AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper

FOXBOROUGH – For the second straight week, the Patriots got to celebrate a big win in the locker room, which means game balls are given out.

And for the second straight week, Mike Vrabel handed Drake Maye one of them, with a message before it:

“We’re not taking any more shit.”

Clear, concise, right to the point.

Maye has certainly heard it loud and clear, throwing for 634 yards and seven touchdowns the last two games.

But, has the message been specifically for Maye? It’s been said while looking at him both times, so I asked Vrabel about it again this week during his usual Monday availability. Specifically, I asked him directly if it’s just for the QB, or the entire team.

“I think that’s just for all of us,” he said. “Listen, we’re all in the judgement business. We understand what this is. It’s week-to-week. It’s day-to-day. It’s focusing on what we can do to improve and play our position, or play our role whatever we have, whatever our responsibility is for this football team, do it well, do it with confidence.

“Be decisive and keep going.”

While it’s a message the entire team can obviously use (and has these last two weeks), it’s pretty evident that it’s more for Maye than anybody else, especially if you watch the postgame videos posted by the team. Vrabel and Maye’s teammates believes he can be a legitimate MVP-caliber QB consistently, but it seems like the QB just needed a little kick in the ass from his head coach to remember who he is.

The Patriots have taken no shit the last two weeks despite the CVS receipt injury reports. If they – and especially the quarterback – continue carrying out Vrabel’s message, this could be another fun winter.