It is football’s brutal truth.
“The injury rate in the National Football League is 100 percent,” Mike Vrabel told reporters Friday. “You play long enough, you’re guaranteed to get hurt.”
The Patriots were reminded of that fact on Sunday, having to watch a variety of key contributors leave the game with various ailments.
In Cincinnati, they picked up their 10th victory of the season — their ninth in a row — but it came at a cost. Starting left tackle Will Campbell (knee) and left guard Jared Wilson (ankle) did not return. The same was true for defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga (chest) and special-teams ace Brenden Schooler (ankle).
“Shoot, I love those guys, man,” quarterback Drake Maye said after the game when asked about the two injured rookie linemen. “They’re gonna be all right, I think that’s the big thing about those guys. They’re going to work hard and they’re going to be back. They’ve done such a good job for us this year, man…
“Will and Jared have meant a lot to me. I’ve gotten to know them in different ways. This hurts. It’s disappointing, man. But that’s this game. That’s life. They’ll bounce back and help us down the road.”
Maye went without right tackle Morgan Moses (illness) for a time, but he eventually returned. Vederian Lowe and Ben Brown replaced Campbell and Wilson at left tackle and left guard, respectively.
Brown was flagged for a hold on a run play and allowed a pressure soon after replacing Wilson. But, as the game wore on, Maye’s offensive line seemed to settle down in pass protection, allowing the second-year passer enough time to make some key drive-extending throws late in a close game.
This one was not expected to be all that close in the first place. But the Patriots bounced back from a variety of adverse situations — several of them self-inflicted — to keep their winning streak alive and become the first 10-win team in the NFL this season.
“There’s going to be some dirty games out there,” Vrabel told his players in the locker room after the game. “What we need to do is come together a little bit tighter and fix problems…
“We said we wanted to be the first team in the NFL to win 10 [expletive] games. And we are. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Let’s get to the rest of What We Learned…
Josh McDaniels finds a lot on his plate
He’s done it before. He’s done it this season, with the No. 4 overall pick protecting Drake Maye’s blind side. But given the injuries suffered by his offensive linemen Sunday, Josh McDaniels is going to have to get more creative more frequently in helping keep Maye upright if Campbell and Wilson are forced to miss significant time.
After Campbell was injured on the final drive of the third quarter, Lowe’s performance was quiet. And on the line, that’s a good thing.
Maye had time to make a first down throw on his first pass of the very next drive. He hit Kyle Williams for a 17-yard catch-and-run, and once again his protection was stout. Maye was protected when he found Stefon Diggs for a third-and-10 conversion prior to New England’s final field goal.
If Campbell misses real time, that’s certainly not ideal. But having McDaniels — who ran the offense in 2017 when the Patriots used four different starting tackles to protect Tom Brady and still made the Super Bowl — will help.
Drake Maye overcomes early bout of inaccuracy
Hard to tell why Drake Maye was off to start this game, but he was off. He missed a short throw, on what looked like it might’ve been a no-look attempt, in between Austin Hooper and TreVeyon Henderson. He threw out of bounds when facing a simulated pressure. He almost missed an open Stefon Diggs, who plucked the ball before hitting the turf. Then he threw a pick-6 where he overshot Hunter Henry up the seam.
Maye sailed another pass to Mack Hollins on the following drive in the second quarter. He later scrambled for a first down and took a bit of a hit. (He actually fumbled on the play.)
Then it looked like he settled in after absorbing some contact. He completed his next three throws, including a 28-yarder on an extended play to Hunter Henry for a touchdown.
Maye later made high-quality throws to Hooper (two first downs) and Henry (one). He struck on a deep shot down the middle to DeMario Douglas and down the sideline to Mack Hollins.
As the game wore on, he looked more like the quarterback who has been in the MVP race for the bulk of the season. But he had to get through some early-game hiccups to get there.
Goal-line issues are glaring
While Maye was able to overcome some adversity, the Patriots’ running game really did not. Their biggest issues were on the goal line, specifically. In the third quarter, they found themselves on the goal line on six different snaps during the same drive and weren’t able to punch it in. Six.
Maye was stepped on by Mike Onwenu and tripped on one pass attempt. A whip route attempt to Kayshon Boutte on fourth down gave the Patriots a new set of downs thanks to a defensive hold. Then Terrell Jennings was stuffed. Then Mack Hollins committed offensive pass interference. Then Rhamondre Stevenson was stuffed on third and fourth down. Turnover on downs.
Later in the game, the Patriots failed on another goal-line snap when a “Tush Push” with Maye was stopped at the line. The Patriots ended up 0-for-2 in the red zone in the game.
The Patriots averaged just 2.8 yards per carry with their running backs on Sunday. They were up against the last-place run defense in the NFL going into the game (160.9 yards allowed per game), but struggled to find much in the way of consistency. That’s been a theme this season for their rushing attack, which came into Week 12 with the 27th-ranked rush offense in EPA per play.
Henderson leads the way over Stevenson
This could have been because it was Stevenson’s first game back after missing several weeks, but he was out-snapped by TreVeyon Henderson by a healthy margin. Henderson took 18 carries and caught three passes for 81 total yards. Stevenson, meanwhile, carried six times and caught one pass.
Will that continue as time goes on? Does the “lead back” role now belong to Henderson? We’ll see. But we saw Henderson get the start on Sunday, out-snap (43 to 21) and out-touch (21 to 7) Stevenson by a healthy margin.
Henderson also was used between the tackles frequently but didn’t receive any of the goal-line touches that Stevenson (and Jennings, who had one) did.
Mr. Consistent earns his nickname
Henry finished with seven grabs for 115 yards and a score on 10 targets. He found himself wide open for his 28-yard score once Maye began to scramble and drew multiple second-level defenders toward the line of scrimmage.
Henry was the Patriots’ fourth different 100-yard pass-catcher over the last four weeks. It was the first time that the Patriots have had a 100-yard receiver in four straight weeks since 2018.
Jones, Davis flash active hands in secondary
Marcus Jones was almost too fast for his own good. When Joe Flacco pumped and hesitated, Jones was able to attack his assignment in the flat, knowing what might be coming.
Flacco eventually checked it down, not realizing that Jones had a head of steam. Pick 6. Jones’ play gave the Patriots their first lead of the game after falling behind 10-0.
Jones later secured the lead with a pass breakup on Mike Gesicki late in the fourth quarter. Did he get away with a little contact? Perhaps. But, as has been the case on multiple occasions this season, Jones was in the right place at the right time to make the right play in a Patriots win.
Fellow cornerback Carlton Davis made his share of plays in critical moments in this one, too. He made a whopping three pass breakups on the final drive to help secure the victory, including one on third down that helped lead to Jones’ fourth-down breakup.
Run defense’s slide continues
In their two most recent wins headed into Cincinnati, the Patriots’ defense had allowed 5.0 yards per carry. That continued on Sunday, with the Bengals racking up 5.2 yards per attempt. The charge was led by Bengals back Chase Brown, who ran 19 times for 107 yards.
Patriots pressure without blitzing
Though the Patriots’ run defense may have missed Milton Williams, their pass-rush was productive without him in Cincinnati. Per NextGen Stats, the Patriots pressured Joe Flacco on 41 percent of dropbacks despite blitzing on just 10 percent of Bengals pass plays.
The Patriots actually didn’t blitz until the final Cincinnati drive, according to NGS, limiting Flacco to just one completion on four attempts.
