FOXBOROUGH — Trust me, I'm here from Grumpy Gus Mike Vrabel, which we've heard after the last two Patriots' victories, especially Sunday's 26-19 win over the pesky Jets.
It seems we might be a couple of years away from him snorting at questions into the microphone.
"We're lucky to win, is probably where I'd start," Vrabel said in his first comments.
"Fortunate, whatever. We just didn't play very well. We tried to beat ourselves, but we made enough plays in critical situations to help us get through here today.
"I just know that you have to be able to continue to improve, and I don't feel like we did. We won, which is the most important thing. We just ... I don't think we improved from what we had shown the previous two weeks, and I have to figure out why. That's my job. My job's also to get us to win and also to get us to improve."
I mean, that's gold, especially for a certain afternoon talk show I appear on weekly. The Patriots won, and the coach preemptively validated discussion points about the Patriots not being — or at least playing — that good.
I'm here for it, but not for content. Because I love a coach who is never satisfied and reinforces the reality that his team can always be better, no matter if they win by 28 points or seven (and don't cover, by the way).
While I was on Team Vrabel after the blowout of the Raiders, I'm going to part with him after this one. Yeah, it wasn't a Picasso, but I liked this victory and thought there was a lot of good stuff in between A.J. Brown drops and trips to the blue injury tent. We learned a lot more about the Patriots in this game against a divisional opponent (who were definitely complicit in their own demise because the Jets stay the Jets) than in that no-contest against a West Coast team.
(Paul Johnson for BSJ)
Let's start with Drake Maye, which Giardi aptly covered. You can have the bombfest against the Raiders. I'll take what Maye did against the Jets. Even though his stats weren't great (56.3% completions, -6.5 CPOE - thanks to A.J. Brown), Maye played a very mature game at quarterback. Of his pass attempts, 75% were short. As opposed to the Raiders, the Jets — who aren't all that talented but play solid team defense when they aren't busting coverages in the red zone — play a style of defense (two high safeties, lots of different zones, can change the picture after the snap) that has given Maye problems so far in his young career. It's the kind of defense that causes him to lose patience.
Not on Sunday. Maye, who did have bouts of inaccuracy, looked comfortable throughout the game, even with Brown dropping passes, DeMario Douglas and TreVeyon Henderson fumbling, and the Patriots seemingly losing offensive linemen on every other series. None of it bothered Maye. He was comfortable in the pocket. He scrambled when needed. He bought time to uncover receivers. He continued to throw the ball away in key spots.
Maye, who was the worst zone QB in the NFL after three weeks, finished 12 of 20 for 152 yards and a touchdown against the Jets' zone. His EPA per play vs. zone was third among quarterbacks through the 4 p.m. games in Week 6.
My favorite play was with 3:15 left in the third quarter. The Jets had run off 10 straight points to make it 17-13, and the Patriots faced 3rd and 10 at their own 46. Maye hit his back foot and fired a 12-yard out to Kyle Williams on time and with anticipation. That was