Drake Maye, Stefon Diggs were huge for New England Patriots in win over Bills | PSNFF | NFL on NBC

Drake Maye, Stefon Diggs were huge for New England Patriots in win over Bills | PSNFF | NFL on NBC

What impressed you most about this game plan coming in tonight, coach? Two things that really impressed me. Number one, defensively, taking James Cook out of the game, not letting him have a big game and forcing Buffalo to throw. And then on the offensive side, Coach Rabel mentioned it, handling the blitz when they came after them in that third quarter, and he didn’t fold up. Drake May made plays basically stopped them from blitzing. I thought those were the two big elements. A big reason why I picked the Patriots to win is because when I looked at the Bills defense, I didn’t feel that the Bills defense was special. I didn’t think it was anything um overwhelming. They don’t do a whole lot. And you look at their defensive line, they have a lot of young guys on the defensive line. And coach, they’re they’re just not very good without Ed Oliver. So, I felt like they could come in, they could dominate, they could run the football, and I thought they did a good job of it. And one other thing that and we mentioned in the pregame, Raandre Stevenson fumbles in the first quarter when you were playing, he would have never saw the field ever again. He puts his arm around him, says, “Hey, we need you.” Stevenson goes out and gets two touchdowns. To me, that’s that tells you a lot about how they’re doing things. Absolutely. And a lot of respect to Drake May. I mean, he came in in a situation where all the attention was on him and Josh Allen. And I didn’t feel like coach that he tried to outdo Josh Allen. I felt like he stayed within himself and, you know, spread the ball around and just made really good decisions. And the other guy, and you mentioned it, Stefan Diggs, he harnessed that energy, that emotion. He played hard. He made plays. Uh, but he didn’t go crazy. He didn’t make mistakes. He was a dominant performer. And I don’t care what he was in Minnesota. I don’t care what he was in Buffalo or what the perception is. He was leading this team throughout the course of this game. Going back to pregame warm-ups and throughout. Yeah. But not even just during the game, but during practice. This guy is one of the hardest workers that they’ve ever been around. And you know, and I said at the at the pregame show, don’t underestimate him because he’s coming off this injury. The guy still he can move. He works hard. He’s got great hands. And he he’s just he’s always been a guy that can really run great routes, coach. Yeah. And he made plays over and over and over making people miss, just making that extra effort play. But look at the toughness of Drake May getting slammed down on the ground, but he keeps getting up. Yeah. You guys mentioned something else specifically in the first half. Make it messy. It said you something you said you guys used to do. When did you used to do it? How did you see that tonight? Well, coach, that’s exactly what coach said. And and basically what we used to do our Patriot team against a great offense is we used to try to make it nasty, sloppy, try to slow it down, try to penalties, try to grab them, hold them, try to make it as sloppy as possible, coach. and and not let them get in a rhythm and not let them go up and down the field and turn it into a track meet. And so and even New England made some mistakes in the first half, but it was a slow down game. We’re sitting there thinking, man, they haven’t gotten going yet. And that’s exactly how they wanted to play. And you guys know I was going crazy when they were at the oneyd line and Mike Frabel kicked that field goal. I’m like, man, you are on the road. You’re in a hostile environment. What’s three points going to do for Buffalo? I I thought they could have, you know, scored the touchdown, but it ended up being a good decision. It did. Let’s go back to this final drive, though, cuz Drake May gets the ball back. It’s 20 to 20. And it started with that first throw. It looks like he’s going to be sacked. I don’t know how he got this thing off. It was This is what got it going right here. Yep. And unbelievable play. But this is what he does. And that’s what Mike said. Don’t play hero ball until the play breaks down. When it broke down, he did it tonight. And then you notice something, coach? They didn’t they didn’t they didn’t make a lot of adjustments. the Buffalo Bills because he kept rolling out to the right, kept making those plays. I was disappointed in the Bills not changing things up and keeping him in the pocket. But, you know, we and we talked about this on the pregame. You asked him what hero ball was and get it to the right place. But when the plays broke down tonight and he had to play hero ball and come out to his right, he made play after play after play off schedule and that was huge. It sure was. And coach, we were talking about that final play call before they had the opportunity to kick the field goal. I said, “Do you run it here? Do you throw it?” You go, you know, in this situation, you got to run it. And they did roll him out. And Bosa had an opportunity to change everything right there. And he just let it slip away. They They’re a little bolder than I am. If I was coaching, we’ have run it up inside, taken it down there, and kicked the field goal. But, uh, they have confidence in him. You know, the other guy that I was really impressed with was Will Campbell. Will Campbell, he went against Bosa. He had to go against Russo. They kept switching guys on him. To be a a rookie left tackle to come in this league and play as consistent as he’s played, he’s been he’s been outstanding. He’s been as good as advertised. Let’s get to the quarterbacks side by side tonight. Josh Allen this night probably remember by the fumble that had a big mistake. The interception was a bad one, a big mistake. Keon Coleman had a fumble of his own. Three huge moments in this game. Looking at the side by side, what goes through your mind, coach? What I see is one interception for Josh, no interceptions for Drake. Everything else about the same and you know, Drake May told me before the game, I’ve got to take care of the football and he did that. Yeah. And one of the things that he has to get better at is being inside the pocket. A