Foxborough, MA — The Patriots have won eight games in a row following a 27-14 victory over the Jets at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night.
Look, was it their best performance of the year? Nope. But, honestly, who cares? The Patriots have been playing regular-season football for 11 straight weeks. It was a short week late in the season, a divisional opponent, and the Pats won relatively easily. Thursday nights aren't the time for style points. It's a time to take care of business – we'll take it, and what a start it's been for Mike Vrabel as Patriots head coach.
In his first 11 games on the job, Vrabel's squad has now ensured it will have a winning season, having won more games this season (9) than in the previous two years combined (8). That's a helluva turnaround by Vrabel and company, who had another culture-building win on Thursday night. New England returned from Tampa Bay after 11 p.m. ET last Sunday night, and players began preparing for the next game upon arrival at Gillette Stadium just hours after beating the Bucs. According to Vrabel, QB Drake Maye and others began working on the Jets on the plane flying back from central Florida — that's a team that has its eye on the prize.
"Testament to our players, our staff. I thanked them so many times just being able to roll in there on Monday, have stuff prepared. It's hard to go on the road to Tampa and get your mind ready for that, but also in the back of your mind, you've got a whole other box about what are you going to do against the Jets," Vrabel said following the win. "Thank the trainers, thank the staff, the strength staff, everybody involved for getting our players ready to go for the game here in a short week."
Before we get to the takeaways, shout out to the first primetime crowd at Gillette Stadium in over two years. With the Patriots donning their "nor'easter" NFL Rivalry uniforms, the energy in the building reflected the team's success on the field. It was great to see this place rocking at night again, and the team looked sharp in their new threads. Yes, we are back.
Here are eight takeaways as the Patriots improve to 9-2 with a win over the Jets in Week 11.
1. Player of the Game: RB TreVeyon Henderson Has Five TDs in the Last Two Games Following Thursday Night Football Trifecta
After breaking out last week, the explosive rookie running back had a hat trick, two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown, on Thursday Night Football, joining Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski as the only two rookies in franchise history to score three touchdowns in a single game.
This week, Henderson showed off his well-rounded skill set by grinding out some tough yards. In Tampa Bay, it was two breakaway runs that led to Henderson's huge day, with 55-yard and 69-yard scores. On Thursday night, Henderson flexed some power to get those gritty yards in the red zone and to put the game away on the final possession.
"I would say the best couple of runs he had were there late in the game when it was tough sledding, and we're in five-minute, and they know we're going to run, and they're blitzing and everything else. Looked like we were going to be short, and he's able to knife through there and keep his pads down and pick up a huge first down," Vrabel said of Henderson. "No home runs tonight, but I thought he grinded out pretty much what was there."
The Patriots rookie's first touchdown came on a toss play on a fake power-action. With the puller moving from left to right, the toss goes the other way, with the idea that the defense will flow to the puller. Jets DE Michael Clemons does a nice job staying home on the misdirection, but Henderson makes the veteran defender miss in the backfield. Although the Pats had numbers to the play side, Henderson was stood up around the five-yard line, and he drove the legs while his teammates pushed the pile into the end zone – a great team effort to "plow" Henderson across the goal line.
On his second touchdown, the Patriots built on Henderson's first touchdown by running power-lead with an extra offensive lineman on the field. New England showed the power-action on Henderson's first touchdown, but tossed the ball to the speedy running back out the backside. This time, Henderson follows the blocks, with RG Mike Onwenu pancaking Jets LB Quincy Williams as the left side blocks down and FB Jack Westover kicks out the edge. Henderson has to run through the free defender, but that is a well-blocked play.
Lastly, the Patriots dialed up a vintage McDaniels red-zone concept to get the back downfield: scissors. To the quarterback's left, Douglas and Williams run crossers to clear out the deep zones, while Diggs runs a slide route to occupy the flat, and Henderson runs the corner route into the end zone. When he intersects downfield with the two crossing routes, it looks like a pair of scissors, hence the name. The concept leads to a wide-open Henderson for a 6-yard TD. We saw Patriots legend James White score on that exact play two dozen times over the years.
