After the Patriots’ 23-20 upset win at Buffalo in Week 5 on Sunday Night Football, the country was put on notice as to what New England's ceiling could be for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Armed with a schedule that mathematically is the easiest any team has had since 1978, fans’ imaginations started to run wild for what quarterback Drake Maye and head coach Mike Vrabel could accomplish in year one of their partnership.
“Could this team win the AFC East?”
“How deep can this team go in the postseason?”
“Could Drake Maye win MVP?”
A one-win Saints team on tap was just an afterthought. Fans were too busy setting aside money for playoff tickets to pay their Week 6 opponent any mind.
Then the game kicked off at the Superdome, and it was a real back-and-forth ballgame between two teams with young quarterbacks unafraid to sling the ball around the field.
The Patriots (4-2) got the 25-19 win, but it wasn’t as easy as New England fans would have liked down in “The Big Easy.”
Here are your Ups & Downs for Week 6:
Ups:
- Drake Maye: The hype train for the 23-year-old continued to roll along on Sunday, as Maye was inarguably the best player on the football field on Sunday.
From the jump, Maye flashed his arm talent, finding wideout DeMario Douglas on New England’s fourth offensive play for a 53-yard touchdown off play action.
And one possession later, Maye found Douglas again. This time, it was for a 61-yard score on a play that at one point looked broken. Maye found some space in a collapsing pocket, hitting the third-year receiver in space and watching him zig-zag his way to the end zone.
…unfortunately, that one got called back on a phantom pass interference call. But we’ll talk more about that one later.
Have no fear, Maye is here.
Six plays later, he found Kayshon Boutte for a 25-yard touchdown to give the Patriots a 14-6 lead with 33 seconds left in the first quarter.
That would be Maye’s first of two first-half touchdowns to Boutte, finding the LSU-product for a 29-yard touchdown in the waning moments of the second quarter to give the Patriots a 20-16 lead heading into the half.
At 11 of 13 passing for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns, Maye took a perfect 158.3 passer rating into halftime.
And when he came out for the second half, it was more of the same for the young gunslinger.
A great example of this was at 12:41 in the fourth quarter, with his team facing a 3rd and 11 from their own 19 yard line.
As the pocket collapsed and Maye continued scanning downfield to find an open man, he maneuvered the pocket perfectly to find Mack Hollins for a 16-yard gain and a first down. Given the field position, time and score, it was a huge play.
New England squandered the opportunity with three straight penalties costing them two different first downs, but we’ll get to that later on. Hidden within that sequence were two perfectly thrown balls up the right sideline, both of which were a part of questionable OPI/DPI calls/non-calls.
Maye finished the day 18 for 26 passing for 261 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also added 28 rushing yards on 9 carries, which doesn’t include his successful two-point conversion sneak up the middle in the second quarter.
The kid looks like a top eight quarterback, plain and simple.
- Kayshon Boutte: After a big Week 1 in his team’s loss to the Raiders, Boutte has been mostly quiet while the Patriots offense has ascended in recent weeks.
But in a homecoming game for the New Iberia, La. native, Boutte flashed his big play ability, putting on full display why he was Maye’s favorite target during his 12-game rookie campaign in 2024.
Five catches for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns on the day for Boutte, averaging 18.2 yards per reception while showing an elite ability to win the contested ball battle downfield.
One of those contested ball showcases for Boutte came late in the fourth quarter. With 2:40 to go on 3rd and 11, the Patriots were leading 25-19 on the Saints 30 yard line. A first down on this play would go a long way towards New England sealing a win.
Maye threw the ball up the left sideline for Boutte, who fronted his man and made the catch with his body. He got his feet down in bounds, and it was yet another highlight play for the third-year receiver.
The two games leading up to Week 6 saw Stefon Diggs emerge as Maye’s favorite target for 2025. But with Boutte’s big play ability still in the mix, the Patriots are starting to look like a team with a real well-rounded receiving core for the first time since 2018.
- DeMario Douglas: “Pop” popped!
With his 53-yard touchdown on paper and his 61-yard called-back touchdown as the highlight we all saw with our own eyes that didn’t count, it was nice to see the 24-year-old having success in the offense on Sunday.
Heading into the season, Douglas was thought to be the guy who would benefit most from the return of Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator. With how the OC has unlocked slot receivers in the past, Douglas looked to be the guy that fit that mold.
That hasn’t been the case this season thus far. But on Sunday, his presence was felt.
Three catches for 71 yards and a touchdown gave Douglas a day that maybe sets him up for more success the remainder of the year.
- Marcus Jones: Multiple high-level pass break-ups.
Excellent end zone coverage to save a touchdown.
A huge sack at the top of the fourth quarter to hold the Saints to a field goal and keep the Patriots on top 25-16.
This guy continues to have an excellent season across the board. Whether it’s on special teams or on the defensive side of the football, the team captain leads by example on a weekly basis.
New England is lucky to have a versatile playmaker like Jones on the roster.
And not for nothing - without having to worry about adding offensive snaps to his plate this season, his game on defense and as a returner has gone to another level.
Downs:
- Officials: The late phantom pass interference call that negated a 61-yard touchdown for Douglas might have been one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in the history of the sport.
