January 4, 2020. That was the last time playoff football occurred at 1 Patriot Place before Sunday night.
It was on that night that head coach Mike Vrabel and his Tennessee Titans came into Foxborough and upset the defending Super Bowl champions 20-13, ending the Tom Brady Era in New England with a thud and sending the franchise into its worst five-year run this millennium.
Six years later, and the circumstances were a little different for the Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker.
In his first season as head coach of the Patriots, Vrabel got his once-former squad back to 14 wins for the first time since 2016, securing his now-current squad the No. 2 seed in the AFC for their first playoff appearance since the 2021 season.
That playoff positioning brought along the Los Angeles Chargers (11-6), a team that’s played a huge chunk of their season without both their starting offensive tackles along with a starting running back that missed most of the week of practice leading up to Sunday with an ankle injury.
A weaker team was unable to overcome their flaws, and the Patriots took advantage on their way to a 16-3 victory.
They got their first playoff win since the 2018 season, the same year they won their last Super Bowl.
Whether 2025 will come close to a similar outcome remains to be seen. What we know now is the Patriots will be hosting another playoff game next weekend, as they advance to the AFC Divisional Round.
Here’s your Ups & Downs from a Wild Card Sunday at Gillette Stadium:
Ups:
- Goal Line Defense: Early in the first quarter, the defense had a real chance to show they were more than just the “other guys” with a potential league MVP on their offense.
And they did just that, coming up with an incredibly clutch turnover on downs with the ball all the way to their own 2 yard line four plays after a Maye interception (more on that later).
On 3rd and goal from the 3 yard line, the 6-foot-6, 236-pound Herbert tried to scramble up the middle of the field. He was met by the 5-foot-8, 188-pound Marcus Jones, who took the Pro Bowl quarterback down with an impressive open field tackle that forced a 4th and goal from the 2 yard line.
Out of the shotgun on 4th and goal, Herbert was met by immediate pressure from Robert Spillane, forcing an incompletion in the corner of the end zone to keep it a 0-0 game with 5:12 remaining in the first quarter.
Crisis averted.
On their next possession, Los Angeles took the ball all the way down to the New England 3 yard line after a drive that started on their own 28. On the tenth play of the drive, the Patriots gain-tackled the Chargers on a 3rd and 2 run by Kimani Vidal to force a field goal attempt on fourth down to tie the game at 3-3. Yet another example of this unit bearing down and making a play when it mattered most.
Absolute clutch football from New England’s intrepid unit.
- Milton Williams & Front 7: In addition to helping restore New England’s elite rush defense (only 87 yards on 22 carries), the Patriots’ $104 million defensive tackle was a force up front all game long.
On consecutive plays on the Chargers’ second-to-last possession of the half, Williams came up with a sack and a pressure that led to a sack by K’Lavon Chaisson that forced Los Angeles to punt the ball away with 41 seconds left in the quarter.
On four consecutive possessions, starting at the end of the second quarter stretching all the way into the fourth, the defense forced Los Angeles to punt. And on the fifth, Chaisson was forcing a fumble on a dropback from Herbert where he was completely flushed out of the pocket. These drives stalled, in large part, because Herbert wasn’t able to get comfortable. With their run game becoming a non-factor, the 27-year-old had no other outlet to lean on.
Williams was the engine of this.
Fast forward to the fourth quarter, and Williams took Herbert down for a 9-yard sack on 4th and 9 to help truly seal the win for the Patriots. It was a true display of how special an athlete he is.
He’s an absolute force, and he might just be the best free agent signing this team made ahead of the 2025 season.
In general, that front seven was in Herbert’s face all night. In addition to all the pressures, they sacked the QB 6 times for a loss of 39 yards, including that forced fumble for Chaisson that almost put the game away.
- Carlton Davis III: After ending the regular season in the “Downs” column, Davis made a clutch play early in the ballgame that set the tone for the defense.
On 3rd and 12 for the Chargers from their own 43 yard line, Justin Herbert found tight end Oronde Gadsen in the open field with one man to beat for a first down. That one man was Davis, and the one-time Super Bowl champion came up with a clutch solo tackle that saved the first down.
The Chargers lined up to go for it on 4th and 2, and were called for a false start that forced them to punt.
Huge props from Davis to keep the Chargers from snatching all the momentum up early.
With 1:25 remaining in the second quarter, the Patriots announced Davis was questionable to return with a toe injury. He ended up returning to open the second half.
Something to monitor for the Patriots No. 2 corner moving forward.
Some may point to Davis’ DPI in the third quarter that ultimately kept a Chargers’ drive alive slightly longer. While there was obvious contact, you should go back and take a look at that football to see if it were anywhere close to catchable - bit of a raw deal for Davis there, if we’re being honest.
Davis might end up being even more important to this defense than he already is moving forward. More on that in a bit.
- Rhamondre Stevenson: The fifth-year running back continues to play the best football of his career.
After the defense made that miraculous goal line stand in the first quarter, Stevenson was targeted on a short pass from their own 2 yard line on 1st a 10.
The Oklahoma product brought in the catch, and hit the open field for a gain of 48 yards.
For a split second, it looked like he was going to break one.
13 plays later, the Patriots were putting the first points of the day up on the board with a 23-yard field goal from Andy Borregales. And a big reason why it was a chip-shot for the rookie was Stevenson, who had bruising carries of 6, 5 and 4 yards within that sequence to keep the drive moving.
It was an all-purpose kind of day for the 27-year-old.
Stevenson finished the day with 53 yards rushing on 10 carries, along with a team-leading 75 yards receiving on 3 catches.
