The Official 2025 New England Patriots Thread | Page 4 | The Boneyard
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The Official 2025 New England Patriots Thread

Very impressive win yesterday. Heard some Buffalo fans pre-game saying they were worried it was a "trap game". I don't see how a long time division rival with a team on the rise is a trap game and would find that insulting.

And if that's the Diggs you're getting the rest of the way, that will turn out to be a great signing.
 
Deepster said:
Very impressive win yesterday. Heard some Buffalo fans pre-game saying they were worried it was a "trap game". I don't see how a long time division rival with a team on the rise is a trap game and would find that insulting.

And if that's the Diggs you're getting the rest of the way, that will turn out to be a great signing.
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I think Diggs is fully healthy now, but was also clearly extra motivated in his return to Buffalo. So it may not quite be that Diggs, but maybe 90% of it.

New England came in with one of the top defenses against the run and Buffalo with a top rushing offense, so that matchup was somewhat more challenging for Buffalo than the fans may have believed. Pass D is better now too with Gonzalez. Credit Buffalo's normally weak run D for stepping up but that opened some things up for Maye.
 
I got curious with all the talk about Maye's arrival and some commentary about him being the best QB in the NFL through the first 5 weeks.

Here are the stats for Maye and Mac Jones through their first 17 games:

1759843265500.png
 
Deepster said:
I got curious with all the talk about Maye's arrival and some commentary about him being the best QB in the NFL through the first 5 weeks.

Here are the stats for Maye and Mac Jones through their first 17 games:

View attachment 112142
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Well counting last year's stats doesn't reflect the leap he's made with an actual OL not made up of practice squad guys and with a competent staff and receivers. Last year he showed some promise under dire circumstances. This year, he's easily been a top 10 passing QB. NFL 2025 Player Stats | passing Stats | NFL.com
 
Deepster said:
I got curious with all the talk about Maye's arrival and some commentary about him being the best QB in the NFL through the first 5 weeks.

Here are the stats for Maye and Mac Jones through their first 17 games:

View attachment 112142
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Mac Jones had a very good rookie year. Then McDaniels left and Belichick thought his genius, combined with a special teams coordinator, turned failed head coach (Though it was the Giants, so who knows if he still can't do the job?) and defensive coordinator, turned failed head coach could run the offense, merely because one of them is literally a rocket scientist.

As sophisticated as NFL offenses have become, they evidently are not rocket science and I don't know they realized how far they broke Jones before Bill O'Brien came back to town by overthinking it.

All that said, I think we'll find that Drake Maye's starts under Josh McDaniels will be a better body of work than Mac Jones' under McDaniels' tutelage
 
Husky25 said:
Mac Jones had a very good rookie year. Then McDaniels left and Belichick thought his genius, combined with a special teams coordinator, turned failed head coach (Though it was the Giants, so who knows if he still can't do the job?) and defensive coordinator, turned failed head coach could run the offense, merely because one of them is literally a rocket scientist.

As sophisticated as NFL offenses have become, they evidently are not rocket science and I don't know they realized how far they broke Jones before Bill O'Brien came back to town by overthinking it.

All that said, I think we'll find that Drake Maye's starts under Josh McDaniels will be a better body of work than Mac Jones' under McDaniels' tutelage
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Well, I would expect that you would think that seeing how Maye is here and Jones is not. Let's not forget, McDaniels was also there with Jarret Stidham and they thought he was Brady's replacement until he proved he wasn't and you were stuck with a past his prime Cam Newton.
 
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Deepster said:
Well, I would expect that you would think that seeing how Maye is here and Jones is not. Let's not forget, McDaniels was also there with Jarret Stidham and they thought he was Brady's replacement until he proved he wasn't and you were stuck with a past his prime Cam Newton.
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I'm not exactly sure what you are driving at. Even in college, Maye was statistically head and shoulders above Stidham.

(Late) 4th round quarterbacks are projects and the Patriots had at least a year to see what they had. When Stidham relieved Brady his rookie year vs. the Jets, he threw a pick-6, forcing Brady to come back in. That may have been an indication. Cam Newton not only beat him out in 2020, so did Brian Hoyer. Stidham was the "emergency" 3rd QB. That may have been another. A good chef can only go so far. He's got to have quality ingredients as well.

Maye was drafted #3 overall and was seen from the beginning to become the eventual starter.

By the way, Jones is better than Stidham too. He's revived his career and is playing pretty well in San Francisco. I think if the '9ers are being fair, they will have a tough decision when Purdy comes back. Jones may not be Steve Young, but Purdy is no Joe Montana either.
 
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Husky25 said:
By any objective messure, the officiating crew in the Pats-Saints game is not having their best day.
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I saw an explanation on the first Diggs OPI, meh, maybe. The second was simply a horrible call. Glad those clowns didn't change the outcome, but the NFL has a problem with all these flags on iffy, marginal penalties.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I saw an explanation on the first Diggs OPI, meh, maybe. The second was simply a horrible call. Glad those clowns didn't change the outcome, but the NFL has a problem with all these flags on iffy, marginal penalties.
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Normally Dean Blandino is deferential to his former charges. If he disagrees with a call, his typical answer is, "I can see what they were going for there, but it could have gone either way."

