Drake Maye and the Patriots Upset the Bucs 28-23 to Sweep the NFC South and Extend Their AFC East Lead

With every new week, new test, and new hurdle in 2025, the New England Patriots have continued to impress mightily in this regular season. Their seventh straight win and eighth total on the year vs. Tampa Bay was a gritty one against perhaps the grittiest team in the NFL, who kept the Patriots honest till the final set of triple-zeros and even turned the Patriots over with a clutch fourth-quarter endzone pick.

Even still, this game was ultimately determined by big plays, and simply put, the Patriots had a ton of them. Both of TreVeyon Henderson's 50-plus yard touchdown runs, Kyle Williams 73 73-yard catch and run score, and even a fourth-and-goal Stefon Diggs touchdown with next to no time remaining in the first half. Was the rest the prettiest football ever? Not inherently, but against that opponent, in their own barn, with on and off inclement weather playing a factor, you'll take all the big plays you can get in that type of a win, which is on the level of importance as the Bills' victory back in Week 5.

TreVeyon Henderson's Breakout

While I think it's fair to mention that eight of TreVeyon Henderson's 14 carries went for one yard or fewer, his three chunk runs and two scores (and would've been three had anyone been able to prevent Jamel Dean from getting a hand on him on his 16-yard run in the first quarter) are exactly why he was as highly touted as he was coming out of Ohio State. You can't teach this level of explosiveness and big-play ability.

The Patriots struggled a ton as a run-blocking unit against stacked box looks, and the only real positive run of the seven Henderson has was the 69-yard score, which you'd have to give an assist to Khyris Tonga for unintentionally bringing five guys down with him at the line of scrimmage after stumbling. No, seriously, here's the damage dealt from the All-22 view.

With all of this said, those two TD runs are why the Patriots should feel good about having Henderson out there. The blocking is what it is at this point, but Rhamondre Steveson, D'Earnest Johnson, and Terrell Jennings aren't doing what he can do, period. Another good outing for him on Thursday, and this coaching staff has no real excuse not to give him a better deal of trust moving forward.

The Ups and Downs for Drake Maye

After an inexplicably poor start with rain playing a factor in the early first quarter, Drake Maye went on to have a pretty good day on the whole, which was highlighted by a ludicrous first-half performance vs. the blitz, going 5/6, 121 yards, and two scores. Circling back to those first few drives in the rain, though, that definitely has me a bit concerned down the line in the event we get some inclement-weather games in Foxborough moving forward. For whatever reason, the ball was not coming out well at all, especially on that initial drive, and if that rain doesn't go away, do the Patriots win this game? Not precisely an unfair question to ask, and something to keep in the memory bank as we're now in November and not too far off from the official start of winter.

Another thing that was odd about Maye's performance was the lack of production vs. pressure. Even after yesterday, he's among the league's best when pressured, but despite those first half numbers vs. the blitz, he was only 4-for-13 under pressure against Tampa. Granted those four completions were massive: the Kyle Williams 72 yard touchdown, two 3rd&long conversions to Mack Hollins, and a 3rd&7 conversion to Pop Douglas where he had to sidestep Vita Vea and got crushed anyways, which was the most impressive of the bunch in my mind.

You'll definitely take a few plays like that, where the QB knows he's getting smoked, in a game like this every single time. I wouldn't come close to calling this Maye's best game of the year, but on the road vs. a good defense led by a well-respected defensive head coach who did precisely what was expected and brought the heat, this is a performance Patriots fans should absolutely feel good about. For all the misses and that objectively horrendous endzone pick in the fourth quarter, he made more than enough positive plays in a big spot.

Playing for the Final Shot

The last thing I wanted to hit on was the final seqeunce of the first half, where the Patriots and Mike Vrabel intentionally burned a first down with 1:44 left on the clock, with the intention of taking as much time off the clock as possible for the Buccaneers offense should the Patriots have scored with time remaining. Second and third down going as they did is probably why this isn't exactly conventional wisdom if your intetion is touchdown no matter what, but the bottom line is the Patriots gave themselves one shot with all their chips in the center of the table with two seconds left, and luckily in gambling terms, they hit 21 on the final hit.

Vrabel gave a non-answer postgame on whether or not the first down fake kneel by Maye was intentional or not (it was), but for a team that's been pretty ballsy this year when it comes to these "going for broke" situations, this was the ballsiest call yet. Luckily, Maye throws an absolute rainbow shot over Antoine Winfield here, and Stefon Diggs was able to get two feet in here. If not, I wouldn't have been too shocked if the Bucs went into and came out of the locker room with a ton of momentum to start the third quarter. Good thing we'll never know for sure, though. Quick turnaround now for the New York Jets, who've quietly won two straight, but another gigantic win for the Patriots here.

Final Score: New England Patriots 28, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23

Gaffney's Three Stars from Patriots-Buccaneers:

1st Star: TreVeyon Henderson (14 Carries for 147 Yards and 2 TDs, 1 Reception for 3 Yards)

2nd Star: Mack Hollins (6 Receptions on 10 Targets for 106 Yards)

3rd Star: Drake Maye (16/31 for 270 Yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT, 7 Carries for 13 Yards)

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