FOXBOROUGH – Drake Maye has successfully navigated those early-season blues and found the other side. There may not be puppy dogs, rainbows and ice cream awaiting the Patriots quarterback, but after today, there should be. Maye threw for 374 yards (6 shy of his career high), four touchdowns, and ran for another.
“I felt like he was in control,” Mike Vrabel said.
Maye picked apart a Raiders defense that was surprisingly competent for the first month of the season. Sunday reminded Las Vegas it has a lot of work to do, personnel-wise. Not so for New England, even as the injury bug took another huge chunk out of the team today.
“It’s really an example of practice execution showing up in the game,” Maye said, pointing to his performance and the group’s ability to overcome the loss of Will Campbell (knee) and TreVeyon Henderson (ankle).
Rhamondre Stevenson doubled down on that.
“The last two weeks of practice we’ve had, to be honest with you,” he said. “The attention to detail – we come in locked in, ready to work and reap the rewards on Sunday.”
Maye led the Pats to touchdowns on four of their first six drives (and 5 of 8), establishing a commanding 28-7 lead early in the third quarter. But he didn’t do this alone. First, the offensive line neutralized game-wrecker Maxx Crosby, even after losing left tackle Will Campbell to a knee injury in the 2nd quarter.
From the start, Josh McDaniels schemed around the All-Pro edge rusher, running the ball away from him, calling boot action to the opposite side, and, in standard dropback reps, using a tight end to chip before the tackle, usually Morgan Moses, awaited. He had 23 pass-blocking snaps against Crosby, allowing