Yesterday's response on the Diggs penalty was more, "Yeah, um, well. They were both a little handsy. The ball went to the other side of the field. That's not the call I'd make right there."

He was this close to saying outright that it was a bad call.
 
Well here we sit at 7-2 with an Atlanta team that just lost at home to a bad Miami team on deck. Things look pretty good. Offense did the job against a tough Brown's defense. Defense was as usual, terrible in the 1st quarter and then toughened up. Boutte has emerged as a legit 1st down machine and deep threat. Henderson finally got a few outside runs, well schemed against an aggressive pass rush. Run defensive continues to be exceptional. The zone pass D is soft although Gonzalez seems to finally be playing at his prior level.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Well here we sit at 7-2 with an Atlanta team that just lost at home to a bad Miami team on deck. Things look pretty good. Offense did the job against a tough Brown's defense. Defense was as usual, terrible in the 1st quarter and then toughened up. Boutte has emerged as a legit 1st down machine and deep threat. Henderson finally got a few outside runs, well schemed against an aggressive pass rush. Run defensive continues to be exceptional. The zone pass D is soft although Gonzalez seems to finally be playing at his prior level.
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Will Campbell got a series of "Attaboys" from Myles Garrett. The Patriots are on the right trajectory. I still have to watch the 2nd half, but it looks like The browns were a victim of a do nothing offense and the Defense being on the field too long.
 
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Dove said:
Drake Maye is God.
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I think it is safe to say that Drake Maye is Good. Not his best game. Back pick. Made some really bad reads looking deep when intermediate routes were open. But still made enough plays to get the win against a very good pass defense.
 
Bittersweet NFL weekend. The Commanders', my chosen childhood team, performance is not remotely living up to the optimism, and now Jayden Daniels is out indefinitely. His elbow is "only" dislocated and the x-rays were negative, but I'd guess the timeframe is about a month.

On the other hand, my hometown team is playing some really entertaining football and winning while doing it. I will continue to enjoy the Patriots' good fortunes, but it would be nice if both the franchises were good at the same time. It's only happened a couple times in history, and only once in my lifetime (Mid 80's).
 
Either Shane Steichen or Mike Vrabel are Coach of the "Year" so far at the 1/2 way mark. There is no #3.
 
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Maye continues to impress. Just makes plays, very accurate can't really ask for more. Without drops he'd be over 300 yards. Henderson is a weapon, but he's just not the guy for grinding out 3-4 yards. It's feast or famine. Even on his big day last week, his average on non-explosive plays was under 1 yard. Had to go to Johnson late so we could actually run the ball. Team badly needs Mondre back.

Defense has to stop giving up TD drives to open the game. Props to Jets for being able to run the ball on the Pats D, nobody else has. Struggled to contain Fields, which is concerning.

1st place in the Division and Buffalo has a tough game coming up. Patriots already went over the betting line Over/Under on wins for the season, which was 8.5. I thought the Nor'Easter rivalry uniforms were fantastic.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Maye continues to impress. Just makes plays, very accurate can't really ask for more. Without drops he'd be over 300 yards. Henderson is a weapon, but he's just not the guy for grinding out 3-4 yards. It's feast or famine. Even on his big day last week, his average on non-explosive plays was under 1 yard. Had to go to Johnson late so we could actually run the ball. Team badly needs Mondre back.

Defense has to stop giving up TD drives to open the game. Props to Jets for being able to run the ball on the Pats D, nobody else has. Struggled to contain Fields, which is concerning.

1st place in the Division and Buffalo has a tough game coming up. Patriots already went over the betting line Over/Under on wins for the season, which was 8.5. I thought the Nor'Easter rivalry uniforms were fantastic.
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I was impressed with his composure and accuracy. I am not sure if he got great protection, no pass rush from NYJ or both but he wasn't under pressure at any point all game and, in man coverage, that's a death sentence.
 
Deepster said:
I was impressed with his composure and accuracy. I am not sure if he got great protection, no pass rush from NYJ or both but he wasn't under pressure at any point all game and, in man coverage, that's a death sentence.
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I saw quite a bit of pressure, but the thing he has learned to do, that he didn't do last year, is just side step or step up and make the throw. He's not taking off like he did last year.
 
I liked everything about last night's game, except for the missed FG and the fact that I left Henderson on my Yahoo league
bench.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I saw quite a bit of pressure, but the thing he has learned to do, that he didn't do last year, is just side step or step up and make the throw. He's not taking off like he did last year.
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As a rookie, with a rookie head coach himself and an OC with limited play calling experience, Maye had little, if any, trust in his supporting cast last year. His scrambling was more running for his life by comparison to McDaniels' offense.
 
Husky25 said:
As a rookie, with a rookie head coach himself and an OC with limited play calling experience, Maye had little, if any, trust in his supporting cast last year. His scrambling was more running for his life by comparison to McDaniels' offense.
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Yeah, but he never did this at UNC either. He's been coached out of some previous tendencies. That throw to Diggs from the sideline was Mahomes like.
 
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