Winners and losers from Patriots’ dominant MNF win
- The New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants 33-15, extending their winning streak to 10 games.
- Patriots quarterback Drake Maye finished with 274 passing yards and two touchdowns.
FOXBOROUGH, MA — Time is a flat circle.
The New England Patriots have one of the best quarterbacks in the league and sit atop the AFC. The dynastic days are in the rearview mirror, but a new era of Patriot hegemony could be dawning.
Perhaps that’s an overreaction to the Pats’ 33-15 demolition of the New York Giants on “Monday Night Football.” The final extended the Patriots’ winning streak to 10 and did the same to the Giants’ losing streak, which now stands at seven. Beyond the box score, of course, are winners and losers. Let’s dive into it all.
WINNERS
Drake Maye
The second-year quarterback has an effortlessness delivery that makes everything look easier than it is. The intermediate balls are feathered. The ones that need zip have the proper amount. Even the simple looks impressive.
In the first half, Maye was 16-for-20 with 208 passing yards and two touchdowns while averaging 10.4 yards per attempt. He finished 24-for-31 with 274 yards (he has not yet surpassed 300 yards passing despite his dynamite season).
Maye leads the league in completion percentage after 13 weeks and is third in passing yards per game.
Mike Vrabel (and mustaches)
The mustachioed head coach of the Patriots has his team on a 10-game winning streak in his first season in New England. They are the No. 1 seed in the AFC and face two 2024 playoff teams (the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens) out of their bye before games against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.
Marcus Jones
If Jones doesn’t have the mantle of most-feared return man in the league by this point, maybe it’s time he starts being talked about that way. Jones scored the first touchdown of the night with 5:17 left in the first quarter when he returned a punt 93 yards up the left sideline – evading Giants punter Jamie Gillan’s futile attempt to push him out of bounds – for his second punt-return TD of the year.
According to ESPN, it was Jones’ 75th career punt return, which qualifies him for the official NFL record book. His average career punt return of 13.6 entering the game was already the highest in NFL history – before that lengthy runback.
Christian Elliss
The Patriots linebacker had two massive hits that would have been fitting for the retired “Jacked Up!” segment on ESPN. The first came against Dart, who was running up the right sideline but wasn’t stepping out of bounds. So Elliss unloaded on the youngster and the hit was so forceful Dart went nearly horizontal.
On a kickoff in the second quarter, Elliss had a (legally questionable?) shellacking of Gunner Olszewski whose helmet paint flew off.
Jaxson Dart
The rookie signal-caller doesn’t have much to work with but his two-point conversion toss to Darius Slayton is one example of how talented he is. He threw for 139 yards and didn’t turn the ball over in his first game back after missing two games with a concussion.
Joe Buck
LOSERS
Giants’ special teams
As if giving up a lengthy punt return for a touchdown wasn’t bad enough, it was just the start of New York’s special-teams gaffes. Kicker Younghoe Koo had maybe the blooper of the entire NFL season when he lined up for a 47-yard field goal in the second quarter. Koo stumbled and his right foot got stuck in the Gillette Stadium turf, turning the attempt from routine to lowlight-reel-worthy. In fairness to Koo, neither the snap nor hold were crisp.
Olszewski was rocked on a kickoff return in the second quarter and fumbled the ball back to the Patriots; he departed the game with a concussion.
Mike Kafka
The interim head coach had to bench Abdul Carter and deal with some horrid special teams play. But the call on Devin Singletary’s 22-yard touchdown out of the wildcat was creative and commendable, a wrinkle on Jameis Winston’s electric touchdown against the Detroit Lions last Sunday. But the decision to punt halfway through the fourth quarter while trailing by two scores was a contradictory decision to going for two after the Singletary score. Keeping Dart in the game when it was already lost was also unwise. He remains winless in his audition for Brian Daboll’s former job.
Abdul Carter
Benched to start the game for the second time in three games, Carter missed the first quarter for disciplinary reasons. It’s a bad look for Carter, who missed a team walkthrough that led to him missing the first series against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 16. The rookie clearly needs somebody in the locker room to straighten him out. These are not the type of storylines the team that drafted him third overall seven months ago wants to deal with.
Self-preservation
Dart running up the sideline and decked by Elliss with such force that his body went horizontal was perhaps too typical of a rookie who hasn’t yet learned a lesson. This is a player who has been in the concussion protocol four times and missed the last two games with the head injury. Somebody has to get that message through to the 22-year-old.
Joe Schoen
His roster is completely non-competitive, it turns out, regardless of who the coach is. Is Giants ownership really comfortable with him leading the search for the next sideline leader in New York?
Denver Broncos
It was a fun 24 hours for Sean Payton’s team as the No. 1 seed in the AFC, but now that the Pats are 11-2, New England has jumped back into the top spot in the conference.
Buffalo Bills
As the Patriots enter their bye week, they hold a 2.5-game lead over the Bills in the division race and made Buffalo’s quest for home-field advantage in the playoffs all the more difficult.