lot of times when he gets inside the pocket, his eyes go from being down the field to the to the pass rush. Once he continues to get some more reps, I think he’ll get better at that. I was really surprised that Buffalo continued to let him get outside the pocket in particular to the right adjustments and that’s where he was killing him all night. Right coach sitting there Rodney and I are saying, “Hey, we got to do something with the left end. We got to do something with the protection scheme. We can’t let this happen.” He made play after play after play going to his right. Yeah. And I would think that you would bring some type of corner blitz from the defensive left side to force him to stay inside the pocket and it just wasn’t the case. or you go to that left end and say, “You can’t come inside here. You’ve got to get up the field. He’s making all these plays to his right. You’ve got to be up the field.” And when once Buffalo decided to blitz him a lot, I mean, he was he was figuring out where the blitz was coming, getting rid of the ball, I thought he did an excellent job keeping his composure. He was outstanding. The efficiency that he plays with, the highest completion percentage in the NFL. Where do you give that credit to? Josh. I do too. Josh McDaniels. And cuz guess what? That was Brady. That was Tom Brady before it was Drake May. I saw the same thing. The efficient passes, quick getting the ball out of his hands. Coach Matt Castle, yes Garopolo, everybody that’s been there. This is how you play. We’re going to have a system. I’m going to put you in good situations. I’m going to do what you do best. Now, just get the ball to our playmakers and let them go. And Drake has confidence. He’s doing that. And it’s, man, it’s fantastic for a young quarterback. It It was really interesting. We were talking in the pregame, we were talking all day. Is this something that Patriot fans have to wait for or is it going to be this year? And I think you got that answer tonight. This is a team that can go to the playoffs. Would you say that’s a fact? I would say definitely. I would say this is this is a team. You look within the division, it’s between Buffalo. I’m talking, man, it’s between Buffalo and it’s between the Patriots to win the division. And now the Patriots are one up on Buffalo. So, I’m I’m looking forward to it. And and if you’re Mike Vrabel, he’s trying to get this across and they’re playing not even the way he wants them to play. Pittsburgh, all the turnovers, they could have won that game. This game wasn’t perfect. They had some penalties down the stretch that could have hurt him. They eliminate and he I know that’s what he’s going to tell him. We eliminate those things. How good can we be? We can be really good. Yeah. Yeah. When Buffalo looks back at this game, the grandest disappointment will be what? What will they be most mad watching this film? the turnovers that that they haven’t had all year and then defensively letting him scramble out to his I tell you guys defensively they’re not as good as they were last year. I mean they they got some problems on that defensive line but another position where they at they struggle in the secondary. I think their safeties they’re just average to me. And then when you start looking at who to attack in that secondary it’s not Christian Benford it’s Tradavius White. And that’s what people are going after. They’re going after those safeties and that out that other corner. What’s White struggling with most through your eyes? Just too many injuries, man. He’s gotten a little older and these guys are younger and he just he just he’s not the same player that he once was. He’s not playing with confidence. We we’re looking at the one play at the end of the first half. He’s in zone coverage. He’s got a chance for an interception and he kind of panics and goes and runs into the uh receiver and gets a pass interference. Three years ago, he would have picked that ball. Yeah. As you get a little older and you’ve had some injuries, you kind of lose your confidence because you lose your speed, your athleticism and you start to try to guess and your eyes, you know, your eyes see one thing and then all of a sudden, you know, you try to you try to respond to it and you just can’t. Yeah. We were talking in the pregame about New England and all the guys they brought in. 11 new starters that they’ve been able to bring in through the draft, through free agency in particular, though. Milton Williams, four years, $104 million. Harold Landry, three years, $43.5 million. Spelain the linebacker. Carlton Davis in the secondary. So, the ability to not only bring these guys in, but have it mesh this fast. How have they done it here, coach? That to me is coaching. I mean, it’s great to have good players and get them all in here. But, as you know, you got to put it together. They’ve got to learn your system. They’ve got to grow together. And they’re doing it very well. For me, it was it was about the Patriots finally spending some money. And when you’re all about the money, but but no, coach, I’m about the money, but I’m also about the character of the guy that they’re bringing in. Verbel’s not just grabbing guys and paying them. He’s doing his background research. If you’re not a good fit, he doesn’t want you in that locker room cuz he understands the value of that locker room. And you think these are all Varable signings, right? Varelable looked around the league and he said, Varel’s not taking that job if he doesn’t have final say on roster. I wouldn’t take it. Yeah. No, they they brought in some good people. They’re coming together and they’re going to be they’re going to be a team nobody’s going to want to play in December. And those were the defensive guys. Stefan Diggs on the offensive side, really the player of this game in particular outside of Drake May. Hi, I’m Mike Trico and thanks for watching. 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Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Jac Collinsworth break down how Drake Maye and Stefon Diggs led the Patriots to victory in Buffalo. #NFL #SNF #NBCSports #NewEnglandPatriots #PeacockTV
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Drake Maye, Stefon Diggs were huge for New England Patriots in win over Bills | PSNFF | NFL on NBC
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