Le Journal

Hey, you guys remember that time the Patriots made the AFC Championship? No, not that time. Not that time either. That time when the defense played lights out and the offense did just enough to put the game away. No, dammit, that other time. Yeah, that’s the one, that Texans game where they picked off Stroud four times in the first half. You guys remember that? That was awesome. I am on record, several times and across several different platforms, saying that there’s nothing about this NFL postseason would surprise me. Well as a nice change of pace from what usually happens with my takes, I was completely wrong on that. This might have been the wildest weekend of NFL football I have ever experienced, which is saying something based on what went down last weekend. But outside of the Seahawks-49ers game, not a single thing went the way I thought it would—and that has nothing to do with any final scores. You’re here for the Patriots game, and we’re going to get there soon. But I can’t dive in without speaking about how Josh Allen lost another heartbreaker or how close we came to a Bears vs. Seahawks NFC Championship Game. Insane finishes to both of those games. Josh Allen in tears at the podium. Caleb Williams somehow finding Cole Kmet on the fade-away to send it to overtime. Man I love this sport. I’d like to say that this Bills/Broncos game is finally going to be the one that teaches Josh Allen that it’s OK to just go down, you don’t have to take off and lead with your face every single time…but we all know that simply isn’t going to happen. But you know what is going to happen? At least one more week of Fan Notes from the Game, because the Patriots took down the Texans to the tune of 28-16 in a game that could have been 42-10 just as easily as it could have been 17-13. My confidence coming into this game was sky high; I couldn’t remember being more confident in a Patriots win. Which, in turn, had my confidence rattled harder than anything I could ever remember. Which left me sitting there at kickoff almost completely comatose and beyond clueless as to what was going to happen. This game was, for the most part, exactly what everyone expected to see. A rough, gritty, field-position battle where the defenses dictated the pace of the game and whichever quarterback had a better day was going to come away with the W. This is a safe space. We’re in the trust tree here, so we can all be honest. Drake Maye hasn’t looked great this postseason. He hasn’t looked terrible, and when the offense has needed a play, he’s made one. But he isn’t lighting the league on fire. His ball security has been atrocious. He needs to play better for the rest of the postseason. Drake Maye has also played two of the best defenses in the entire NFL in back-to-back weeks. His left tackle, who isn’t fully healthy yet, is struggling, as is his rookie left guard. He’s facing a lot of pressure, and he doesn’t have clean pockets. Both of these things can be true at the same time. One doesn’t cancel out the other. But I’ll say this: if both units continue to play exactly as well as they have been playing this playoffs, no better and no worse, the Patriots are going to…well, I won’t say it. But you all know how that sentence is going to end. We’ll start with the offense, as I’ve gotten the semi-unpleasant Drake Maye business out of the way already. And honestly, the offense was fine. There’s a fairly prevalent, but (in my opinion) extremely misguided, view that the sole job of an NFL offense is to score points, and even when the defense is playing well, you still need to rifle it 50 yards down the field into triple coverage in order to prove to the world that you’re a great QB. But when your defense is playing well and you’re up against what would, in other realities, be remembered as a historically great defense on the other sideline, there’s a lot to be said for an offense that’s methodical, plodding, and efficient. The big knock is and continues to be Maye…

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