The Patriots Smoke the New York Giants on Monday Night Football to Head into the Bye at 11-2

You could tell pretty early on Monday Night that the New England Patriots wanted this win badly. This team looked as fired up and locked in as they've been all year, and took nothing for granted in the opening half as they made big play after big play on offense and special teams, and physically set the tone defensively and took right to the Giants, and more speciffically, QB Jaxson Dart.

Simply put, this was a breath of fresh air after how ugly things looked in Cincinnati last week, and although the second half didn't offer much, it didn't really need to for the Patriots. 30-7 at the half and 33-15 at the final set of triple zeros, and what can only be desribed as a total team win, the AFC East, No. 1 Seed in the AFC, and whatever else that could entail come January, all feel within grasp for this team as they head into the bye at an NFL best 11-2.

Marcus Jones Dazzles in the Return Game Yet Again

You could tell just before this punt hit Marcus Jones' hands, he was going to have a good shot to break one, and boy did he ever. Can't put a price tag on having someone like him, having the instincts and speed to be this lethal in the return game, and he's not only putting in one of the best single-season punt return efforts ever, he's now atop the record books. That 94-yarder was Jones' 75th career return, which is the qualifying mark for returners, and he now holds the record for average yards as a punt returner with 14.6, nearly two yards higher than the previous record. His average for the year currently sits at 18.8 on 19 returns, and now that he has multiple touchdowns, Jones feels like a mortal lock for another First Team All-Pro bid. Special, special player.

Trench Warfare

Outside of a couple of forgivable penalties and an odd drive in the third quarter, I thought the Patriots were very good on both lines despite being heavily banged up. Specifically, Cory Durden is a guy who I thought was a very nice contributor last night, in what was a revenge outing for him as the Giants cut him late in camp earlier this year.

Durden was consistently getting his nose dirty in the run game, speciffically on the play where he was caught on the hotest mic in the history of sporting television for starters, as well as another where he took away a gap and forced Devin Singletary into a TFL by Joshua Farmer. Especially with both Milton Williams and Khyiris Tonga out for this one, they needed some guys to step up on the defensive front, and Durden led the charge on that front. Nice to know they can rely on him down the stretch even when they get healthy upfront as well.

Offensively, Vederian Lowe exceeded any expectation I had for this game against those two pass rushers on the opposite side. The Abdul Carter sack techinically would lie at his feet, but I'd put that one on Maye more than anything else for scrabmling straight up the middle. On the whole, the line allowed just nine pressures for a 25 percent pressure rate, which would make this the Patriots second best game of the year in either catagory, only trailing the blowout win over Carolina (which has aged incredibly well, might I say as we're here).

Drake Maye's MVP Hype isn't Slowing Down

For full disclosure, I would still probably have Matt Stafford down as my league MVP pick even after he had an iffy game out in Carolina, but the oddsmakers would disagree with me after Monday. Another high 280-yard, multi-touchdown performance by Drake Maye has him leading the field, and stop me if you've heard this one before, this was another spectacular game for the second-year QB.

Poise, escapeability, deep ball accuracy, ability to move the chains on third downs, you got a little bit of everything out of Maye in this one, save, of course, for a 300-yard game, which still eludes him, and not on a lack of effort. Speaking of effort, how about Maye outracing Abdul Carter on a third-down scramble to move the sticks? Legitimately freaky stuff. Carter's get off and outright speed are why he was such a tantalizing prospect this last draft cycle, and even then....

Final Score: New England Patriots 33, New York Giants 15

Gaffney's Three Stars from Patriots-Giants:

1st Star: Drake Maye (24/31 for 282 Yards and 2 TDs, 4 Rushes for 15 Yards)

2nd Star: Marcus Jones (3 Punt Returns for 124 Yards and a TD)

3rd Star: Christian Elliss (9 Total Tackles, 1 PBU, 1 Forced Fumble)

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