With the Patriots at 11-2 heading into Week 15, it’s hard to nitpick what New England has been able to accomplish.
After coming out of the gate in Week 1 with what will go down as their worst loss of the season against the Raiders (2-11), they followed that up two weeks later with yet another frustrating loss at home to the Steelers (7-6).
At 1-2, Patriots fans were starting to wonder if it was going to be another one of those long seasons they’ve become all too familiar with since Tom Brady left New England in March of 2020.
And then, things just clicked.
The Patriots dominated a much-improved Panthers team (7-6) with a 42-13 win in Week 4 at Gillette Stadium, and have not stopped winning since.
New England is in the midst of a 10-game winning streak for the first time since 2016, and are a win away from clinching their first AFC East title since 2019 with the Bills (9-4) coming to Foxborough on Sunday.
In addition to a much improved roster under better coaching with Mike Vrabel at the helm, the MVP-level play of second-year quarterback Drake Maye has elevated the Patriots from a bottom-feeding team in the AFC to one of the best offenses in either conference.
But as the playoffs near, the Patriots need to start getting ready for the competition to jump a level.
Unless you live under a rock, you already know the Patriots have played one of the easiest schedules in the history of the league this season. Outside of tough competition in Week 15 against Buffalo and Week 16 against Baltimore (6-7), the slate remains fairly light with their final two games of the year against the Dolphins (6-7) and Jets (3-10).
Whether they end the regular season with 15 wins or 13 wins, it won’t change the fact that whoever they play in that first postseason game will immediately be among the best teams they’ve faced all season long.
Where does Maye’s game have to improve during this home stretch to solidify how fans should feel about New England’s chances of a run towards Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium?
Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston talked about it on Tuesday’s Jones and Keefe.
“Phil [Perry] was mentioning [on my podcast] that [Maye] has a relatively low rating against single-high safety,” said Curran. “So that means one safety back in the middle of the field, and he's playing center field on your deep threats. The Patriots don't have that field-stretching deep threat, although Maye has been fantastic throwing at 20-plus yards, as we know. But that’s his lowest rating.
“So will teams try and play a little bit more single-high safety, try and take away some of the underneath stuff, and the safe stuff to Hunter Henry? And that would open up an opportunity for Kayshon Boutte on the outside to win one-on-ones with his physicality, so that would be the main thing.
Curran also believes there’s an area of Maye’s game that has yet to be fully untapped in 2025. And while we’ve all seen this ability dazzle in the past, there’s an inherent risk to utilizing it on a regular basis.
“I'd also like to see them employ a little bit more of [Maye’s] running ability, with bootlegs down in the red zone,” said Curran. “The red zone numbers are so anemic, relative to the rest of their production, that they really need to figure that out when they're playing some of these games against teams when you can't settle for three time-and-again when you get inside the 20 or inside the 10.
“So those, to me, would be the two things, and I'd be interested to see what kind of self-scouting they do and what they do in the red zone over these last four games - if they try and unlock something that hasn't been working. Because I just don't think that you can say ‘block harder’ and it's going to work. ‘We're gonna run into the middle of the line and we're just gonna, tougher-than-thou type of thing.’ I just don't think that's in their identity right now.”
It appears Vegas is doing their own nitpicking of New England ahead of Sunday, as they currently sit as a 1.5-point home underdog at FanDuel. You can get them at +100 on the moneyline, and the total sits at 49 as of publishing.
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.