Here’s how the Patriots used Drake Maye’s mobility to set up ‘EXPLOSIVE’ TD pass to Hunter Henry 👀

Here’s how the Patriots used Drake Maye’s mobility to set up ‘EXPLOSIVE’ TD pass to Hunter Henry 👀

You want another Drake May stat that will make your eyeballs pop out of your skulls? Okay, he’s now joined Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen is the only players in the NFL to record a passer rating of at least 135 with both a rushing TD and a passing TD in multiple games in a season. He’s now done that twice in the last three weeks. Unbelievable. Let’s take a closer look at one of yesterday’s touchdown passes with our first breakdown. It’s time now for more games brought to you by John Sewer and Drain Cleaning, the name to know when the drains don’t flow. Ted, one of the reasons Drake May has been able to compile those goddy stats, is because the Patriots have been so adept at using these moving pocket plays. We know he’s such a great athlete. He’s so fluid on the move. They hit an explosive on one of these moving pocket plays on Sunday. We’re going to talk about it right now. You’ve got boot and rally written at the top of the board. Go break this one down for us, Bill. I love this play. I absolutely love this play. You talk about an athletic quarterback. I mean, he displayed his athleticism. The offense has weaponized, Phil, because of how athletic uh the quarterback is. You talk about these moving pockets. He’s so successful at this. Is a play that highlights that. Here are the five intended receivers. Uh right here, it’s a 3x one uh look right here in the shotgun. So, for a bootleg out of the shotgun, that’s kind of a new thing that the Patriots are doing. You got Demario Douglas motions from 3×1 over to 2 by two. You see the adjustment here. They’re playing in a zone matchup, but they are blitzing. They are rushing five guys on this play. And this linebacker, number 32, comes off the edge off the right side. The Patriots do a great job of executing this play away from the blitzing side, which is very important uh to know right here. So, you have uh you have enough guys to block these uh five guys rushing. They snap the ball right here. And it’s all about timing on this play. You got to time it up because you’re trying to sneak Hunter Henry around the back. They fake the hand off right here. See 52 right here. The key, he’s the unblocked guy. The key is that 52 cannot knock him off his route. That will mess up the timing. Hunter does a great job of making sure he gets around him and out leverages 52 on this play so he can sneak behind the coverage. You see 52, he’s unblocked. He comes up to the quarterback. You see 56, he leaves the coverage and he now Phil pursues on number 10. Ted, how do you leave the most dependable guy maybe in the entire Patriots offense, Hunter Henry, free and alone right there? I’m glad you asked that, my friend. Okay, you got all three of these guys focusing on the quarterback because earlier in the game, he’s been effective at these at running the ball on these boots, these waggles, these half roll outs, and so they’re worried about him running the football. So, they all focus on him as a runner instead of him as a passer. And that allows Hunter Henry to sneak behind the coverage on this play. And you see Drake May 56 is in his face. He does a great job of sidearming it uh to get it through the traffic. And then Demario Douglas, my man, he only played eight snaps, but he gets a two for one right here, Phil. He he hits he seals 21 and then he chips up to 26. That gives a lane for Hunter Henry to get through there and to get a touchdown. I think it was a 33 yard touchdown. Big play in the game. a smart play for schematically well executed. The timing of it, the fact that Hunter Henry didn’t get uh uh hit by 52 and get knocked off his off his route was all perfect. I saw a lot of really dynamic plays in this game. This is one of them. And it all starts with the athletic quarterback. And it’s not the longest throw in the world for Drake May, right? It looks like a relatively simple one when you see just how far beyond the line of scrimmage it travels. But then when you watch it closely, he’s on the move. He’s moving quickly. He has to drop the arm angle down just a little bit. It’s that type of athleticism that really opens up the playbook for Josh McDaniels and this Patriots coaching staff. Let’s take a look at the leaders in catch percentage in 2025. It’s presented by your New England Ford dealers and Ford trucks built Ford tough. Among all players with at least 20 targets, Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson. He leads the way. But number two, Stefan Diggs. Look at the players Ted directly in his rear game. Some of the league’s best wide outs. digs on Sunday had six catches for 101 yards and one of his best grabs is our next breakdown. We’re back here for board games brought to you by John and drain