INSTANT REACTION: Patriots handle business vs. Jets, now hold BEST RECORD in the NFL

INSTANT REACTION: Patriots handle business vs. Jets, now hold BEST RECORD in the NFL

Welcome to Postgame Live. Yes, it was the first night game, first prime time game in two years for the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. But a pretty similar result, yet another win, 27-4 over the Jets. The Patriots eighth win in a row. They’re now 9-2. They got the best record in the NFL. From the best record in the NFL to the best postgame show in the region, in the nation right here, we got our guys. We got Phil Perry, Tommy Curran, threetime Super Bowl champion Ted Johnson. I’m Michael Holly. Patriots win this game. They haven’t lost a game in the AFC East. They are now uh got a three-game winning streak at home. They lost their first two. Now they won four in a row at home. Uh got a comfortable lead over the Bills in the AFC East. Phil, lots to choose from. Let’s go around the table. What stands out in this one? Well, that’s the Patriots taking care of business. That’s them outclassing an opponent that really doesn’t have the talent to keep up. Even though on Thursday night, sometimes those are the games where the bad teams are able to keep up with the good ones just because of the spot. And so I give Mike Vrabel, I give his staff a lot of credit for having them ready, having them energized. It wasn’t a mistakefree game, but they were sound enough for long enough, Tom, to beat a team they should have beat. Yeah. And that to me is the exact same thing, Phil. you get into this 10day layoff before you play the Bengals on the road, but you’ve played, as Mike Frael pointed out last week, he said, “Look, we’ve played 10 straight weeks.” Well, now it’s 11. And that’s a long stretch to go from the middle of July to now without any time off, Ted. And look, Ted’s Ted’s got some old school football sensibility right now. He’s saying there were no two days for these guys. But I really believe that they have answered the bell throughout in terms of what Mike Frael has asked of them. And again, not the crispest win, but take care of business. You know, have you guys ever seen Sha Shank Redemption? You remember that scene? Andy Defrain’s on the top of that roof and he’s taring that roof and he’s just sitting there with that smile, that permagrin. He’s just he’s just watching his buddies drink those cold suds. He’s just like happy, just smid another quarterback over Drake May. I really don’t. I mean, he’s he’s that good. He he’s he’s brilliant. Um I mean it was old. It just felt like the old days uh there today. You have Gronk smashing guitars, dancing with Robert Craft there at the at the end of the game. Uh the defense closing out uh you know, forcing mistakes by the other team. It just felt like the old days tonight. And if uh if I look like the captain to the canary, it’s because I just think you got the right head coach and the right quarterback to to lead this team into this next little iteration of whatever it’s going to be. What did I say earlier? Did I say it was a four-ame winning streak at home? It’s a four game if I didn’t. It’s a fourame winning streak at home. And so uh not only have they they have they really uh more than doubled their win total of the last two years combined. uh eight wins the last two years, nine wins here. They didn’t uh Phil and Tom and Ted, they really started to lose their edge at home. Not only were they a bad team overall, they were a bad team at home. You go to Gillette Stadium, the atmosphere was dead, no energy, obvious obviously no prime time games. What have you seen from the Patriots at home? Seems like they’ve kind of reestablished their culture there, Tom. Well, I think people have an expectation and you spent over the course of 20 years, you folks spent a lot of time, you spent a lot of money, you spent a lot of energy, and you began to have an expectation. And when that expectation wasn’t being met, you did what a customer ought to do. They’re not what they were. So, you started turning the game off at halftime, a lot of you. And I don’t blame you because there was some unwatchable football. So, they did lose their edge. They lost their edge at home, which was surprising to me. But I think that it must have been hard to play at home sometimes when you knew that the fans were very sick of the product that they were watching. So to me, this is important for them to regain that home field because Phil, they might just have it. Well, I mean, they’re just so hot right now. There’s a buzz around the stadium and I know it’s a prime time game tonight, but even against a bad team like the Jets that they should beat and beat easily, it does feel like there’s a little more electricity there. And I again, this to me comes back to the quarterback. when the quarterback is playing the way he’s playing. Maybe he’s being helped by the silence in the crowd at Gillette Stadium because people know what to do. Let that guy go to work. Making a library when he has the football. I They could be loud. They could be quiet. I It almost feels like anything could be happening around Drake May and it he wouldn’t be bothered, Ted, because tonight was another game where he was sniffing. He was oh so close to his first 300 yard game. He was playing well enough to