2 days Ago By Marima
Week 11 brought another winnable yet losing effort when the Rams came to town last Sunday. Overall, Drake Maye looked great with a few hiccups thrown in. The game was close and the Patriots would have had a better chance to win without the sloppiness and penalties that have plagued this team all season long.
Growing pains sure can be painful to go through and we’re all stuck right in the middle of it. The experts pretty much kept the Patriots ranked 25th, the same as last week. The difference between New England and the bottom-dwellers is the optimism of having a young quarterback to build around in the coming years.
New England has answered the QB question and it’s a positive for fans who once again have had to put off their hopes of getting back on the winning/contender track another year. The next question is, do they have the right front office in place to get them there? Jerod Mayo and DeMarcus Covington have had their own first-year growing pains. How will Eliot Wolf and Matt Groh be evaluated? Those two need to nail the upcoming draft and free-agency period, all across the board.
As for the six remaining games, beginning with the 4-6 Dolphins in Miami this week, there’s still plenty of positives to watch for. Drake Maye and the development of the young players plus the coaching and whether the team can clean up their penalties and undisciplined play. Here’s hoping one of the positives will be getting back in the win column on Sunday.
GO PATS! Around the AFC East: Buffalo Bills (9-2) - Bye week New England Patriots (3-8) at Miami Dolphins (4-6) New York Jets (3-8) - Bye week AFC Matchups: Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) at Carolina Panthers (3-7) Pittsburgh Steelers (8-2) at Cleveland Browns (2-8) Houston Texans (7-4) vs. Tennessee Titans (2-8) Los Angeles Chargers (7-3) vs. Baltimore Ravens (7-4) Denver Broncos (6-5) at Las Vegas Raiders (2-8) Indianapolis Colts (5-6) vs.
Detroit Lions (9-1) Cincinnati Bengals (4-7) - Bye week Jacksonville Jaguars (2-9) - Bye week *********************************************************************** 22nd - Nate Davis (USA Today): Given how poorly the offensive line has blocked, might be time to convert LT Vederian Lowe into a wideout? [nc] 22nd - Staff (The Score): Drake Maye needs any of his wide receivers to step up and be a reliable target. DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, and Kendrick Bourne have three touchdowns combined this season. [nc] 23rd - Pete Prisco (CBS Sports): Drake Maye is improving and gives this team hope, but this season if done.
They do fight, though, which is a good thing . [+3] 25th - Conor Orr (SI): I thought Alex Van Pelt called a nice game in this one. It’s just something we don’t say a lot but probably should.
It was clear early on, from a completely blown block on a Rams stunt to some secondary pressures, that Chris Shula wanted to bring the heat on the rookie. But New England had a lot of answers for Drake Maye. It’s about that time to start thinking about what the Patriots want with this staff as they head into next season and I’d argue that Van Pelt has done a good job—certainly in the mix for the best job with a rookie if we factor in surrounding talent .
[-1] 25th - Diante Lee (The Ringer): Now that we can all agree that rookie QB Drake Maye looks like the real deal, the true test of New England’s intestinal fortitude is coming. Maye has shrugged off a bad offensive. line and nonexistent running game and held this offense up essentially on his own, and almost single-handedly kept the Patriots in Sunday’s loss to the Rams.
But as we’ve focused on shortcomings with the offense, we’ve lost sight of how New England’s secondary took a major step back this season. Bad defense is anathema for this franchise. Fans and local media are struggling to process why this team can’t flip a switch and shut down top NFL offenses like it used to during the Belichick era, even though there were never expectations of that sort of thing being possible coming into this season.
Head coach Jerod Mayo was going to atch hell this year no matter what, and Maye’s individual success amid the team’s overall failure will only amplify it. This franchise needs to keep the lonb iew if it wants to get back to contending . [nc] 25th - Ryan Dunleavy (NY Post) .
[-3] 25th - NFL Nation (ESPN): Onwenu is the only Patriots offensive lineman to play every snap this season, and he was described by O-coordinator Alex Van Pelt as the team’s best player up front. However, Onwenu said he isn’t playing up to his standard, which could be a result of coaches bouncing him between right tackle and right guard because of the instability around him. The Patriots started a different configuration on the O-line in each of the first seven games.
— Mike Reiss . [+1] 26th - Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports): Just about every Patriots game is about the same: They play hard, everyone talks about how Drake Maye is looking good (100.2 rating vs.
the Rams) and they end up losing. That probably won’t change . [nc] 26th - Vinnie Iyer (Sporting News): The Patriots are seeing inspired play from rookie QB Drake Maye despite some offensive skill limitations, but their defense needs a massive overhaul for Jerod Mayo in Year 2 to resemble anything Belichickian .
[nc] 27th - Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk): They’ve now had back-to-back 3-8 starts for the first time since before Robert Kraft bought the team . [-1] 27th - Eric Edholm (NFL.com): There will be a time and place in the future, God willing, where Drake Maye has more weapons, far better protection and a more aggressive coaching approach — and he’s All-Pro quality.
There are still rookie mistakes on the tape (e.g. the game-ending INT), but he moves his feet really well and has excellent feel and touch, especially when he’s extending plays and coloring a little outside the lines.
There’s also just a veteran’s cool to his game. He’s not nearly the project I thought he’d be. But the Patriots too often have let him down, and Sunday was a prime example.
Dropped passes, offensive line errors and penalties, and passive play-calling have hurt his chances. Maye did everything he could to drag the Patriots to a win, but most of the time it feels like he’s moving into the wind . [nc] 27th - Matt Johnson (SportsNaut): The calls for Jerod Mayo to be fired as a first-year head coach have stooped, perfectly aligning with the emergence of franchise quarterback Drake Maye.
Sunday provided another glowing example of Maye making plays and showing star traits even with a bad supporting cast around him. While there are still six games ahead for the Patriots, we’re already thinking about the additions New England can make to this offense to make a big step forward in 2025 . [+2] 28th - Consensus (Bleacher Report): The final score is all that matters in the NFL, and in Week 11, the Patriots again came up short in that regard.
But there were some positives for the team even in defeat. Rookie quarterback Drake Maye continues to make strides, throwing for 282 yards and two scores with a passer rating over 100. After the loss, veteran tight end Hunter Henry told reporters that he sees the growth in Maye from week to week.
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The Pats now just need to figure out a way to translate some of that on-field growth into a different result on the scoreboard. Are the Patriots a good team? Not really. Have they become a ton of fun? Heck yes.
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More . [+2] 29th - Ben Rolfe (Pro Football Network): Offense rank: 29 - Defense rank: 25 - Special teams rank: 2 - SOS rank through Week 11: 26. The New England Patriots are one of two teams in the bottom part of these rankings with some positivity around them.
That might be because they have been at the bottom all season, and things could only get better. Nevertheless, the positive aspect is that Drake Maye continues to flash real potential for the future, and the defense is at least improving some. There is still a long way to go, but New England is hopefully on the upswing of the rebuild .
[+2] AVG RANK: 25.5 [+0.4].
