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FOXBOROUGH - Not only are the Patriots not good enough to take advantage of bad football - something the Raiders served on a platter several times during Sunday’s opener - but they were also complicit in their own demise, especially in a punchless second half. Consider the following:
- Drake Maye’s third-quarter interception that came after the right side of the offensive line - the veteran side with Morgan Moses and Mike Onwenu - failed to block up a stunt. Maxx Crosby slipped off Onwenu’s block and smacked Maye as he stepped into the throw. The nose of that pass never came down, overshooting Stefon Diggs, the intended target, and ending up in Isaiah Pola-Moa’s hands, killing the drive in Vegas territory. The Raiders went right down the field and scored the game-winning touchdown.
- The next two drives went nowhere. Back-to-back three-and-outs, highlighted (low-lighted?) by Maye throwing high to a wide-open Hunter Henry on what should have been a good drive starter, and then a 3rd-and-4 sack that came off rookie left tackle Will Campbell, although in his defense, his man only got free after pressure elsewhere forced the quarterback to step up in the pocket.
- Later in the quarter, safety Jaylinn Hawkins - boy, was he hit or miss - got picked by his own man, linebacker Robert Spillane. That allowed Brock Bowers to pop free for a 38-yard catch and run, leading to a field goal to increase the deficit to seven, 17-10.
- The ensuing Pats’ drive fell apart at midfield, including a free rusher taking aim at Maye, killing another promising possession.
- After the Raiders added another field goal, Maye once again guided the offense to midfield. Still, Campbell and the running back failed to coordinate their efforts properly against Malcolm Koonce, leading to a sack and fumble. Then, after getting into third and manageable, a Campbell false start (his second of the game) led Mike Vrabel to send on the punt team.
“We have to understand how sometimes these games are going to go,” said Vrabel. “We just didn't do enough in the second half. Give them credit. We certainly didn't do enough. We had too many missed opportunities, too many penalties, the turnover, and things that just -- didn't take advantage of bad football and then were able to have bad football ourselves.”
There’s no sugarcoating it from the head coach, nor should there be. The team we saw today wasn’t the football team we saw the majority of the summer. That group was buttoned-up, assignment sound, and rarely allowed one bad series/period to become two. That’s the Vrabel advantage. Or so we thought.
Maye had his moments in this one, but wasn’t nearly consistent enough. He, too, was responsible for a couple of delay-of-game penalties, the kind that will drive Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels up the wall. That’s part of his task in year two as the starter. The 23-year-old must make the plays that are there more often than not, while avoiding the turnover bug that, after week one, is still buzzing around his head.
“I missed it high,” Maye said of his interception. “I think I stepped into it more. I may have got hit up front, but that’s part of playing QB in this league: you've got to step into the throw and take hits and be accurate. There are plays throughout the game you wish you had back. I think there were three or four that can help dictate the game.”
Veteran center Garrett Bradbury said the back-to-back three-and-outs in the second half did something to the offense, something that can't be duplicated in practice.
"You need to feel - all right, we had a lull. Let's pick ourselves up," Bradbury said. "Let's get one first down, and let's get a second first down. It's not like 'let's go get a touchdown.' Let's just have positive plays and stack those. So we'll get in(to) the film and see exactly why that was, but just from an energy, from a momentum standpoint, we need - we had it. We need to keep it and sustain it."
Bradbury noted the Raiders got after them more in the second half, and that there were a lot of "picks and some pressure and a lot of stunts up front," but didn't use it as an excuse.
"It just wasn't good enough."
Campbell took a similar tack. In fact, the rookie didn't really care for questions about making his debut.
"We just got to be better," he said. " It doesn't really matter about how I enjoyed my individual experience. We didn't win. So none of it really matters."
What did matter to Campbell was the penalties - "I just got to be better. I can't jump. Got a key into the snap count, so I take full responsibility. I got to fix it," - and the sack-fumble, "I just got to block him. It's nobody else other than me, so I've got to get better. We'll watch the tape, and learn from it, and fix it."
That goes not just for Campbell, but the entire group. The line allowed four sacks and nine more quarterback hits. The run game mustered just 60 yards on 18 carries, a pathetic 3.3 yards per attempt. And Maye wasn't as sharp as this team will need him to be going forward.
“We'll see what kind of football team we have, what kind of leaders we have, to be able to come back in here and get to work,” added Vrabel. “I think that'll be the true test. We always talk about culture and everything else. We'll see where we're at as a culture and as a team, and if we have guys that want to work and stick together. It'll be a big challenge to do that.”
The Patriots of the last few seasons weren't up to that kind of challenge. This one now has to prove they're different, and will have to do so in Miami, which has never been a fun place for this organization to play.