achieve it if needed. I mean, look, are you kidding me? Come on back, Patriot fans. Come on back to see what this team’s all about. I mean, if you haven’t bought in at this point, I don’t know. You’re you’re missing out cuz it’s it’s a fun team to watch. I just I mean, the the level of the quarterback play, I mean, it’s they’re smart. Uh they they play hard. Uh they got each other’s backs. They they’re they’re connected. They enjoy each each other. That just the camaraderie is at an all-time high. Uh so they’re I mean, they are fully committed, this team, and to to doing the best they can. So, this is a very likable team. Uh, and I felt kind of the buzz, guys. I’ll be honest with you. I was out there for, you know, some of those preseason games. And it felt buzzy then. Just I think just the with the hope of Mike Vrabel coming back, you know, is Steph Diggs, I don’t know, hopefully maybe he can return to form, Drake M. He take that secondyear uh leap. So, there was a lot of anticipation going into the season and all they’ve done is proven that they are the team that we all hoped that they would be and it’s just a it’s it’s a lot of fun to watch this team. All right, Ted. I said the intro that you are a three-time Super Bowl champion. You don’t get to be a three-time Super Bowl champion by being content uh with a 9-2 record and having the best record in the NFL in November. So, uh I’m going to go away from your Andy Defrain who’s just there smiling on the roof. And I’m going to I’m going to give you a little bit something to frown about just or or wonder if this brings about a frown. In the red zone, the Patriots have been a little shaky. I feel like there was some, you know, it’s a it’s a good win over a divisional opponent. Sure. 2714. They cover. You’re excited about that. If you put a little I had some action on this, but they had a chance to really just I felt like there was more meat on the bone scoring wise. Uh especially when they recover the fumble by Fields. Y and they come away with that with a field goal. Are you concerned that they don’t always finish these drives with some golden opportunity? uh you know a little bit. I think their their worst scoring quarter is by far the fourth uh you know so I mean they’ve had you’re right I mean if they’ve had some some issues I think maybe at least on the offense maybe closing closing teams out uh uh defensively not not so much. I’m I’m not that I’m not that worried about it. I didn’t think they were three I think they were three for five in the red zone. I think so for the most part their red zone offense has been uh pretty pretty good. I think they’ve been middle of the pack. What you’re starting to see in the red zone is some creativity. Uh did you see that that touchdown to Trayvon Henderson? Uh he was in the backfield and ran a corner route. I have never in all my years of watching football ever seen a running back uh run a corner route from the back field and get the touchdown. This is the play right here. And you see all the defenders, they go to Steph Diggs. And that’s the beauty of Steph Diggs on this team, you guys, is so many times they focus in on him on these critical downs and they leave and they leave the other guys wide open. Trayvon Henderson’s wide open and you, if you notice after this play, you’ll see Drake May kind of look over. I mean, boom, perfect. I mean, they just knew it was going to be there. Drake knew it was going to be there. Trayvon knew it was going to be there. And Drake looks over to the sideline and he points right at Josh McDaniels to say, “Yep, we practiced that in practice and it showed up in the game and we got it. We got it in the game.” Yeah. The interesting thing is red zone offense, as you pointed out, it’s middle of the pack in terms of red zone. It’s 25th in goal to go. That means scoring a touchdown inside the 10 when you get a first down inside the 10. But defensively, and we saw it tonight inside the red zone, they are uh 31st in goal to go, 32nd in red zone, and it happened again tonight. So, they’re the worst in the league red zone defense. Again, they won the football game, and we should to a degree be here right now be highlighting the things that went well. Steph Diggs with nine catches. You can see the kismmet that he and and Drake May have together. M. Holland, another great game. When you look at the flip of the Patriots now being a wide receiver driven team as opposed to a running back or tight end driven team in terms of receptions for the quarterback, you’ve seen a real metamorphosis. But those are aspects of the team we can get to. I I I want to see what what happened in this 24 to 14 win uh excuse me, 27 to 14 win that that led to this win. What could be better? So I I just thought the the scoring drive, their first scoring drive, talk about what went well. Their first scoring drive in the second half, May was a magician. I mean, he’s stepping up in the pocket, two hands on the football, protecting the football, making a throw down the field to M. Holland. Soon thereafter, it’s another first down throw to Stfan Diggs where he has to navigate pressure in the pocket. Again, I thought he was tremendous at that tonight. There weren’t a ton a ton of scramble, get way wide, and make a throw down the field the way it was in Buffalo their last prime time