Knee Jerk Reactions to Week 5: Patriots vs. Raiders
Thing to consider while wondering if maybe I did get sucked up into a deadly funnel cloud in right after kickoff and meet a tragic end. And 45-17 wins where my quarterback has a career game are what the afterlife is like:
--Can you blame me if I gladly accept an eternity like this as the reward for a life lived (semi-)well? The Patriots have quickly reestablished themselves as one of the NFL's superpowers. Drake Maye is asserting his dominance once more. The staff is coaching rings around the opposition yet again. The entire roster, top-to-bottom (and there's a lot of bottom taking a lot of snaps right now) is playing smart, disciplined, opportunistic, tough football. Plus, Notre Dame is No. 2. We're fresh off the Yankees being humiliated. The Brewers are making me love them more than actual brewers. Small market teams could own the World Series and make the MLB owners look like loons for trying to shut down 2027. Everything's coming up Old Balls right now. I'll take an eternity more of this.
--The Pats were just dominant. You'd have to exhaust the Thesaurus trying to describe it. They were preeminent. Commanding. Is this were combat, the generals wouldn't just claim air superiority; this was air supremacy. They owned the skies and the battlefield with overwhelming firepower. You don't just enjoy a win like this.You lie back, let it rest its head on your chest, stare and the ceiling and bask in the afterglow. You make it breakfast while it puts on the good pajamas and curl up on the couch with it while it recites every line of dialogue in Legally Blonde, and savor the moment.
--I said the win at Buffalo was a statement game. This one was an epanorthosis. An emphatic rephrasing of the first statement. "Seems, madam! Nay, it is." from Hamlet. This was, "The 2026 Patriots are good. No, they are really, really good." The depth that Mike Vrabel famously worried about has been tested to its limits, and so far has a 1500 on its SATs. The offense established itself in both the passing and run game. The defense distinguished itself despite missing its top two cornerbacks. Both units controlled the line of scrimmage for the first time since last regular season. The Boston sports radio stations, who two weeks ago were implying Maye and the coaches can't stand each other, will be reduced to ginning up fake controversies by screaming that Maye should've been taken out of the game. Or playing my favorite song from back in the day, "Why are They Running Up the Score?" Oh, how I've missed the sweet sound of that old earworm.
--Whatever was broken or off or not running right with Maye - whatever kept buffering and needed to be rebooted - has been. He was as close to flawless as an NFL quarterback gets. If the analytics mathletes charge him with a single turnover-worthy play, I must've been getting more of my son's Buffalo Chicken Dip (I raised them well) because I missed it. For the second straight week he was poised, in command, and above all, aggressive. That Cheat Code everyone thought they had on him, of just running Cover-6 at him all game, has been exposed as a fraud. At least if you're a team that doesn't normally play Cover-6. When you try to cut & paste it onto your normal base defense, what you get is total breakdowns in coverage like the first touchdown to Pop Douglas:
And Douglas easily drawing a split-safety to the middle of the field on a deep cross, leaving Kyle Williams iso'd on the cornerback that he easily outran:
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And Maye has shown time and again that when one of his receivers is covered 1-on-1, he considers him to be open. He clearly trusts all his guys and hasn't built a doghouse for any of them. Rightly or wrongly, Tom Brady used to bury guys under his doghouse after a couple of drops or a bad route here or there. Maye seems to have a dog park where he lets them run around, chase tennis balls and sniff butts until they learn to play nice and earn treats.
--As far as Williams, his skill set was on full display on this one. 2nd & long, you run him and Romeo Doubs on 9s and Douglas on an 8. He shows the "Lord of the Dance" footwork off the line to get the corner to hesitate, then is able to pop it straight into 5th gear. Whatever you think of the rest of his route tree (and I don't think much so far), there's no taking this away from him. Literally for decades I listened to Pats fans demand a guy who can [Cliche Warning] "take the top off a defense." While I argued the whole time this system is built on guys who can gently pull the defense's top down and enthusiastically motorboat it. Well now you have exactly the kind of "weapon" you asked for. For now at least, Williams is a home run hitter with a low batting average. But as long as he posts slugging numbers like this:
… he gives opposing coordinators something to worry about. Someone they have to invest time during the week gameplanning for. That they have to rotate safety coverage to. Which is how, in a week when they only dressed four wideouts, Maye ends up with numbers like this:
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All this, plus a rushing touchdown? For the first time I'm starting to think maybe we didn't land on the moon.
--What the Pats front office has done on Mike Vrabel's watch is assemble an Avengers of receivers with different skill sets for Maye to take advantage of. What Williams does in the vertical game, Efton Chism is doing underneath on Options, Pivots and crossers:
And Doubs is giving you on in- and out-breaking routes:
Doubs is catching some hell today for two drops, one at the goal line and the other up the sideline, which I - being in a generous mood - won't bust on him for because both of them looked just really well defended. Both were perfectly thrown by Maye, but each time the defender was on his hip and made a play. What he does he does extremely well. And with AJ Brown and Mack Hollins out, Doubs is the only thing standing between us and this team having Douglas as our WR1 like it's the OC Matt Patricia era all over again. Appreciate how good you have it.
