Patriots-Raiders film review: What went wrong for Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel’s defense in Week 1

Sometime after they trotted into the locker room with a halftime lead Sunday the Patriots decided to ditch their run encounter They had averaged yards per carry against the Raiders who stuffed two third-and- runs inside the final five minutes of the half It was time they figured to put the tournament in Drake Maye s hands Bombs away The Raiders were already there They had logged a pass rate in the first half when they fizzled fast under the Foxboro rain After Geno Smith hit a touchdown pass on his opening drive he took three sacks threw a pick and went scoreless through the rest of the half But later Las Vegas enjoyed the sweet luxury of running the ball with a lead and spent preponderance of the fourth quarter killing clock What happened between the Raiders getting clobbered and hitting cruise control is what allows middling teams like them and the Patriots to ascend mediocrity Better coaching sharper quarterback play and fewer mistakes The Patriots supposed a blitz-heavy plan would unsettle Smith after he d tossed the second-most interceptions in the NFL last year For a time they were right The Pats allowed total yards on eight first-half blitzes But after halftime the pressure flipped The Raiders adjustments yielded several explosive plays and a offensive success rate against extra rushers Smith s -yard prayer that converted third-and- in the final minutes may have been the dagger Sunday but his completions of and yards on prior scoring drives pulled Las Vegas into the lead Meanwhile Maye slipped under the waves of Raiders pressure that grew higher as the battle wore on Under duress he went -of- for yards and an interception around three sacks in the second half Yet the Patriots problems ran deeper than Maye Their fundamentals cracked From nine penalties flagged by a ticky-tack officiating crew to missed tackles and missed stunts along their offensive line Mike Vrabel had plenty of bad tape to pick through Monday All fixable problems but problems nonetheless How fast the Patriots can patch those cracks will determine whether they win the next toss-up games on their schedule at Miami versus Pittsburgh and home against Carolina There s time plenty of time but the regular-season clock is now officially ticking Here s what else the film revealed about the Patriots loss Drake Maye Foxboro MA - New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye scrambles during the first quarter of the tournament at Gillette Stadium Nancy Lane Boston Herald -of- for yards TD INT Accurate throw percentage Under pressure -of- for yards INT sacks Against the blitz -of- for yards TD Behind the line -of- for yards - yards downfield -of- for yards TD - yards downfield -of- for yards INT yards downfield -of- for yards Notes Setting aside his shaky play under pressure as big a predicament as the Patriots had in the second half Maye must protect himself better than he did Sunday He took far too a multitude of out-of-pocket risks scrambling for the rewards of one yard none and even a short loss Throw the ball away and live to see another day In all Maye took QB hits including the four sacks His pocket movement was responsible for three pressures a sack an additional hit and one hurry It s too early to worry deeply about Maye s habits under pressure but playing a third straight season behind a porous offensive line including his last collegiate season is undeniably hazardous to a young quarterback s rise let alone wellness Something to monitor Mike Vrabel Patriots to evaluate Drake Maye s responsibilites This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e records if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i