BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – DECEMBER 21: Drake Maye #10 and Rhamondre Stevenson #38 of the New England Patriots high five late in the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on December 21, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) Getty Images
One of the most important plays in Sunday night’s win and really the entire New England Patriots season was an 8-yard pass to Austin Hooper on second and 10 in the fourth quarter.”
In itself, it wasn’t all that different from any number of plays the Patriots have run successfully all year. But the message it sent was huge.
On the play before, Marlon Humphrey hauled down Kayshon Boutte to prevent the Patriots receiver from catching the ball inside the Ravens 10-yard line. It was a low-intensity wrestling move and blatant pass interference.
When the broadcasters and even the NBC rules analyst are both as flabbergasted by the lack of flags as most of Twitter, it’s a pretty obvious officiating miss.
But the referees didn’t call it and the Patriots, after mild protest, moved on.
New England Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte (9) cannot catch a pass agaisnt Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)AP
Instead of first and goal from the 8 or the 9 yard line, they had second and 10 from the 44. So Drake Maye shook it off and threw the ball to Hooper.
And after an incomplete pass on third down, Maye hit Stefon Diggs for 21 more yards. Two plays later, they were in the end zone with the game-winning touchdown, putting them ahead 28-24.
The refs blew a call negating a big play? Not a problem. They’ll get more. And they did.
It was reminiscent of a similar response to a blown call against New Orleans when a 61-yard touchdown pass was negated by a late questionable call on the Patriots. But New England shook it off and scored a touchdown a few plays later.
But that came in the first quarter when the Patriots were still a curiosity in a game with no ramifications.
This time, it was the fourth quarter against a better opponent in a game the Patriots were trailing and with more on the line.
Most importantly, when New England was faced with a chance to produce a game-winning drive last week, it failed. Sunday was a get-right-back-on-the-horse moment and they seized it.
“To not come through last week was disappointing,” Hunter Henry said. “To have the same exact situation we had last week and to come through in that situation was pretty cool.”
Drake Maye agreed.
“It felt good getting that one,” he said. “It was a kind of a wakeup call last week. We had a chance to win the game with a game-winning drive. It was like: ‘Let’s not have the same feeling two weeks in a row.’”
Had they faltered and lost their second straight game, doubt would have started creeping in. Coming from behind to beat a desperate team prevented that.
Sunday was the Patriots’ last chance to prove something in the regular season. The Jets are awful and the Dolphins are lousy. Even if the Patriots beat each of them by 30 points over the next two weeks, it wouldn’t have meant much.
Those teams don’t play well when they have an incentive to win and now they’d both be better off losing. Losing to either would cause panic. Beating them barely moves the needle.
If the Patriots had lost to Baltimore, the question surrounding them would have been whether New England was a team worthy of its lofty record or the product of one of the worst schedules in football history.
When the ball kicked off for their first postseason game next month, it would have been more than three months since the Patriots had beaten a good team.
Even now, they beat a Ravens team that lost Lamar Jackson halfway through the game. Anyone they play in the postseason will probably be better than the Ravens were on Sunday.
Still, behind an offensive line held together with duct tape, Maye looked poised leading a game-winning fourth-quarter drive against a team with playoff aspirations. He was 6-for-8 for 69 yards on the last drive.
Stefon Diggs, who’d been quiet since Thanksgiving, played like a No. 1 receiver again with nine catches for 138 yards.
The defense, which was missing its best lineman and linebacker, found a way to stop the flooding.
The missed call was a bad look for the officials, but Mike Vrabel should be glad it happened, because of the opportunity it created.
“It was good to be in a game like this where we battled and it was tied, then we got down and momentum shifted the other way. Our guys battled back,” he said. “We got stops. Offense continued to attack. Our quarterback battled, Receivers came through. It was a big team win.”