Coming off a bounce-back win in Buffalo, the Patriots will try to build on the momentum when they return home to face the Las Vegas Raiders at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n
New England’s road victory over the Bills accomplished two things for head coach Mike Vrabel. First, it serves as a “proof of concept” win where Patriots players bought into the game plan, executed at a high level, and beat a playoff-caliber opponent in their new building. Although a large portion of the roster is holdovers from last year’s AFC Champions, there’s still a level of validation in a new season when the hard work during the week pays off with a win that should earn buy-in for Vrabel and his coaching staff.<\/p>\n
Last week’s win in Buffalo was also critical for Patriots QB Drake Maye, who began the season in a three-game slump, ranking 24th among 28 qualified quarterbacks in EPA per drop-back while leading the NFL in turnovers. Maye still turned the ball over twice vs. the Bills, so that remains a work in progress, but the Pats QB’s timing and trust within the offense’s structure improved significantly. Maye played with a rhythm that let him deliver passes on time, progress through his reads, and let the scheme ease the burden on the quarterback, leading to fewer mistakes when he was pressed to make big plays.<\/p>\n
Although last Sunday’s win could be a huge building block, New England must avoid a letdown after a big divisional win against the Raiders. This week, you will probably hear comparisons between last year’s Pats and this year’s Raiders, who jumpstarted the Klint Kubiak era much like the Patriots did in 2025.<\/p>\n
Along with hiring the offensive coordinator from the defending Super Bowl champs as head coach, the Raiders handed out a league-high $235.3 million in guaranteed money in free agency. Vegas used a massive free agency class where they added 11 new starters to raise the talent floor of its roster, with key additions such as C Tyler Linderbaum, linebackers Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean, and others supplementing a core that already included All-Pro TE Brock Bowers, former No. 6 overall pick Ashton Jeanty, and star defender Maxx Crosby.<\/p>\n
The Raiders differ from last year’s Patriots at quarterback, where a hot start from free-agent addition Kirk Cousins is buying Vegas time to groom No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza. Cousins was signed as the bridge quarterback to Mendoza, similar to when the Pats brought in Jacoby Brissett in Maye’s rookie year, but Cousins has exceeded expectations in the first month of the season (10th in EPA, 12th in total QBR).<\/p>\n
Until the Raiders start losing games with Cousins, the expectation is that Mendoza will remain on the bench, which means the Patriots will face the 38-year-old veteran on Sunday. Still, after losing a one-score game where they hung with the Chiefs last week, New England needs to avoid a letdown against a Vegas team that has started the season an impressive 3-1.<\/p>\n
Let’s preview the chess match between the Patriots and Raiders at Gillette Stadium in Week 5.<\/p>\n
Offense Key: Prep for the Raiders Pressure Package and Turnover-Producing Defense<\/p>\n
After breaking out last week, the Patriots offense will face a Raiders defense that has shown some interesting early-season trends under first-time coordinator Rob Leonard.<\/p>\n
Patriots OC Josh McDaniels initially hired Leonard as Vegas’s defensive line coach under former DC Patrick Graham. He stayed on staff through four head coaches, with Kubiak retaining him by promoting him from defensive line\/run-game coordinator to defensive coordinator this season. Leonard has an interesting background, with ties to Graham, Brian Flores, John Harbaugh, and Pete Carroll.<\/p>\n
Under Leonard, Vegas’s defense is off to an impressive start, ranking second in total EPA, fourth in pass EPA, and sixth in rush EPA. The Raiders have also forced a league-high nine takeaways through four games, with an NFL-best five forced fumbles and four interceptions. Obviously, New England is tied for the league lead with 10 turnovers in their first four games, so this is a Raiders strength vs. a Patriots weakness.<\/p>\n
Although Leonard is coordinating and calling plays, it’s hard to ignore the Seattle imprint, even in the Raiders’ defensive scheme. Vegas ranks ninth in two-high safety structure rate (67.9%), playing a similar early-down brand of football as the Seahawks, relying on aggressive front mechanics and rotating safeties to hold up against the run while initially presenting offenses with lighter boxes (sixth in rush EPA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off a bounce-back win in Buffalo, the Patriots will try to build on the momentum when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1021879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[90,7,61707,1263,1264,1744,393,133269,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":["post-1021878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-analysis","tag-football","tag-gameplan","tag-hp-article","tag-hp-featured","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-las-vegas-raiders-at-new-england-patriots-2026-reg-5","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-nfl","tag-raiders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117404758398508698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1021879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}