Patriots Review: Best Game in Drake Maye-Era
- Zak Drapeau
- Sep 29
- 4 min read
by Zak Drapeau 9/29/2025 Sportz Nation
Game Summary
It was great to be a Patriots fan yesterday during their 42-13 beating of the Carolina Panthers.
The Panthers came out of the gate and had a good, lengthy drive right away that would score points on a Bryce Young-to-Tommy Tremble touchdown. 4/4 for 48 yards and a touchdown was Young's stat line during the first drive and Patriots fans everywhere thought "Here we go again."
Little did they know the only deja-vu they would experience was from the Tom Brady era when the Patriots would go on to score 42-unanswered points.
The momentum would really turn with a ballistic 87-yard punt return touchdown from Marcus Jones toward the end of the 1st quarter. Jones would have an amazing day also returning a punt in the 2nd quarter for 61 yards to the 15-yard line.
The 2nd quarter as a whole was where the Patriots separated themselves with 21 points in 3 rushing touchdowns from Drake Maye, Antonio Gibson and Tre Henderson.
Coming out of halftime with a 28-6 lead clearly wasn't good enough for Mike Vrabel. On the very first drive of the new half, Drake Maye would find his new favorite target Hunter Henry for the pairs' 3rd touchdown of the season.
The rest of the game went on and the most interesting thing was Andy Dalton replacing Bryce Young on the Panthers' last drive of the day and carving up the Pats in garbage time.
The final two touchdowns were in the last quarter and would be Mack Hollins' 2nd score of the year and for the Panthers, rookie TE Mitchell Evans get a pitty-TD at the end of the game.
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The Good
There are a LOT of goods to go over here so let's keep this simple.
Drake Maye Looked Fantastic
Drake Maye had an 82% completion percentage and a 94.6 QB rating to go along with his 3 total touchdowns and 0 turnovers on the day. Maye has had a very good start to the season but this game was by far the most efficient he's looked. A huge part of this is Maye's growing chemistry with Hunter Henry and having a star like Stefon Diggs (6 catches for 101 yards) on the outside.
0 Turnovers
After last week's dumpster fire that saw the Patriots lose an extremely winnable game due to 5 turnovers, they got their s**t together and had 0 turnovers in this game. Is it a coincidence that the Patriots first game without turnovers see them run up the score? It's definitely a little bit of the team playing well and a little bit of the Panthers playing bad but this shows just how good the Pats can be when they hold on to the ball.
Special Teams/Punt Returns
Marcus Jones may have been the Player of the Game from only 2 punt returns. A shoelace away from scoring his 2nd punt return-TD of the game, the Special Teams of the Patriots would also be responsible for 2 downed punts within the Panthers' 10-yard line thanks to Bryce Baringer and co.
Linebackers
The linebackers on the Patriots made the entire game for the team. Jack Gibbens made his first start of the season and led the team in tackles while the other starters Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss both had double digit-tackles as well.
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The Bad
Penalties
This is nit-picking honestly but the team could have absolutely cleaned up their play a bit as far as penalties. Losing the penalty battle by a good amount with 7 for 54 yards to the Panthers' 5 for 29 yards, it didn't make a difference in the game obviously but is definitely something Vrabel should preach about this week.
Pass Rush
Having a pretty good season altogether, the Pats' pass rush failed to make a huge impact besides keeping Bryce Young active in the pocket all day. K'Lavon Chaisson would record the only sack of the day and Christian Barmore and Harold Landry would combine for the only 3 QB-hits of the day as well. Carolina's O-line has been Top-10 in pass blocking this seasons and it showed but still, the Pats should look to improve these numbers going forward.
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Looking to the Future
Well it's good that the Patriots figured it out this week because Week 5 will see them go to Buffalo for their toughest matchup of the year.
The only rival for the AFC East this year, the Bills have started off 4-0 and are clearly one of the top teams so far this season. Besides a Week 18 matchup that meant nothing last season, the Bills have won 6 of the last 7 matchups with the Patriots. The Bills have also won at home 13-games in a row dating all the way back to the 2024 Playoffs 3 seasons ago.
The Patriots are currently 8.5-point underdogs in their matchup on Sunday Night Football next week.
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Make sure to stay tuned as we continue coverage of the New England Patriots and the 2025 NFL season.
-Z.D.
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