cleaning the name to know when the drains don’t flow. Ted Stefont Dicks very quickly here has made himself one of the most reliable players in the Patriots offense and he’s earned it. Third downs, fourth downs, they go to him time and again and he comes through. He came through on a big fourth down conversion on Sunday. You’re going to break that play down for us. We’ve got digging the chemistry written at the top of the board. Tell us why. I’m digging it, baby. Because Steph Diggs is making plays for this quarterback. All right. Here are the five eligible receivers on this play. You have Steph Diggs playing in the boundary position. He’s playing a lot in the slot. Very productive uh to short to intermediate routes, but he’s also uh being a weapon on the outside in the boundary on deeper plays, too. What you’ll see here, what makes this play successful is that the Patriots are on the left hash. They need to be on the left hash to make this play work. So that there’s space over here on the right side. So that is uh very important to uh to uh to factor in on this. What you’ll see here, they motion from a 2x two set to a 3×1 set right here. And that’s going to be important because Stephario Douglas, even though he doesn’t catch the ball, he’s going to be an important part of baiting the safety so that Steph Diggs can catch this ball. They run four. They’ve rushed four guys here. So, they’re not blitzing. Four guys. They’re playing man-to-man uh uh on the on these five eligible receivers. Two free guys. They’re just in the middle of the zone. This is what they call a cover one rat coverage where the middle of the field safety has deep middle. And then 32, the linebacker has short middle right here. And all this space right here, there’s no safety over the top. So that tells the quarterback that that’s the spot to throw to with no safety over the top. You will see the Patriots, they keep f of course five offensive linemen and they use Raandre Stevenson and Hunter Henry here to chip on the edges and then release into coverage. So they got seven guys to block four. That’s a max protect right there. And then look at this pocket. The offensive line did a great job all day protecting Drake May. They schemed it up. They did a great job of executing it. he has all day to make this throw and that’s a a big part of what uh made this play successful. So clean pocket, you have uh these two receivers releasing right here and then watch this. This is an important part right here. Yeah, Ted, I’m looking at number three. Pop Douglas only played eight snaps. Didn’t get a single target, but it looks like he factored in here. You give him an an assist maybe on this catch for Stfan Digs. You know I am, buddy. You know, and I’m going to tell you why. cuz what he does is he baits 21. He distracts number 21. This safety could could uh ignore him and go over the top and help uh with his buddy here on Steph Diggs, but he gets kind of fixated on Demario Douglas right here like with this deep in cut right here that kind of baits 21 to focus on him and ignore Steph Diggs out here on the outside. And that’s that’s an important part of this play of executing it. No safety over the top because he’s focused on Steph Diggs on the end cut. You see the this uh this cornerback, he should have outside leverage and turn the ball inside. He’s playing inside. And so Drake May makes a gorgeous back shoulder throw to Steph Digs who slows down just enough, Phil, and then uses his arm to kind of just knock the defender off and make that catch. It’s a wellexecuted play. It’s a perfect throw. You cannot defend the perfect pass and that’s what it was. Great timing. You see Steph Diggs on this route does a great job of kind of off his route getting number two on his heels backing up and he has to recover and he it’s all discombobulated. He doesn’t know where the ball is and the ball is in Steph Diggs hands at the nine yardd line before he knows what happens. So big play on fourth down. Steph Diggs Phil is becoming a key weapon in this offense. Very efficient throwing to Steph Diggs. very efficient in the short intermediate and right here the deep part of the field coming into this game. Ted, the Patriots ranked 30th in the number of deep attempts that they had tried. Passes that travel at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage or more. They hit one there and it put the Patriots on the doorstep for one of their six touchdowns on the

Ted Johnson and Phil Perry are back with another edition of “Board Games” on The Breakdown. The guys go deep explaining what led to New England’s impressive offensive output in Sunday’s 42-13 win over the Carolina Panthers. First, the guys break down how the team used Drake Maye’s mobility to set up Hunter Henry’s 31-yard touchdown reception. Then, the guys praise Stefon Diggs’ efficient day, including a 30-yard pass pick upon fourth down.

Patriots: https://bit.ly/4bpz1aw