FOXBORO — The message from Mike Vrabel and the Patriots’ coaches all week was easy.
Get again to fundamentals.
4 quarters later, it was mission achieved — after which some.
“Simply happy with the fellows. I believed they performed laborious,” Pats quarterback Drake Maye stated after Sunday’s 42-13 win. “We get again to our fundamentals and sort of again to establishing our identification. I felt like we did that. Most likely didn’t damage ourselves.”
Maye definitely did his half, going with no turnover for the second time in 4 video games this season. He additionally fired simply three incompletions on 17 makes an attempt. Maye took performs that have been obtainable, however didn’t drive the ball towards a Carolina protection that provided him loads of probabilities to assault downfield.
The Patriots additionally rushed for 4.4 yards per keep it up hand-offs to their working backs, who churned out a pair explosive performs. Like Maye, Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson bounced again with a turnover-free efficiency Sunday after they misplaced the ball in final week’s loss to Pittsburgh. Gibson, Maye and rookie TreVeyon Henderson all rushed for touchdowns, a mirrored image of good working and powerful offensive line play that set the tone for an easy win constructed on a easy plan.
“I feel these 5 (linemen) are taking part in their tails off; taking part in their butts off within the run sport, within the passing sport, studying the safety system, studying third down, totally different appears to be like,” Maye stated. “(Heart) Garrett (Bradbury)’s speaking with me mainly on the entrance moving into totally different performs. Can’t be extra happy with these guys up entrance.”
As a workforce, the Patriots took simply seven penalties, a complete that was nearly half of some earlier video games. Defensively, the Patriots tackled higher. However after giving up an opening-drive landing, Vrabel nonetheless noticed room for enchancment.
“Now we have to proceed to disguise higher and deal with higher and all these issues. I assume, if that’s the tradeoff for taking part in nice protection the remainder of the best way, then we’ll need to undergo these rising pains early within the sport,” he stated. “I don’t anticipate that we should always. It was good to see us reply, and we’ve achieved that.”
