Here’s what we learned from Week 4 of Patriots football: New England has graduated from the worst class of NFL teams.
Move that tassle to the other side of your mortarboards, guys.
Congratulations!
Maybe Mike Vrabel’s Patriots have yet to reach league average among a few position groups, or look as sharp and disciplined as we all expected back in March – but at least they’re not Carolina. That’s progress.
Not trying to punch down on the Panthers over here, (the Patriots did plenty of that on Sunday afternoon), because the point here is that the Patriots have been where Carolina currently sits for the last few years. Heck, they should have had the first overall pick last year. They were a bottom-three team.
Quarterback Drake Maye continues to be the biggest difference-maker for this team. Now, even with Christian Gonzalez back from injury, it’s fair to consider him the most talented player on the roster. It’s nice when the best guy happens to be the quarterback.
Maye still has a few accuracy issues. He started the day with a high, nearly-tipped, nearly-picked toss to Kayshon Boutte. He then had a few bizarrely low throws to Boutte and Stefon Diggs in the third quarter. But while watching Maye and watching Carolina quarterback Bryce Young on the other side, you quickly see these are two young quarterbacks on entirely different trajectories. Maye’s arrow is rocketing upwards. Against the Panthers’ wobbly defense, he looked as big and bad – and confident – as his hero Cam Newton once did with the Panthers. The highlight of his day was a pitch to tight end Hunter Henry on the run that resulted in a 31-yard touchdown and put the Patriots ahead 35-6.
Let’s leave the Young criticism to the writers down in Carolina. But between this team and what’s happening in Chapel Hill, those poor scribes are in for a lot of bad football this year.
The most critical takeaways from this drubbing were the decisions that are replicable, and apart from everything Maye did, much of the offense’s consistency and momentum came through Diggs’ elevated role. Maye said earlier this week he told Diggs he would get him the ball more. Mission accomplished, Sunday. Diggs finished with 6 catches for 101 yards. He kept the offense humming. On what became the 37th 100-yard game of his career, he also threw a block for Antonio Gibson’s 21-yard run in the first quarter.
"If everybody just stays the course and does the right things and does all the things that helps the team, that those plays are going to come for them in the red zone," Vrabel said postgame. "It's just like the defensive line. They want sacks, and they want all this. [Christian] Barmore is disrupting the quarterback, and he's getting holding calls. I don't want him to be frustrated, but I see those things. Pop (DeMario) Douglas would have liked to have a couple extra catches today, but he also turned and blocked and Hunter Henry ran down the sidelines. Nobody's going to say it unless I say it. So those are the things that matter, not the guy catching the touchdown. That's the easy part. The hard part's the guy that didn't get the ball thrown to him that turns immediately and blocks his guy and we score from the 25 yard line."
And although they weren't under tremendous pressure, the offense played a clean game and painted a starkly different picture than the fumble-fest they showed against the Steelers in Week 3.
"The main point was just going back to the basics," Rhamondre Stevenson said postgame. "Just doing what got us here, what we know how to do well, and not trying to do anything extra. Take care of the ball."
Special teams also had a day. Marcus Jones’ second career touchdown as a punt returner sparked the whole team, but this was also a Carolina unit that allowed more returns than L.L. Bean. Jones set a franchise record for a single game performance with 167 punt return yards. Andy Borregales deserves credit for being perfect Sunday, after a rough start to the season.
And credit the defense, as well, for holding the Panthers to just 6 points until garbage time just a week after they hung 30 on the Atlanta Falcons. But when considering whether this team can jump from “not among the worst” to “a little bit scary,” defense still carries the most doubt. They’re often sluggish to start and porous defending the passing game. They pick up a lot of penalties, and that includes veterans like Carlton Davis, who had two on Sunday. Their safeties are a major work in progress, (Craig Woodson was in coverage for the Panthers’ only touchdown and missed a tackle earlier in the scoring drive). It was heartening to see Gonzalez return and play significant minutes, but it’s far too early to gather whether he’ll reach his previous All-Pro level again this season. Milton Williams is the one absolute constant on that side of the ball.
The Patriots’ first victory, in Miami, proved they could find a way to win. This blowout proves they know how to pull away from the dregs of the league. Someday soon, they could prove they know how to be good. Hey, it’s only Week 4.