New England Patriots
The Patriots pushed their winning streak to eight straight. Here’s the good and the bad from the performance.
FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots prevailed in their first prime time home game at Gillette Stadium since 2023.
Night games have been scarce so far in the Drake Maye era, but the young MVP candidate came though with another accurate performance that put the Patriots in position to take care of business.
He got plenty of help on Thursday night. His offensive line held up well. TreVeyon Henderson ran hard in short yardage situations, plunging into the end zone for a pair of 7-yard touchdowns.
Stefon Diggs put together a productive game after a shaky start. Mack Hollins and Hunter Henry caught every pass thrown their way.
The game followed a familiar pattern. New England once again opened with a sloppy opening drive on defense that resulted in a score from an opponent. They took a slim lead into halftime before pulling away in the third quarter.
Justin Fields presented some problems early in the game with his legs, but the Patriots ultimately did a nice job of keeping him contained. The run defense was strong. They weren’t able to get to the quarterback much, but their coverage in the secondary helped them get stops.
Make it eight wins in a row for the red-hot Patriots, who are suddenly barrelling down the stretch with a potential playoff appearance in sight.
Here’s a look at who stood out and struggled in the win.
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Drake Maye
Maye’s poise under pressure stood out in this one. He looks fearless when he steps up into the pocket, and his quick feet helped him avoid would-be sacks on multiple occasions.
For the first time in a while, he didn’t have any spectacular deep throws – his longest completion went 26 yards to DeMario Douglas.
But he was extremely accurate. He completed his first 11 passing attempts of the game and spread the ball around to a variety of targets.
His pocket awareness and the way he used his athleticism to extend plays played a big role in his ability to deliver the ball accurately. A fine performance from the second-year quarterback.
TreVeyon Henderson
Last week, Henderson’s speed proved to be too much for at Atlanta.
The Jets, for the most part, were able to contain the speedy second-year back this week, but his determined approach to finishing runs resulted in short-yardage scores.
He ran with aggression, breaking tackles and even being shoved into the end zone by a couple of linemen on one play after churning his feet to keep his momentum going after contact.
He also slipped past the defense for a wide-open six-yard touchdown catch from Maye.
Stefon Diggs
Diggs had a couple of drops early in the game, but he didn’t let that faze him.
The veteran receiver turned in his third 100-yard performance of the season.
His three-game touchdown streak got snapped, but this was his most productive performance in terms of yards and catches since New England’s win against the Bills last month.
Robert Spillane
Spillane once again led the team in tackles, making plays all over the field.
He crossed over the 90-tackle mark on Thursday, putting a potential third-straight 100-tackle season in play.
He averaged 153 tackles over the last two seasons when he was with the Raiders.
Anfernee Jennings
Jennings, who has been in a reduced role this season, put himself in the right place at the right time with 7:33 to go when Fields botched a snap.
The ball bounced on the ground, and Jennings pushed his blocker back and fell on top of it.
The turnover gave the Patriots the ball inside the red zone and New England quickly scored, effectively putting the game away.
The offensive line
Maye looked comfortable, composed, and accurate and the offensive line deserves credit for that.
They were physical all night, putting Jets defenders on the ground on multiple occasions.
They have given up just two sacks over the last two games.
Christian Barmore
It took him a while to break through, but Barmore was the Patriots’ most effective rusher Thursday night.
He had a pair of QB hits, including a fourth-quarter sack. He also anchored a defensive front that held Breece Hall to 67 yards.
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Harold Landry and K’Lavon Chaisson
The Jets tested the Patriots’ edge rushers’ ability to contain outside runs. Fields was effective attacking the edges in the first half, but was slowed down significantly.
Chaisson did a nice job breaking up a trick play where Fields ran downfield and tried to catch a pass. Landry had a quarterback hit.
But neither of them were as effective as they normally are in the rush game.
Christian Gonzalez
Gonzalez was solid for the most part, but there were some occasions where it looked like Adonai Mitchell had a step on him but simply wasn’t able to haul in catches.
Mitchell had a pretty obvious drop that slipped through his hands, and he also looked open on a deep ball that bounced right off of one of his gloves.
Ultimately, the Jets did not get much production from Mitchell who had one catch on six targets. But he easily could have been more dangerous had he been able to hang onto the ball.
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Preparedness for scripted plays
This has been an issue for the defense as a whole all season.
For whatever reason, you can pretty much pencil in opponents to score on their opening drive against the Patriots. The defense has also done a nice job bouncing back once they settle down later in the game, but setting the tone with early stops has been a struggle for them.
The Jets used Justin Fields’s speed early and it worked at first, but it wasn’t sustainable. New England adjusted after the quarterback scampered for an early touchdown.
Kyle Williams
After a breakout performance against the Buccaneers, Williams went catchless against the Jets.
There seemed to be some communication issues on some of the deep targets he got, and the type of attempts that the Patriots try to hit him on are typically higher-risk high-reward kinds of plays.
But this is the seventh time in eight games that the rookie has gone without a catch.
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