If you weren’t in attendance for the Patriots’ first home playoff game since January 4, 2020 (Brady/Titans/Sad Trombone), you missed one hell of an atmosphere. So many of the players referenced it in the post-game and again on Monday, although none did it better than Garrett Bradbury.
“Yeah, it's the best I've seen,” he said. “The place was rocking. Running out of the tunnel for the game was the most electric I've seen it here. The fans were in it. Stands were full. We just kept saying on the sideline, like in the fourth quarter, and they're playing those AC DC songs like, this is football. This is why you play. I was trying to keep those rookies in the moment, like, "Guys, this is sick. Don't take this for granted. Let's go out and play some good football with our fans.’ It was a special night. It was fun.
“My rookie year was the only playoff win I've had. Veteran linebacker, running off the field after he won, he was like, ‘You don't understand how big of a deal this is.’ And I didn't. I was a rookie, and we just came to the league, and you win. Great. Hadn't won a playoff game since then. So now I'm the veteran relaying to these guys, ‘Listen, you don't know what we just did.’ Let's keep it going. Let's get another one. It's a big deal. You don't want to look ahead. You want to smell the roses, but you're not satisfied. It's all these kinds of different things, but at the same time, I think you can appreciate, like, what you're doing and where you're at, but to still be a little hungry for more.”
On to Musings...
THUMBS UP
2nd half Drake Maye. He was 11-of-14 (+0.23 EPA per drop-back), had a couple of key scrambles - including that 8-yarder on the game’s only TD drive (in which he escaped the grasp of a 320-pound man) - and the scoring toss to Hunter Henry was dead sexy. Dropped that ball over Derwin James’ outstretched arms from an unbalanced platform. Not a ton of guys that can make that throw. Maye can. But he also missed a wide-open Austin Hooper on a corner route, and put the ball on the turf for a second time when he needed to turtle like Yertle. That was early season/last year Maye, perhaps pressing too hard to make a play when the smart thing to do would be to protect the fooball and take the ‘L.’
This is becoming a broken record, but Rhamondre Stevenson is playing great ball. He led the Pats with 128 total yards from scrimmage (75 receiving, 53 rushing), and I will continue to say I want him to get more touches. Stevenson is making the first defender miss more often than my son fails to get the trash in the actual trash can (one of those things in infinitely more difficult than the other), and his ability to sort out where and when the Chargers defense was pressuring led to a couple of those big plays on check-downs.
“The big dogs come out in January.” If that’s the case, Milton Williams is the ‘header’ of this litter. The high-priced free agent signee had way more explosion in his lower half than the week prior, where I wondered if he’d be anything more than a B- player because of the lingering effects of the high-ankle sprain. About that...Williams had a pair of sacks, three QB pressures and helped fortify a run defense that limited the Chargers’ running backs to a paltry 2.6 YPC. He was all that and a bag of chips.
I’ve come to appreciate the hell out of this linebacker group. Robert Spillane was impactful as a blitzer and as the green dot guy, helping organize the front and the back. His instincts and intelligence were missed. Christian Elliss did an excellent job when he was assigned to spy Justin Herbert, deflecting a pass and recovering a fumble. Herbert may see him in his sleep for months. He left the locker room with the ball tucked firmly under his left arm. Meanwhile, Jack Gibbens had a couple of run stops, including one combined stop with Jahlani Tavai. Never doubt Dr. Gibby.
I felt Craig Woodson was