- Hunter Henry: With Maye having a down game, let’s give Henry his flowers for that fourth quarter touchdown grab that helped give the Patriots a 16-3 lead with 9:45 remaining.
It was a perfectly placed ball after a tough blitz pick-up by TreVeyon Henderson off of play action, but it took Henry having excellent body control to come down with the 28-yard touchdown grab.
He ended the night with 3 grabs for 64 yards and a touchdown, and he was there when Maye needed him most.
- Andy Borregales: Three for three on field goals, good from 23, 35 and 39, respectively.
Not numbers that will send you to Canton, but numbers the Patriots needed when the offense was unable to get in the end zone for three quarters.
A 9-3 lead with 1:34 to go in the third quarter was thanks to the foot of the rookie.
Downs:
- Drake Maye/Garrett Bradbury: Call me crazy, but I’m splitting the blame on Maye’s almost-disastrous interception from inside his own 7 yard line between the starting QB and the starting center.
As Maye stepped up in a collapsing pocket, he tried to short arm a ball up the middle to tight end Austin Hooper. He completely ignored the fact that 6-foot-2 Teair Tart was standing right in front of him, leaping in the air after Bradbury gave up his block. He got his hand on it, and the tipped ball eventually landed in the bread basket of linebacker Denzel Perryman.
Maye should not have thrown that ball - at least not the way he threw it.
Bradbury needs to hold his block a little bit longer given the field position.
Does Maye deserve a larger slice of the blame pie there? Absolutely.
But not including Bradbury would be ignoring a major component as to why the Patriots defense was put in the position they were put in.
Speaking of Maye…
- Drake Maye: To open the game, he was just off.
At the half, he was 6 of 15 passing for 95 yards and a passer rating of 34. He was also sacked twice and threw that almost disastrous interception.
With that being said, he makes plays like the 37-yard run on 2nd and 10 from their own 46 yard line to eventually set up the Patriots for an easy field goal before half, and you just shake your head knowing that very few players in the league can do what he just did.
Had the game gone in a different direction in the second half, you would have seen the special “Some Ups, Some Downs” category broken out.
It didn’t.
In the midst of a long drive where the Patriots were trending towards points to open the second half scoring, Maye did exactly what he shouldn’t have done after feeling the pressure in the pocket.
After avoiding a sack with bodies collapsing on him, Maye attempted to get the ball out to someone in the middle of the field. Instead, he was strip-sacked, and the Chargers fell on the football.
11 plays, 58 yards, 6:06 off the clock, no points to show for it.
A gut punch of a moment for an offense that was in desperate need of a touchdown.
A bad decision from the 23-year-old during a season where those were few and far between.
Fast forward to the fourth quarter, and it looked like the defense for New England had given the offense a chance to truly put the nail in the coffin after a fumble recovery by Christian Elliss. But on 3rd and 6 from the Chargers 41, Maye was yet again careless with the football as he tried to throw the football while facing immense pressure in the pocket. He fumbled, and guard Jared Wilson fell on the football to save what could have been a game-altering turnover. Pats were forced to punt on 4th and 15 from the 50 instead of going down and scoring the dagger.
On the night, Maye finished 17 of 29 passing for 268 yards, good for a passer rating of 86.6. He was sacked 5 times for a loss of 33 yards, was intercepted once, and fumbled twice (losing one).
Given the stakes and the performance, this was easily his worst game of the 2025 season.
If he plays like this moving forward, this team will go nowhere.
- Josh McDaniels: Why call a Philly-special-esque play with Efton Chism on 3rd and 4 from the Chargers 30 when you have all the momentum in the world behind you as you look for points in the midst of a long drive that started from your own 2 yard line?
And why use that chip in the Wild Card Round in a non-red zone situation?
Vrabel has made reference towards play calling being “cute” at times during his appearances on The Greg Hill Show. This was an example of that.
They ultimately converted on 4th and 4 to keep the drive alive, and ended up with a field goal seven plays later. But this was a moment where you had to question McDaniels’ judgement.
You can make a mistake like this in the first half of your first round game. Don’t let it happen again.
Also worth noting - two plays before Maye’s strip-sack, the Patriots called a speed option with Maye on 3rd and 1 to keep the drive moving. It worked, but…why a speed option there? This hasn’t been a part of their repertoire all season. Why risk something like that in that moment, when your offense is in desperate need of touchdowns?
An annoying day for the six-time Super Bowl-winning assistant coach.
- Stefon Diggs: No-show performance from Maye’s favorite pass catcher.
Diggs finished the day with 2 catches on 5 targets for 16 yards.
A bigger day for one of New England’s most decorated playoff performances would surely help this offense put up more than 16 points in future postseason games.
Need more from Diggs moving forward.
- Injuries To Monitor: As we already mentioned, Davis’ toe injury will continue to be something we need to monitor moving forward.
Speaking of the secondary - with just over 10 minutes to play, Christian Gonzalez was announced as questionable to return with a head injury. With less than two minutes to play, he was downgraded to out.
Losing Gonzo in any capacity moving forward would be bad news for this team, especially with Davis potentially banged up in his own right.
With a win on Sunday, the Patriots will play host to the winner of Monday night’s matchup between the AFC’s four and five seed, as the No. 4 Steelers (10-7) take on the No. 5 Texans (12-5) at Acrisure Stadium down in Pittsburgh. Houston is currently a 3-point road favorite at FanDuel, sitting on the moneyline at -162.
Regardless of Monday’s winner, the Patriots’ divisional round game will be on Sunday.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.