Sunday in Foxboro was the site of a battle for legitimacy between two teams in disparate situations: the Las Vegas Raiders walked into Gillette Stadium with the better record, (3-1), but the New England Patriots looked far and away like the team coming off a Super Bowl appearance, eyeing a return.
“They are who we thought they were.”
Those words were spoken by Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green in 2006 after his team choked away a lead to the Chicago Bears. Two decades later, they can be applied to the "identity" conversation that swirls around every team come mid-October.
The Patriots’ character came into question in the first three weeks of the season. Quarterback Drake Maye was a turnover machine - a dreadful regression that started in the fourth quarter of Week 1. Head coach Mike Vrabel and defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr’s defense let Jacksonville go 5-for-5 in the red zone while Maye’s judgment and confidence crumbled.
A triumph over the Bills in Buffalo in Week 4 got them “back into the race,” as Vrabel said. But was it sustainable? Did this team have enough of last year’s grit, swagger, and unselfishness? Or was turning over more than 40% of the roster a mistake last spring? Were they truly just the beneficiaries of last year's soft schedule?
The question this week is: Is a 45-17 thrashing enough of a statement to say this team isn't a group of phony-baloneys?
Yes, especially because the context around this particular game matters a lot.
(The Raiders, on the other hand, looked like a complete paper tiger against the bruised and battered Patriots).
"The competitive spirit of some of these guys is really, pretty special," Vrabel said after the win. He was notably taciturn about the lopsided victory, seemingly hesitant to appear too glowing about the process that got them there.
Vrabel’s team showed resilience and unity in the face of debilitating injuries for the second straight week. Both starting cornerbacks, Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis, were ruled out well before Sunday. In their stead, Charles Woods and Marcus Jones were tasked with containing the NFL’s most Hulk-like tight end/wide receiver, Brock Bowers.
Bowers looked like an immovable, unstoppable object early on. Jones was particularly mismatched on Bowers’ touchdown in the first quarter. It was like watching Muggsy Bogues try to cover Charles Barkley.
But the secondary found some footing as the game progressed, with depth piece Kindle Vildor making a particularly nice play in the third quarter, breaking up a pass intended for Bowers. Craig Woodson, the promising young safety who was named game captain Sunday, also recovered a fumble. The defense held a Raiders team that had posted more than 26 points per week this season to just 17.
Before getting to the offense, the Patriots’ front office gets bragging rights for finding two diamonds in the rough back in 2025. Eliot Wolf and company signed both receiver Efton Chism III and linebacker Elijah Ponder as undrafted free agents, and both have made valuable contributions while the Patriots’ injured reserve list spools on. The comparisons to Julian Edelman aren’t going anywhere while offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels draws up a trick play for Chism to convert 3rd-and-11, and Ponder sacked Kirk Cousins twice Sunday.
Digression aside, the Patriots’ offense was weakened by two more major injuries in the first half of the game: left tackle Will Campbell and running back TreVeyon Henderson suffered knee and ankle injuries, respectively, and neither returned to the game after halftime. Right guard Mike Onwenu is one of 14 players on the aforementioned injured reserve list, and the team had already limped into the game without Maye’s favorite targets, A.J. Brown and Mack Hollins. Undersized receivers DeMario Douglas and Kyle Williams had a combined 126 receiving yards through four weeks of the season, but Maye found both in the end zone to boost the team’s most dynamic and diversified offensive performance this year.
That performance was led by 2025 vintage Maye, who finished with 374 yards, zero turnovers, and four touchdowns. He also added a rushing touchdown. The win was only his second career game throwing for over 300 yards, and perhaps more importantly, it was his first clean game of the year (zero turnovers against the Raiders’ takeaway-happy defense). When facing pressure in the red zone, he got rid of the ball rather than forcing the heroics. And, reminiscent of his MVP runner-up campaign, he looked like the caliber of quarterback who makes the guys around him look better rather than making excuses for mistakes (shoulder, blood ball, etc.).
If this Maye shows up week after week, September will seem like a bad dream. For today, the Patriots shouldn’t be the team facing fraud allegations.
