50yrpatsfan

omg this is the worst take in the entire thread. Only a matter of time before you walk it back. The Patriots as a team are still a bit of a question mark. Maye isn't, already a top 4-8 talent and rising. In no way does he resemble Lawrence. His closest comps are Herbert and Allen.

The odds are that NE is gonna win the division. They're solid, not falling apart, and the Bills have a much more difficult schedule. The rematch in Foxboro should be very interesting. Everyone knew that KC, Buffalo, and probably LA would be in the AFC hunt, but nobody saw Denver, Indy, or NE. It's a 6 team race. Probably Indy gets the 1-seed, they also have a favorable schedule.

Maye is for real, can make every throw, runs very well, good awareness, mature kid. He's already as good as Herbert or Burrow, all 3 are clones. But you can't really judge much from beating up on Tennessee, they are terrible. The next 3 games are Cleveland, Atlanta, Tampa - all good defenses. NE's OL is spotty, the RB's are below average, WR's are average. If Maye plows through those 3 in a similar manner then you'd have to say NE is a threat in the AFC.

Maye will never be Allen, he's not as physical or as fast a runner, and that's what separates Allen. Maye's play style and talent level are that of Justin Herbert, those 2 guys are clones. Last night he rose to the occasion and made many big plays in the 2nd half. I think he was 13 of 14 for 188 yards with no turnovers or bad plays in the 2nd half, as the game went back and forth. Numerous 20 yard plays. It was a clean, excellent performance.

We tried to tell you guys that the Patriots were playing pretty solid football and it wasn't gonna be a runaway, that even we couldn't believe how much better they looked compared to the past two years' 4-13 teams. And that was before seeing Diggs go off last night for the first time as a Pat, and the rookie kicker hitting a 52 yard kick with 20 yards to spare in the clutch. Rugged defense, new OL, Maye arriving, excellent coaching, very favorable schedule. They are indeed back.

"Inferior" is in the eye of the beholder, and most observers of last night's game would say that these two teams are more or less equal. NE actually seemed to have the slight edge in all 3 phases.

NE's putting up more than 17.

Yeah, the reason they lost that game was they coughed it up 5x, including twice inside the Steelers 2 yard line and another as they were moving toward the game winning score. But the point was that under McDaniels they're moving the ball much better than we've seen the past couple of years. How that looks in Buffalo is of keen interest to Pats fans. Nobody's really expecting a win, but a competitive 31-27 type of game is very possible. We feel like we have our QB, the OL is now fairly solid, and all the coaches are good. No QB runs like Allen. Maye has speed but he's looking to avoid contact. Maye's arm is good but a rung below Allen.

Reid calls the plays so he's the OC, not sure what Bienemy did. Shanahan the same thing. Belichick focused on defense, McDaniels ran the offense and called the plays. Even after Brady, he made a washed Cam Newton and a rookie Mac Jones look pretty good. He's failed twice as a HC so he's not good at that, but he's as good as they get at OC, top tier, very underrated, and the MVP of the Patriots so far this year. Maye looks pretty good but the OL-TE's-RB's are average, the WR's are below average, yet the offense moved the ball very well the last 3 weeks. The Steelers game 2 weeks ago was impressive, and we now expect that they'll do the same at Buffalo.

Wave your hand all you want, those are the facts. If you want to credit it all to Brady, then credit it all to Mahomes. Plus look at some of the other years in the 2010's when NE didn't make the SB but led the league in offense. McDaniel's record is unbelievable.

McDaniels is a 3x SB winning OC, plus a 4th SB where the Pats had 600 yards of offense and they lost. He's tied with Andy Reid as the most prolific OC in the game.

Carolina ran all over the Pats on the first 2 drives of the game, then were shut down almost completely with everything they tried. Pats also shut down the Steelers run game the week before and held them to 200 yards total offense, which was more impressive. In their first 2 games vs LV and Miami, they got run on pretty good. They have a very good front 4 of Barmore, Tonga, Milton Williams, and Harold Landry (none of them played last year for NE), and good depth rotating in. They're a real team compared to the last few years. Will likely win 9-10 games.

Think Justin Herbert. 6'4, big arm, accurate, athletic, mobile but not a runner per se. He's playing well, partly his own improvement and partly due to 4 new offensive lineman and a great OC.

Nobody really knows how good or bad the Patriots are at this point. They're a lot better/more competent than the past couple of years, which isn't saying much, and they should be 3-1. Maye is good, the OL is almost all new and significantly better, the DL can rush, ST's are doing their job. Josh McDaniels is a top OC and has the offense looking like a pro operation despite no explosive weapons. I think NE will possess the ball and score on the Bills, and Diggs & Hollins will be factors. How well NE can defend Allen is unknown. If the Pats don't turn it over and can keep the Bills in the high 20's, then an upset is within the realm.

