Courtesy of the New England Patriots
FOXBOROUGH– For the first time since 2018, the Patriots won a home playoff game and they did it by playing great defense and making timely plays on offense. It was an unconventional win by Patriot playoff standards but a great win nonetheless.
The Patriots are built to win a championship. Now it is just a matter of building off of last night.
With the win last night, the Patriots now have 38 playoff wins all-time. Second most in NFL history.
Here are seven points from last night’s Wild Card win.
1. The defense dominates: The defense flat out dominated the Chargers tonight limiting them to 207 yards of total offense and three points. I am going to let the numbers do the talking.
6 sacks
16 QB pressures
11 QB Hits
2 FF
1 FR
A dominate defensive performance against an offense spearheaded by a top five quarterback and coach. The Patriots looked like a championship caliber defense and that is bad news for the rest of the teams they may face moving forward.
2. Maye’s Day: I am going to address Drake’s two turnovers in my next point. I thought in the first half he was a little skittish and amped up. In the second half, he was more composed and under control and it showed in the way he played. Overall, he still had a good game finishing 17-of-29 for 268 yards, 1 touchdown pass and one interception. Maye was the Patriots leading rusher, finishing with 66 yards on 10 carries. The majority of those yards came on a 37 yard run. His scrambling ability paid off tonight. He could have been better but a strong second half saved the night.
3. Maye’s turnovers were problematic: Now look, I do not want to make too much about the turnovers. I don’t think the interception was his fault. The ball was tipped and Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley made a hell of a player picking it off. The fumble is a problem. You cannot fumble the ball in the pocket! Maye needs to be stronger with the ball and he needs to take a sack if he has to. Protecting the ball in that situation is his number one job. Maye’s only true flaw in his game right now is taking care of the ball. He has to do better job of it moving forward.
4. Stevenson continues to pace the offense: Rhamondre Stevenson has morphed into the Patriots second best offensive player. His versatility as a runner and receiver are a big part of this offense and you can see why the Patriots use him so much. Earlier in the season when he was dealing with fumbling issues, there were calls to cut him. Now you have to wonder where this offense would be without him? It is valid question. I sure am glad Vrabel supported him and didn’t listen to the noise see.
5. Hunter Henry, old reliable: Hunter Henry once again proved he is Drake Maye’s security blanket. He caught 3 passes for 64 yards but one of those catches was a 28 yard touchdown catch that put the game away and the other two were for first downs. Henry is as consistent as they come in this offense and when things are in doubt, both Josh McDaniels and Maye can lean on him to make a big catch in a key spot.
6. Playoff Josh came out: McDaniels went to the back of the playbook calling a jet sweep reverse pass from Efton Chism to Maye that fell incomplete and then he called a speed option for Maye out of 22 Rhino (6 OL) personnel. McDaniels went deep into his bag to give the Patriots an opportunity to come away with points in the red zone. I jokingly asked Maye after the game at his locker about the speed option call. He said: “When I saw Kalil Mack, I was like sh$t and cut it up inside.” Needless to say, Drake got some positive yards on the play and avoided Mack. The play was a success.
7. Campbell and Wilson struggled with T-E stunts: Will Campbell and Jared Wilson struggled at times with the Chargers T-E and E-T stunts. It is a concern because it is the playoffs. You can’t have the miscommunication and break downs now. Both the Texans and Steelers do a lot with T-E stunts as well as slanting and angling their OLB’s and ends. Campbell and Wilson will see a lot more twisting moving forward. Teams will try to isolate and overload them. They need to communicate, stay in sync and make sure they are fundamentally sound in picking up the movements.