson going down, but Stevenson being so solid is a great thing for the Patriots. Being able to run the football is key, and having a back that is able to not only run, but also be effective out of the backfield, is huge for their offense.
Caleb Lomu impresses
The Patriots surprised some people earlier this year when they traded up in the first round to take offensive tackle Caleb Lomu. The Utah product has been a reserve behind Will Campbell and Morgan Moses all season, outside of coming in for Moses a few weeks ago against the Jaguars, before being called in after Campbell left with due to the aforementioned knee injury in the second quarter.
When he went in, there were natural questions about his ability to hold up, but he played very well when he was in the game. Of course, with offensive line play, to really know how well they played, we have to watch the full film and take a closer look, but, on first watch, it was an impressive performance. That’s good too, because the Patriots are most likely going to have to rely on him to be their starter at left tackle for a bit.
Short-handed receiver group gets the job done
The Patriots were without A.J. Brown and Mack Hollins, but Drake Maye still had one of the best passing days of his career. DeMario Douglas had a great game, finishing with two touchdowns; Efton Chism continued to look like a more than capable contributor; Romeo Doubs didn’t finish a lot of his catches, but he did force a few defensive penalties; Kyle Williams even got in on the action, catching two deep passes, including a 34-yard touchdown.
Tight ends Hunter Henry and Eli Raridon had solid games as well. So, even with a bunch of guys out, the Patriots were still able to have multiple threats in the passing game. When Brown and Hollins come back, that depth will be a great thing for the Patriots to lean on.
Josh McDaniels is cooking
For the second week in a row, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels put together a fantastic game plan that consistently put his players in a position to be successful. He had Drake Maye making plays that were comfortable for him, and you could tell that the team was feeling good about itself including on the Hunter Henry screen and the Efton Chism throw back to TreVeyon Henderson.
If McDaniels continues to construct game plans and call them like he did against the Raiders, this offense is going to be in a good position moving forward. Reports of his demise were exaggerated.
Penalties keep disrupting proceedings
Patriots vs. Raiders featured 20 accepted penalties, and at least a handful of them were questionable at best. This has been a problem around the league, and unacceptable for a multi-billion dollar business.
The Raiders game last week is one where it clearly wasn’t a catch, but they didn’t trigger the review quick enough. This week, the Seahawks lost, in part, because the ref marked the ball in the wrong spot when he couldn’t see where Cooper Kupp went out of bounds. I get that it’s a hard job, and that they make a lot of good judgment calls as well, but the refs across the league need to be better.
Brock Bowers is incredible, and you just have to tip your hat
The Raiders don’t have a ton of talent, but they have the best tight end in the league, and arguably a top-10 pass catcher in the league with Brock Bowers. If I were the Raiders, I would consider throwing to him every play.
They didn’t quite do that on Sunday, but Kirk Cousins still targeted him 10 times, and he ended up with eight catches for 110 receiving yards, with a touchdown. He also fumbled once as well, but the verdict is still clear: he is a monster. The Patriots not having Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis made it a lot more difficult to cover him, but they were able to shut down most every other player on the team.
Regardless of what the rest of the Raiders offense looks like, having a player of his caliber is a huge boost, especially with a rookie quarterback eventually taking over.
A tough defense awaits
Next up for the Patriots is another home game, this one against the New York Jets, who are coming off a 17-12 win over the Browns. The Jets terrorized the Browns offense all day, sacking Deshaun Watson eight times, forcing a total of five fumbles, and recovering two of them.
The Patriots do have a much better offensive line than the Browns, but the Jets have heavily invested in their defense, including the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, David Bailey, who had three sacks on Sunday. With Will Campbell likely out for this one, it bears watching if Caleb Lomu is going to make his first career start. Depending on what happens with the Bills on Monday night, the Patriots could be in first place in the division, and you’d hate to see them lose that with a home defeat to the Jets.
It doesn’t look like they’re going to be a push over, however, so I’m looking forward to watching this one to see how the Patriots fare. One spot where they should have a clear advantage is coaching, which is important, especially with the amount of players that they have hurt right now.