Overall, Henderson finished the night with 24 touches for 93 total yards and three touchdowns. Again, it wasn't the big plays this week, but this was almost more impressive, as Henderson had to grind some tough yards.
2. QB Drake Maye Continues to Hear Well-Earned "MVP" Chants in Front of Home Crowd
The Patriots quarterback continues building on his MVP resume with another efficient performance in Maye's first primetime game at Gillette Stadium.
Although he's still chasing that elusive first 300-yard performance, Maye finished Thursday night's win 25-of-34 for 281 passing yards and a touchdown. In the advanced metrics, Maye added +0.29 expected points (78th percentile) with an outstanding +13.5 completion percentage over expectation — stacking strong performances.
Over the last two weeks, teams have been backing off against Maye. The Jets came into the week with the sixth-highest man coverage rate in the league (37.4%), but only played man-to-man on eight of Maye's drop-backs, or 21.6%, so well below their average. On Thursday night, Maye's pocket movement and willingness to find his check-downs stood out, which is needed to buy time for receivers to uncover against seven and 8-man zones. If this continues to be the blueprint, Maye will need to remain patient, as defenses aim to take away the deep ball.
"They blitz a lot, and we didn't see that as much tonight," Maye said after the game. "You can see they got a lot of different stuff. They got good players. I thought the backers were great, and the guys up front on the edge are good players. They're a good football team, and I think we'll have a tough challenge when we see them again."
Maye began his pocket-movement magic in the first half. To his right, the Pats are running a dagger concept, which is when an inside receiver runs the seam to clear out space for a deep dig route. This time, it's Stefon Diggs running the clear-out seam and Mack Hollins filling in on the dig route. Maye finds the clean air-space in the pocket with some heady maneuvering, and Hollins stays alive for his quarterback to hit him over the middle for a 19-yard gain.
The MVP candidate then put the Patriots up by two scores in the second half with three 'plus' plays to drive the offense down the field. On the biggest play of the drive, New England runs a knife concept where the inside receiver runs a crosser and the outside receiver runs a dig to the two-receiver side. Maye transitions up in the pocket to let the edge pressure drive by and throws to an open Diggs for 21 yards.
As long as he keeps playing at this level and the Patriots continue winning, Maye will make a serious run at MVP, which only seven players in NFL history have won in their second season.
3. Patriots Defense Continues to be "On the Search" for Answers on Opening Drives
Although they continue to level off, the Patriots allowed their sixth opening drive touchdown of the season, tying them with the Titans for the most in the NFL.
Along with six opening-drive touchdowns, New England has also surrendered two field goals, so that's points allowed on eight of the opponents' 11 opening drives this season. After electing to receive the opening kickoff, the Jets marched down the field in 14 plays, with 56 of their 72 yards coming on the ground. Heading into the game, we highlighted that the Jets were the third-most explosive rushing offense in football, featuring a mobile quarterback in Justin Fields. New York hit the Pats with some schemed runs on zone-reads and such and found early success.
"We're continually on the search for that first drive mishap. We so badly want to keep them out of the end zone. I know you guys want to ask what's the deal with the first drive," captain Robert Spillane said. "We're going to continue to look at the film, get it fixed, and hopefully next week we get off the field really early."
The Jets scripted runs gave the Patriots defense problems early, but New England once again clamped down as the game wore on. After rushing for 56 yards on their opening drive, New York only ran for 64 yards the rest of the game, while their longest run was a 14-yard scramble by Fields. The Pats did well enough to bottle up RB Breece Hall, who came into the game with the fifth-most explosive runs in the NFL, to 58 rushing yards on 14 carries with a long of 11 yards.
Along with their return units flipping the field on special teams, the Jets path to victory was what we saw on their opening drive. Eventually, New England's defense turned this into a drop-back passing game and held Fields to -0.10 EPA per drop-back (27th percentile).
4. DT Milton Williams (Ankle) Exits Game, DT Christian Barmore Logs First Sack of 2025
Starting with the bad news, star DT Milton Williams exited the game in the first quarter, limping off the field when it appeared that he turned his left ankle. Williams returned to the game for one third-down play, where he actually logged a pressure with a bull rush, but didn't continue after that (eight total snaps). Hopefully, the Pats are just being cautious with one of their top defenders, who will have nine days between games to get healthy for the Bengals. Vrabel offered some insight into the decision to sit Williams for the rest of the game.
