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FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots lost Will Campbell in the second quarter on Sunday and still put up 45 points.
Oh, and Maxx Crosby had one assisted tackle and two hits on Drake Make. That’s it.
The offensive line needed to step up in a big way and did. The 45-17 blowout against the Raiders came on a day that should have made the 2001 team proud.
Because of that unit, Maye had one of the best games of his young career, racking up 374 yards, four passing touchdowns and a rushing TD. Maye also completed 26 of his 34 attempts as the offense put up 536 yards.
Much of that was possible because No. 10 had a chance to throw the ball deep with clean pockets.
New England drew a handful of PI calls too, given Maye’s newfound ability to chuck a few up for Romeo Doubs because of the protection. Or, receivers made big plays like the 34-yard TD to Kyle Williams and both Pop scores. No Mack Hollins, no AJ Brown, no problem. Efton Chism III and Eli Raridon both led the team in receiving as Maye had time to spread the ball around to nine different guys.
Campbell went down with a knee injury in the second quarter and was seen on the stationary bike on the sideline, but didn’t play for the remainder of the game.
Still, Maye remained relatively unscathed all day, getting hit just six times and sacked once.
“Credit to the O-line. I’m eating a ham sandwich. I got all day back there,” said Maye.
“We just wanted to play as a unit today,” Ben Brown told me at his locker postgame. “We wanted to play connected and we wanted to play with our identity today. I feel like we did that today. Just keep improving from here.”
“I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Alijah Vera-Tucker said while talking to Channel 7. “There’s always more work to do”
Caleb Lomu was the guy that came in to replace Campbell.
“You obviously don’t want to see Will go down. You hate to have that happen, especially another offensive lineman. But, it’s always next man up,” said Lomu when I asked him what his thought process was once Campbell got hurt.
“Coach Vrabel always talks about preparing during the week like a starter because things like that can happen. Everyone that’s dressed has got to be ready able to play in the game. We don’t care about the outside noise. We just focus on what we can do. We practice every day the best we can and we go out there and compete.
“We play the game that we love and we trust what we’ve been doing all week. Trust the game plan, trust the coaches and trust each other.”
The other huge difference today was the zero turnovers number from Maye. The only team turnover was a Corey Kiner fumble.
“Any time you can not turn the ball over, it just increases your chances of winning so much,” said Brown. “We have to protect the football and the guy who has it.”
When I told Brown that the team had over 500 yards of offense, he lit up.
“That’s crazy, I had no idea,” he said with a big smile. “That’s awesome. I’m so happy for everyone who was straining hard and working this week. What’s great too, is we’ll look at the tape and we’ll find ways to still improve, you know?
“We can still fix and clean things up.”
In his postgame press conference, Mike Vrabel made sure to shout out the O-line as well.
“Just proud of our offensive line, and I wanna recognize them. I thought that they understood what the protection was and how to keep the middle of the pocket clean,” he said. “There was a lot of time for us to progress down the field, and then they run blitz zero, and we blocked it up and was able to hit some plays down the field.
“And so that’s a testament to them for understanding what they have to be able to do, and guys stepped up. You know, Caleb [Lomu] had to go in there, and, you know, everybody, we had all hands on deck.”
It’ll have to stay this way if the Patriots (and Maye) want to get to make another run, but for at least one afternoon in October, the offensive line made QB1 look like an MVP candidate again.
That makes the Patriots dangerous regardless of who’s in the lineup.
“I think the important thing is just focusing on something to improve on every single day,” Brown added. “Whether that’s a walkthrough day, or just meetings, or one of our more physical practice days…you want to try to find some way to utilize your time and take advantage of the little time you have every week to prepare for an opponent.
“Just find something specific to work on every single week. I feel like that’s the key to success.”