Patriots have Their Best Game in Years Against Panthers

It hasn’t felt this great to be a Patriots fan in years. 

Yesterday was the most dominant performance by the New England Patriots since 2021. We scored 42 unanswered points against the Carolina Panthers, with the offense and special teams firing on all cylinders all afternoon. It looked like all of the new additions, storylines, and pending breakouts came together into something beautiful on Sunday, so let's dive into the performance.

Drake Maye

He who was promised, the savior of New England, the successor to Tom Brady. Drake Maye, after week one, has played better than any other quarterback in the league. In the last three weeks, he’s completed 81.3% of passes with a league-leading 12.4 Completion Percentage over Expected. In that same time frame, he has led the league in EPA and EPA per play, an incredible 0.427 number (rbsdm.com). After his performance yesterday, he became the first quarterback since Tom Brady in 2007 to have three consecutive 200-yard, 2-touchdown performances with a 75%+ completion rate. All of the preseason expectations, free agency moves, and draft picks intended to help Drake Maye have exceeded expectations better than anyone could have anticipated. He is performing how we all dreamt he would, and looks like a future top-10 quarterback lock in the NFL.

Special Teams

If you look at the team stats from yesterday’s game, you’d be confused as to why the Panthers, who only mustered 13 points, had more offensive yards than the Patriots, who scored 42. The answer was that special teams dominance allowed nearly every Patriots possession to begin with optimal field position.

Our first points on the day came not from offense, but on an 87-yard punt return touchdown by speedster Marcus Jones. The 2022 1st-team all-pro returner put together his best game of the year, netting 167 yards on three returns, a team record. 

Offense

The offense looked the most balanced it has in a while, as the Patriots were efficient on the ground and in the air. They had no turnovers on the day, a noticeable improvement from last weekend against the Steelers, where our turnovers cost us the game. 

Maye had a near-perfect passer rating of 155.6 and scored his second rush touchdown of the season. The three-headed-monster backfield of Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, and TreVeyon Henderson performed how I hoped they would in my Preseason Running Back Room Article. They combined for 97 rush yards on 22 attempts, with Henderson and Gibson adding touchdowns to their stat lines as well. It was Henderson’s best game of the season, averaging just under 5 yards per carry and grabbing two receptions for 14 yards.

Looking at pass catchers, Hunter Henry caught his third touchdown of the season and continues to be Maye’s favorite red zone target. The big performer of the day was blockbuster free-agent acquisition Stefon Diggs, who put together his best game of the year. He had over 100 yards for his first time as a Patriot on six receptions, including a beautiful back-shoulder catch on Maye’s best throw of the day to give the Patriots first-and-goal.

Defense

On the defensive side of the ball, the team put forth a classic Bill Belichick bend-don’t-break performance. While the Panthers possessed the ball for 10 more minutes than the Patriots did and outgained them on offense, the New England defense stood its ground when it needed to. They stopped the Panthers on downs twice during the contest and held Quarterback Bryce Young to just 153 total yards. 

The return of Christian Gonzalez from injury played a meaningful role in the defensive success of the team. He played 70% of snaps and returned to his role of a lockdown cornerback, only allowing two catches for 31 yards (Patriots.com). The secondary looked like a much better unit with him back on the field.

Looking Forward

It was an incredible performance by the Patriots against the Panthers and a confidence booster for the team moving forward. They now head to Buffalo for their first primetime game of the season, and if they can keep this momentum, they could pose a challenge to the unblemished Bills on their home turf.