As the fourth quarter came to a close and the Boston media contingent was escorted to the Patriots locker room - nearly a planes, trains, automobiles situation thanks to the current construction of EverBank - I saw a Pats fan with hands on his knees, spitting, knowing full well what was coming next (yep, it happened. Disgusting).
On one hand, I can’t blame him. He likely came a long way to watch his team play what was supposed to be a competitive football game. Instead, it was over before reaching the 4th quarter. On the other hand, moderation ain’t a bad thing, my brother. But I digress…
I rewatched the game from an uncomfortable seat at gate 4 at the Jacksonville airport. It turned out to be a borderline epic screwjob by my airline of choice for this trip, so if Musings this week feels salty, between the Pats performance and my travel, you know why.
Here we go…
For those of you saying this is a small sample size for Drake Maye, he has now had 7 straight games with a negative EPA. That coincides with what our eyes told us - he started his descent when the playoffs kicked off. He still hasn't found his way out of that morass. Maye had six - count ‘em, six - turnover-worthy plays and did, in fact, give it to the Jags on three occasions. He now leads the league in turnovers, and his half-dozen interceptions are just two shy of the number he threw in the 2025-26 regular season. Maye is a mess, as I detailed in the postgame story. He doesn’t trust what he’s seeing; he doesn’t trust his protection, and he doesn’t trust his receivers. Oh, and his answers about the shoulder, both postgame and on the radio Monday, were not good. You’re either hurt or you’re not, and based on my intel, he’s not doing any treatment. But other than that…
Buffalo doesn’t have what I consider a good defense, but the Patriots don’t have what I’d consider a good offense, so I’ll pass on predicting a breakout on Sunday. I need to see it before I believe it.
Mike Vrabel mentioned Morgan Moses’ age - he said 36 when Moses is actually 35 - while talking about why he took the right tackle out of the game earlier than the other starters. I would argue perhaps it was an ankle injury that he appeared to suffer on the second snap of the game. But if they’re not going to use that as an excuse, Moses looked older than that on Sunday. He got beat early and often, both in pass protection and as a run blocker. Only Maye had more minus snaps by my charting. I don’t know that Moses’ job is in jeopardy because a) I thought he was fine the first two weeks and b) Caleb Lomu didn’t look like he was ready, but this is the kind of performance that gets my attention.
It didn’t matter who was playing right guard - starter Greg Van Roten or backup Walter Rouse - neither will want to save the press clippings from this one. Van Roten surrendered a couple of quick pressures that put the play call in a horrible spot a second after snapping the football, and after he left with the thigh injury (I didn’t see him in the locker room postgame), Rouse was out of his depth (four pressures, 6 minus plays total). That’s no surprise, considering he had never trained to be a guard until this summer (while in Minnesota). “I thought Walter had a few mistakes, but he competed and will have to improve,” Vrabel said on Monday.
This speaks to a larger problem: the Patriots can’t