FOXBORO – You weren’t wrong to believe.
They were favored, after all.
And by the time anyone pulled up to Gillette Stadium, bad weather – a time-tested tell for major moments in Patriots history – had already descended on Foxboro.
So as rain doused Mike Vrabel’s head-coaching debut, it was no surprise to see the Patriots‘ defense generate three straight three-and-outs in the first half. Or watch Drake Maye lead multiple scoring drives. Or spot the head coach and quarterback duck into the locker room at halftime with a 10-7 lead and a strengthening grip on the game.
Victory felt within reach, if not close, right?
After all, the dynasty took its first steps in the Snow Bowl across from these same Raiders, then started running in frigid playoff battles with Peyton Manning. Raindrops soaked Tom Brady’s return as a Buccaneer in 2021, tears that fell from the New England sky. And two years later, snow returned to bury Bill Belichick in his final game, a January loss to the Jets.
If Sunday was the Patriots’ next capital-M moment, the official re-launch of the glory days, why shouldn’t they expect to be dancing in the rain by the end?
Then the second half came. The sky briefly cleared, and the Pats’ grip slipped.
Completely.
Maye downright melted under pressure after halftime. He threw a reckless interception and took three sacks . No lifeline, no tuck rule could save him from the Raiders’ relentless blitzes in a 20-13 loss.
Meanwhile, Vrabel’s staff couldn’t solve a Las Vegas offense that lost its best player, Brock Bowers, to a knee injury in the third quarter. On Vegas’ next series after Bowers left, the Patriots beefed up their personnel to halt rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, and Geno Smith ripped play-action completions by them for first downs. So the Pats deployed an extra defensive back, but then Jeanty barreled ahead to sustain an eventual 12-play scoring drive.
By the time the Raiders’ marathon march ended, Daniel Carlson nailed a 40-yard field goal to extend their lead to two possessions. That forced Maye to follow a pass-first, pass-second, pass-third script with just 6:46 remaining.
“It’s hard to turn it into a drop-back passing game in this league. That’s just the facts,” Vrabel said. “When they’re up two scores and they’re in their third-down package, we just don’t want to ever live in that world.”
And yet, that world is precisely where the Patriots will live if Maye, Vrabel and his staff don’t deliver more than they did Sunday. Because of their middling talent, any hopes of a surprise playoff run – hell, even a winning season – rest with the coach and quarterback. If they fail, so will the Patriots.
Granted, Week 1 is both the most anticipated and least telling time on the NFL calendar. Last year’s opener – a stunning 16-10 win at Cincinnati – should be all the evidence you need to never, ever extrapolate anything from early September games in the NFL.
But this Patriots opener offered just a little bit more than most because combating a brand new Raiders team tested both the coaching staff’s ability to problem-solve, and the identity Vrabel is working daily to instill. A physical, relentless, fundamentally sound identity.
Well, Vrabel’s defense missed 11 tackles. His team committed nine penalties. His offensive coordinator got out-coached.
“We had too many missed opportunities, too many penalties, the turnover,” Vrabel said, “and things that just – (we) didn’t take advantage of bad football. And (we had) bad football ourselves.”
In the second half, veteran center Garrett Bradbury sensed the Patriots offense stalling from its own listlessness. Bradbury insisted post-game that none of the Patriots moped or quit. But the disappointment of four straight drives that ended in punts nonetheless compounded. Failure breeding more failure.
“We’ll get into the film and see exactly why that was. But just from an energy, from a momentum standpoint,” Bradbury said, “we had it, we need to keep it and sustain it.”
Maye appeared to carry that failure with him into his press conference. Hands tucked into his pockets, the eager, bright-eyed kid from North Carolina hardly commanded the room or gripped the podium in front of him. He was a quarterback who felt the weight of expectations on his shoulders.
Maye seemed down.
“You’ve got to step into the throw and take hits and be accurate,” he said. “There’s plays throughout the game I wish I had back, and I can think of three or four for me that can help dictate the game. It’s a bummer thinking back and looking back at those.”
Now in his second season, Maye no longer has the benefit of calling critical errors rookie mistakes. He is the Patriots’ quarterback, their captain. Maye, of course, cannot win alone, something Vrabel intimated post-game.
“We’ve got to help him out,” Vrabel said. “We have to be more balanced. We have to use our run actions and be able to run the football.”
But thanks to Vrabel and because of Maye, the Patriots are ready for rebirth. Even if they remain years from contention, they have this franchise primed to run again.
The only questions are how much can they carry, and how far can they run?
Together, Vrabel and Maye took their first steps Sunday.
A fanbase followed, eyes locked onto every step.
They slipped.
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