"I made a decision that we felt like we should probably just start treating that thing and get ahead of it and see where he's at here tomorrow, the next couple of days and try to weigh -- again, he wanted to try to go. He's out here standing with me when guys are coming in, and he's excited for them, so I appreciate his leadership, but I just made a decision that I felt like was best for the team in this instance."
On a positive note, DT Christian Barmore was more disruptive after a quiet two weeks due to some lingering back issues, even without his partner in crime drawing attention on the interior. Barmore beat Jets LG John Simpson with a double swipe to sack Fields. After failing to log a pressure in the last two games, Barmore had four pressures on Thursday night. That's a good sign for an important player on the Patriots defense.
5. WR Stefon Diggs Records Third 100-Yard Game with the Patriots
Along with having candidates for Coach of the Year and MVP, Diggs is making a strong case to be the Comeback Player of the Year. Diggs recorded his third 100-yard game of the season, the 39th game of his career with 100+ yards, with a team-high nine catches for 105 yards vs. the Jets on Thursday night. Diggs has been exactly what the Patriots needed on and off the field, as a leader and technician in the passing game. Diggs is now on pace for 92 catches and just over 1,000 yards (1,018 to be exact). He has been a pro for a room that needed veteran leadership and is giving the Patriots wide receiver room some much-needed swagger and consistency.
6. Rookie LT Will Campbell Shuts Out Jets Pass-Rusher Will McDonald IV
Another key matchup was the fourth-overall pick against talented Jets pass-rusher Will McDonald IV. In the interest of full disclosure, McDonald was banged up on the short week with a quad injury. Still, the Jets edge rusher tallied four sacks and seven total pressures last week in a win over the Browns. On Thursday night, McDonald didn't log a single pressure in 19 matchups against Campbell – the Pats left tackle shut him out, contributing to a modset 35.1% pressure rate on Maye.
McDonald wasn't the only one who struggled to get around Campbell. The first-round rookie also finished his block after recovering to drop anchor against Clemons, burying the Jets veteran into the ground on a Maye completion to Hollins. Like any rookie, it hasn't been perfect for Campbell, but he has steadied the ship on Maye's blindside as a day-one starter, which is exactly what the Pats were hoping for when they selected him fourth overall in last year's draft.
7. OC Josh McDaniels Mixes and Matches Personnel Groupings While Shorthanded
The Patriots offense was playing down a starting wide receiver (Kayshon Boutte, hamstring), their top running back (Rhamondre Stevenson, toe), and TE2 (Austin Hooper, concussion), which is important context when evaluating this performance. As a result, McDaniels had to go deep into his bag, relying on six different personnel groupings on Thursday night.
Although the Patriots primarily played out of three-receiver 11 personnel (39 snaps), McDaniels got creative to recreate Hooper in the Patriots heavy personnel groupings. New England featured a two-back package with six offensive linemen (nine snaps) and then went extra beefy with six offensive linemen plus NT Khyiris Tonga for a snap. The Patriots also played their first four snaps of the season with four wide receivers on the field. McDaniels continues to do a great job calling the offense and finding solutions to problems over the course of the season.
8. Patriots Special Coverage Units Match Explosive Jets Return Units
We always put special teams last, but we should've moved it up this week because a huge key to this game was limiting the Jets big-play return units. In Week 10, New York had a kickoff and punt return touchdown, which fueled their win over the Browns. On Thursday night, the Jets longest punt return was 19 yards, and their longest kickoff return was 27 yards. A fantastic job by the Patriots special teams to keep the Jets' top-ranked return units in DVOA under wraps.
Although it was a positive night for the coverage units, rookie K Andy Borregales missed his first field goal since Week 1, a 45-yarder to end the first half. Borregales bounced back with 44-yard and 26-yard field goals in the fourth quarter, while making all three extra points. After a shaky first two weeks, Borregales has been on fire. He was bound to miss another kick eventually.
Overall, the Patriots continue to take care of business with a two-score victory in the division on a short week. Again, it wasn't the game for style points – just win, baby, which they did.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