game. But there was a lot of extending the play behind center. Then he had this play which to me, you know, it was the kind of play where you hear the MVP chance and you say, “Okay, that that makes sense at this moment right now where he was scrambling all the way to the sideline and then at the last minute before going out of bounds just dumps it off to Stefon Diggs. I don’t think Diggs was even expecting the pass. catches it, runs for another first down, and that leads to the Henderson catch for a touchdown. That’s the kind of drive where you watch Drake May play after play after play, and he puts together five plays in about a sevenplay span. You say, I’m not sure there are many playing the position better than this. I’ve never honestly, you don’t see quarterbacks make those types of play. He never gives up on a play. And that can be good and that can be bad, right? I mean, you can, you know, you can get hit uh even by holding the ball longer, but he never gives up on a play. And that play that Phil’s describing, the Jets defenders are going to be looking at that play and going, “Dang, man.” I mean, how what do we do? What do we do? I mean, we had pressure. He evades. He’s at the he’s right about to go out of bounds and he still hits a guy. That’s what you’re going to see week in week out with this kid is he’s going to make plays that are just going to go, “What happened there?” He just never gives up on a play. And that can be a detriment, but it’s also, I think, his superpower as well. And that play followed directly on the heels of him eluding the two edge rushers. Two hands on the ball. Scurries up in the pocket, makes a nice throw down field, which then led to the play we’re referencing. And then the touchdown to Trayvon Henderson in which he used his eyes, moved people around, stayed composed in a way that again to point it out. What what was our discussion at the beginning of the season? He gets a little happy, gets a little little jumpy back there. His feet get a little busy and it’s just gone away. And I wonder how much of that is related to McDaniels. Uh, you know what, Tom, that what you just that play you referenced, that is the difference. That is the biggest difference to me between Drake May 2024 and Drake May 2025. If we were talking about school, it’s almost like he went from uh 11th grade to college. It like it just skipped. He skipped his senior year. He went to his sophomore year or junior year in college. I mean, it’s unbelievable how he is. Last year, you’d see him in the pocket. He get flustered. He’d go down quickly. He would fumble the ball. Now, he just as as Tom said, he steps up, Phil, and it keeps his composure, keeps his eyes downfield and makes plays. That is the biggest difference to me between Drake last year and this year. There’s an incredible amount of poise there already. And I give the offensive line credit. We we talked about it before the game began. This Jets defense did a tremendous job rushing the passer last week. So, Will McDonald, four sacks. Germaine Johnson, who had a sack tonight, where Hunter Henry was asked to block him one-on-one. A little bit of a questionable design there, but they have a pretty good unit of pass rushers. And the offensive line, I thought, gave him enough time. And when they didn’t, he had the wherewithal to be able to navigate, help himself out, and create plays down the field. These aren’t just checkdowns. These aren’t where’s my security blanket, let me just get it into the flat for three or four yards. He has his eyes down the fields, and he’s hitting guys for first downs. And you know, you you mentioned the checkdown like what I what I like I saw there was he hit the checkdown a lot tonight like but it was like he kind of like he’d give the play the much as much possible time as he could right before he gets hit and then he just dump it off to Trayvon. Um and there was like five little dump offs. I don’t think he was jumping those earlier in the season. Now he’s realizing instead of having taken it down and running, oh there’s my outlet. There’s my outlet. Now he he waits for the the plays down the field to open if and then at the last second he hits his dump the checkdown. So I liked the decisions he made to hit the checkdowns because he wasn’t going to the checkdown early in the season. He is now Phil, you know, just kind of reference it. He’s a supercomputer. He learns very fast from his mistakes. Um and and I just the poise that Phil mentioned is it’s uncanny. You heard Al Michaels and Kurt Curbstreet talking about they’re just kind of like amazed by the poise and the calmness in which he plays the game. Well, it it’s interesting fellas. You know, before the game I heard a lot of love for Matthew Stafford as the MVP and know he’s been doing it for a long time and you know he had those great seasons in Detroit, but nobody was paying attention. Now, with this national TV game and another uh excellent performance from Drake May, I wonder if the tide will swing back uh toward Drake May as your MVP favorite. Presented by Gem Plumbing and Heating. For an instant reaction to your heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing needs, visit ask.com.

Phil Perry, Tom E. Curran, and Ted Johnson share their immediate reactions to the Patriots’ 27-14 win over the New York Jets