This truly is not hyperbole.
They called the PI on Stefon Diggs, who was nowhere near the play.
And when they zoomed in on Diggs, it was clear that what he was doing on the play was completely legal.
You know it was bad when former NFL official and current CBS Rules Analyst Gene Steratore took his version of a flame thrower** to the call on the broadcast:
“Guys, tough to make sense of. The defensive player reaches out, engages with Diggs. It's just a hand. There's no advantage. Don't think there's offensive pass interference there at all, fellas.”
One play later, the refs called the Saints for an obvious make-up call on some weak defensive pass interference on Kyle Williams. And when the CBS broadcast tossed it back to Steratore to ask him about it, he went right back to explaining why the Diggs-PI was not PI at all, giving us an even closer look at the play that still has everyone scratching their head.
I’m typically not a guy that likes to blame the refs for the outcomes in any sport. And ultimately, the Patriots scored a touchdown later on that same drive. But this was yet another example of the officiating being outright bad this season, something the Patriots have had to deal with in some capacity almost every week through six games.
Fast forward to the fourth quarter, and the Patriots were faced with a 3rd and 27 from their own 18 yard line after three straight penalties negated two different third down conversions.
The third of those three penalties was an offensive PI call on Diggs that negated a sick 52-yard catch up the right sideline. It was a questionable call at best - his hand hit corner Quincy Riley’s outside shoulder, but it didn’t look to me like he pushed or impeded his ability to make a play on the ball.
One play later, Maye threw another beautiful ball to the same spot on the field to Hollins. This time, it looked like Riley made contact with Hollins that did, indeed, impeded his ability to make a play on the ball.
Zebras were bad on Sunday.
**I said “his version of a flame thrower” because a former ref is never going to fully roast a current ref. Just doesn’t happen. But this was as close as we’ll ever get.
- Kyle Dugger: On the first offensive play of the game, Dugger’s presence on the field was felt.
Unfortunately for the Patriots, it wasn’t felt in a positive way.
Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler found standout wide receiver Chris Olave downfield over Dugger for a 53-yard gain, immediately reminding everyone in New England why the 29-year-old had fallen out of the rotation during training camp.
With regular starting safety Jaylinn Hawkins out of the lineup, Dugger was back in the mix.
And lucky for him, New Orleans was held to a field goal on the drive.
But allowing the Saints offense to gain some early confidence on Sunday earns the veteran a spot in the “Downs” section this week.
Will be interested to see if Dugger gets enough playing moving forward to garner mention in this column in the coming weeks.
- Andy Borregales: It wasn’t a missed field goal that landed the rookie kicker in this section this week, but rather a kickoff-short-of-the-landing-zone penalty in the second quarter that gave New Orleans great field position on an eventual touchdown drive.
Starting on their own 40 yard line, the Saints proceeded to go 60 yards on 11 plays across almost six minutes of regulation to score their first touchdown of the game.
I know this rule is still new to Borregales, but unforced errors like this one need to be avoided in close games. If this team is actually going to be in the mix for playoff-level football later this year, it’s mistakes like this one that will end up costing them a game.
- Garrett Bradbury: After a bad third down play call on a 3rd and 7 from the Saints 39 yard line, New England kept their offense on the field for a surprising fourth down attempt with 5:54 to go in the second quarter.
Regardless of that decision by Vrabel, you can’t be botching a shotgun snap as a veteran starting center in the NFL.
That’s exactly what Bradbury did on 4th and 7. Maye jumped on the ball to keep the Saints from a scoop-and-score attempt, and it was a turnover on downs with 5:50 to go in the quarter. Eight plays later, and New Orleans was kicking a 38-yard field goal to take a 16-14 lead.
Like I said for Borregales - unforced errors like this one will inevitably cost this team a game down the stretch if they’re unable to clean them up.
- Sloppy Sequence: On 3rd and 7 from the Patriots 38 yard line with 10:37 to go in the fourth quarter, New England was called for three consecutive penalties that cost them two different third down conversions:
- An illegal shift on Rhamondre Stevenson negated an 8-yard grab from Hollins and backed the offense up 5 yards
- A false start from Morgan Moses backed New England up another 5 yards
- Offensive pass interference on a 52-yard catch by Diggs backed New England up another 10 yards, forcing a 3rd and 27 from their own 18 yard line
For a brief moment, I felt like I was watching the Jerod Mayo Patriots.
The Patriots ended up having to punt the ball away to New Orleans, giving them life in what was a one possession game with 9:40 remaining in the ballgame.
Had linebacker Christian Elliss not been successful in forcing a fumble (with the help of replay) just two plays into the Saints’ next possession, we might have looked back on this sequence as the one that led to New England being upset by one of the bottom-dwellers of the NFC South.
- Run Game: 73 yards on 31 carries, with 28 of those coming from your quarterback on 9 carries.
It might work against a bad team. But being this one dimensional against playoff-level competition is not going to cut it.
The Patriots are back on the road in Week 7, as they’ll head down to Nashville to take on the Titans.
As of publishing, the Patriots are 6.5-point road favorites at FanDuel. You can get them on the moneyline at -150, and the total sits at 42.5.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.