--And since that's almost like us being on the subject of this offense's depth, let's talk about the offensive line. With Ben Brown in as the third right guard, and Caleb Lomu going in for Will Campbell (who stayed in uniform on the sideline, which I'm taking as a positive sign) it's impossible to argue the unit didn't have its best game of the season. By far. It's by no means a coincidence that Maye had a career game. The pockets stayed clean against one of the best pass rushes in the game. Maxx Crosby (one tackle and Malcolm Koonce (two tackles and half of the Raiders only sack) got less TV time than the Patriots cheerleaders. Lomu gave up just one pressure on 29 pass blocking snaps. And in Maye's own words, on that first TD to Douglas, he "had a ham sandwich back there." On some of the others, he had time to smoke the ham himself.
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--And that O-line performance spilled over into the run game, where for the first time all year, the backs weren't constantly having to break tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage. And managed a 5.3 YPC average, mostly on inside Power and Traps, without the benefit of a fullback. Taking advantage of the Raiders sticking with the deep zones that are supposedly Maye's Kryptonite. When all those factors are working together, and a rookie 1st rounder seeing his first extended action is throwing goal line blocks like this:
… defenses are going to have to start picking their poison. And starting with the Jets next week, they'd better start developing a tolerance to iocane powder.
--All of which brings us to McDaniels. This was a revenge game for him, and today, vengeance is his. And opening possession touchdown drive. Another to end the 1st half. Opening the 2nd half with yet another. In all, 11 possessions, only two ending in punts, and another with a fumble by a depth running back who redeemed himself with six carries for 52 yards, 8.7 YPC. McDaniels has begun opening up the back sections of the playbook, where all the footnotes and appendices are. And pulled out wrinkles like Hunter Henry running a legal pick that took out two defenders, while Chism ran a Return to draw the flat corner, freeing up Douglas once again for his second score:
And this little gadget play that, depending on who you asked in the locker room, may or may not have been drawn up this way:
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Based on the way TreVeyon Henderson was looking for the ball from the moment Chism caught it, I'm going with "designed play." Either that or Chism is getting his money's worth from those improv classes. Either way, it's something for the rest of the league to have to prepare for.
--Overall, McDaniels continued the trend of letting Maye off the leash, get in Attack Mode, and stay there. He worked everybody into the passing game. Six targets caught between three and five balls. And while Doubs only had one reception, he drew two DPIs that count just as much. And there's no better example of aggressiveness and using everybody than this dime to Eli Raridon with the game starting to feel out of Las Vegas's reach:
--All in all, Fox should've given Brady a Bereavement Day. It was unfair to make him work the late game after watching this. At least the Krafts spared him the humiliation of inviting him to be part of the 2001 celebration.
--Before I segue to the defense, can the NFL just save us time next week and just pre-flag every Patriots special teams play? Call the penalties in advance, give Aaron Glenn the choice of accepting or declining, and spare us the announcements about whether it was a hold or block in the back. Our time is valuable.
--While most of us have been distracted by other things, Zac Kuhr's unit has quietly become one of the better ones in the business. On this day, relying on parts of the depth chart most fans couldn't identify without a program. Darius Muasau. Elliot Davison. Cameron Latu. Erick Hunter. Namdi Obiazor. And my favorite Star Wars name on the roster, Kindle Vildor. Who forced the Raiders only turnover:
Vildor earned himself a game ball for that. And "earned" is the proper word, because he was that was the only play made against Bowers all day. Ordinarily, you'd expect Christian Gonzalez to get the assignment. But it fell on Marcus Jones's desk, who gives away eight inches of height and a good 50 pounds of solid muscle to the guy. And was, for the most part left to his own devices in coverage, giving up three receptions and exactly half of Bowers 110 yards. But that was as much a "It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it" example of jumping on the grenade for the good of the team as any failure on Jones's part. If there's someone special on your Christmas list who's been crushing on Jones for a couple years, this is no reason not to shell out for a No. 25 jersey.
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--Once again, the Patriots pass rush was better than a supposedly superior defense's pass rush. While Maye was standing in the pocket enjoying cured, smoked pork products, Kirk Cousins was spending the day in the Death Star's garbage masher. (I've bagged my limit of Star Wars references. I'll move on now.) Whether it was Elijah Ponder blowing past Kolton Miller:
To Gabe Jacas proving that putting a tight end in pass protection on him is a bad idea every time it's tried:
To Dre'Mont Jones anticipating plays so well it might be time to start the spying rumors up again, just for laughs:
--Behind them, Kuhr is on top of his game when it comes to disguised coverages that change at the snap. Cover-2s that become Quarters when the corners drop. Loaded boxes that seem like blitz looks until the linebackers fall into the passing lanes. And pockets collapsing not only under the weight of the three Edge players that have unexpectedly become a strength of this team, but Milton Williams coming from everywhere, joined again by Christian Barmore. If this is what they're capable of without Gonzalez and Carlton Davis, they should be in the conversation of the best in the league once they get back. And Marcus Jones can pick on somebody his own size again.
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--“Now this is gonna be the hardest, most difficult thing you ever attempted in your entire life. But you know what, when it's over… when it's over … You guys are gonna be champions! My God, you're going to be champions! Now let's get out there and kick some butt!” - Mike Ditka, Kicking & Screaming (RIP)
--It's hard to think of a better way to honor the 2001 Super Bowl team than a 45-17 win over the Snow Bowl losers. But Adam Vinatieri came up with a way.
--Fun fact as we get into "Strength of Schedule" season: The teams the Patriots have beaten are a combined 9-2 against everybody else.
--So is this heaven? No, it's North Carolina. I can't wait to get back to Foxboro. Sunday against the Jets can't come soon enough.