NE is better everywhere. They should be 3-1 but blew the Steelers game with 5 turnovers, two of which were inside the Pittsburgh 3 yard line. Outgained them 400 to 200 and lost 21-14. The defense has been getting after the QB with Barmore, Milton Williams, and Landry, and the Pats' top corner Gonzalez is back after missing the first 3 games. The offense is playing good football for the first time in years. OL is solid so far with 4 new faces. The run game hasn't been great but better the past 2 weeks. Weapons are better all the way around, not great but effective. Diggs has been making plays and being a solid citizen. Love what Hollins brings. But the main thing is Maye and Josh McDaniels got it going. Maye is very comparable to Justin Herbert, and extremely similar playing style. The Patriots look about ready for a game of this magnitude.

I wouldn't get your hopes up, he can still throw very well. His weapons and OL are banged up/not available. He wasn't really missing guys that were open. That said, the things I didn't like as a Pats fan were: - that INT was inexcusable, a veteran qb has to see that other db lurking there, not to mention that he had Gordon open in the other corner before he decided to roll out - the bad clock management at the end of the half and game. The Bills D is very good both physically and game planning, so that also had a lot to do with it. Brady's also more willing to take a 3 and out with his defense playing so well. He threw the ball away like 10 times once he saw a play wasn't developing well.

To respond to a few points in this thread: - there's no NE fan or player that's happy Allen got a concussion on the play. No player was trying to take him out of the game - Jones didn't launch himself or lead with the crown of his helmet. He actually ended up getting hit on the side of his helmet by the crown of Allen's. He was trying to knock him down with his shoulder and arm mainly, with incidental helmet contact - from the far side video angle it looks like Allen tried to mow down Jones by changing his direction to the left, but when you look at all angles it appears his body direction changed at the last moment due to the contact from Harmon which was partly from the side. Without that change of direction there may have been no helmet to helmet contact. - Jones had no time to evaluate Harmon's tackle, it happened simultaneously. Harmon did get his arms around the waist prior to Jones, but he didn't start to take him down or slow him up until the moment of the contact with Jones. Jones was trying to stop a big first down, Allen ended up gaining 7 on a 3rd & 8. - It's useless to compare this to Brady, cause Brady would never be in this situation of trying to split two defenders to gain several more yards. He would have slid or gone straight down if it were too late to slide, then deal with the rest on 4th down. Allen could have gone to the ground before the Jones contact, but he wanted that 1st down.

Not arrogant, just the truth. I like Allen and hope he does well, but it's obvious he's trying to get every yard when running, and QB's can't do that in this league. I don't root against him or the Bills.

He's ticked off about losing Antonio Bryant, in combination with Gronk retiring, Edelman hurt, no other good depth, and his OL messed up. When he faces a quality D like Buffalo's, he knows he's in for a major struggle moving the ball. This game was a low point, and he's not enjoying it. Kudos to the Bills defense, that inside LB you have there is a beast. Patriots absolutely sucked in all phases of the offense, including Brady's own decision making and execution, he was mediocre at best. Not sure I'd attribute it to age cause I've seen this in the past too at times.

no no and no. I had an account here from years ago but it must've been deleted due to inactivity. I visit your site all the time, generally like the Bills fans perspectives on things. Like the city, once had a girlfriend from there. Did not like seeing Allen suffer a head injury at all, but in this case Jones was innocent. I initially thought otherwise, but can't argue with that 2nd video from the opposite side, evidence is plain as day. What it revealed more than anything is that Josh Allen has a runner's mentality that's going to be hard for Bills coaches to shake him of. He barreled though Jones trying to get the 1st down, lowering his helmet in the process.

it's this video, about 3 seconds in. Tell me how Allen isn't completely responsible for this collision.

watch the video at the point of contact. It's the crown of Allen's helmet striking the side of Jones'. Clear as day.

Jones is 180 lbs soaking wet, not a physical player. I don't think he really knew what to do with a 6'5 235lb beast like Allen coming at him hell bent on getting a 1st down. He looked a little tentative and confused about how to bring him down. Next time he'll go low for sure, cause he took a serious blow to the side of his head and I don't know how he wasn't injured too.

watch the video again and you'll see that the other tackler hadn't yet started pulling him down, Allen was still in control of his own momentum and turned slightly left to take on Jones Allen could have gone down to the ground and avoided Jones completely, but then he wouldn't have reached the 1st down yardage. He chose to take on Jones, and lowering his helmet like he did was an aggressive act to run over and through Jones to get the 1st down.

I don't see how anyone can watch this and think that Jones was at fault in any way. Allen clearly causes this helmet to helmet, it's the crown of HIS helmet striking the side of Jones'. That's how they evaluate who's at fault. He should be the one fined. I'm sure if Jones had to do it over again, he'd go low, then you could be looking at a knee injury. He had to make a play, a 1st down was at stake. The problem is Josh Allen thinking he's an indestructible running back cause of his physical advantages.