Patriots
“Didn’t take advantage of bad football and then were able to have bad football ourselves.”
COMMENTARY
FOXBOROUGH — The arrival of Mike Vrabel in January and an offseason spending spree were not going to be enough to punch the Patriots’ ticket back to the postseason for the first time since 2021.
Years of woeful drafting and whiffs in free agency had left New England’s roster barren — and short on the depth needed to keep this team afloat when the injury bug inevitably stings.
But, as thousands of Patriots fans draped in ponchos braved the soggy conditions in Foxborough on Sunday, it felt as though hope has been re-kindled.
Perhaps it was the relief brought upon the arrivals of free-agent reinforcements like Stefon Diggs, Milton Williams, and Harold Landry, shoring up deficient areas of the roster than made the 2024 Patriots a unenviable product on both sides of the ball.
Maybe it was the promise showcased by Drake Maye — the promising second-year QB who stood as one of the few bright spots during a miserable winter with Jerod Mayo.
Or, maybe it was the reassurances and promises doled out by Vrabel: the a former Patriots stalwart who cultivated a winning culture at his previous coaching stop in Nashville.
The 2025 Patriots may not be charting a course for Super Bowl LX, nor is it a given that this revamped roster will be playing football beyond Week 18.
But, in the months leading up to Sunday’s season opener against the Raiders, one sentiment felt resolute about this 2025 team.
They were going to be better. Right?
… right?
“We’re going to demand effort and finish,” Vrabel said in his introductory press conference as Patriots head coach. “People ask what non-negotiables are. Our effort and our finish is going to be the contract that we make with our teammates.”
Accountability. Promise. An influx of talent. Finishing strong.
All things Patriots fans yearning for the success of yesteryear wanted to hear after back-to-back four-win campaigns.
But as the boos — in conjunction with an incessant downpour — rained down on the Patriots’ in the closing minutes of Sunday’s 20-13 loss, one would be hard pressed to discern the difference between this 2025 club and the ones that have elicited a similar misery from fans over the last few years.
“It’s frustrating,” Vrabel said postgame after New England’s Week 1 loss to Las Vegas. “We have to understand how sometimes these games are going to go. We just didn’t do enough in the second half. Give them credit. We certainly didn’t do enough.
“We had too many missed opportunities, too many penalties, the turnover, and things that just — didn’t take advantage of bad football and then were able to have bad football ourselves.”
The final reading on the scoresheet stands as the clearest barometer of a team’s fortunes over the course of a season.
But, New England made at least some incremental gains during Sunday’s matchup against Las Vegas.
Maye and New England’s overhauled offense looked to be in control in the first half. Despite entering halftime with just 10 total points, the young QB completed 14 of his 20 pass attempts in the first half with 150 total yards and a touchdown.
Had it not been for a missed 40-yard kick from rookie Andy Borregales, the Patriots would have scored on three-straight drives.
Not exactly the ‘07 Patriots, but the sight of Kayshon Boutte and Stefon Diggs moving the chains and TreVeyon Henderson going 0-to-60 on sweeps to the outside was a welcome sight after years spent watching Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe sputter out of control.
Maye waited until the second half to pay homage to the Patriots QBs who had come before him.
After getting knocked for an interception on New England’s first drive of the second half, Maye and the Patriots’ offense fell into the same routine of lapsed execution and talent-deficit scheming that has become commonplace at Gillette in the post-Brady era.
“I don’t know if we felt settled in at halftime because it was up or what … just feel like we could have had more energy going into the second half,” Boutte said postgame.
During the subsequent four drives after Maye was knocked for his turnover, the QB completed just seven passes for a whopping 51 yards — with New England gaining just two first downs and ultimately punting the ball away on all four occasions.
By the time the Patriots orchestrated a 10-play, 54-yard drive over the final minutes of regulation, it was too little too late for a New England offense again unraveled by offensive-line miscues (four sacks, one strip-sack, nine QB hits), inconsistent play under center, and a running game that couldn’t get going (60 total rushing yards).
“I thought there were some good positive plays and really good command of what we were doing, and then there were times where maybe we or he missed somebody, and we’ll have to see,” Vrabel said of Maye. “It’s a challenge playing quarterback in this league. We’ve got to help him out. We have to be more balanced.”
A Patriots defense that struggled to make life miserable for opposing quarterbacks last season (a league-worst 28 sacks) showed some signs of life on Sunday. Free-agent pickup Harold Landry III was a one-man wrecking crew with 2.5 sacks, while both Milton Williams and K’Lavon Chaisson generated plenty of pressure.
When defensive coordinator Terrell Williams dialed up the pressure, the Patriots had chances to make Geno Smith uncomfortable in the pocket. When they couldn’t, the veteran QB was still able to carve them up.
All of the progress made at the line of scrimmage for New England’s defense was undercut by the amount of explosive plays Smith and the Raiders were able to generate off of the curls and flats that exposed the rest of the Patriots’ defensive depth chart.
Smith finished with a whopping 362 passing yards in the win, totaling 10.6 yards per attempt. In total, the Raiders posted nine different plays that went for 20-plus yards in the win.
“We were prepared for this game,” Landry said. “Felt like we had a great gameplan. I felt like for the most part, we went out there and executed. We just had too many lapses with [explosive] plays and not really making them earn it.”
As frustrating as Sunday’s result was for the thousands who packed into Gillette, Vrabel did not share any semblance of shock off of what played out against Las Vegas.
“I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised by anything. … Now we’ll see where we’re at,” Vrabel said. “We’ll see what kind of football team we have, what kind of leaders we have, to be able to come back in here and get to work. I think that’ll be the true test.
“We always talk about culture and everything else. We’ll see where we’re at as a culture and as a team and if we have guys that want to work and stick together. It’ll be a big challenge to do that.”
It should come as little surprise that Vrabel is taking the pragmatic (and sanity-saving) approach for a Patriots team that has a lot of work to do when it comes to re-establishing some semblance of respectability.
Preaching patience is the right call for a coach who is well-aware of the sizable undertaking that sits in front of him.
It remains to be seen if the fans who have been let down for most of the last five years have the appetite to heed their new coach’s words.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
