What we learned in Pats-Bengals: Brissett’s toughness buys Maye more time originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
CINCINNATI — Each and every week, we’ll be highlighting a variety of the lessons gathered from the latest Patriots matchup. Of course, there was no shortage of teaching moments in Sunday’s stunner against the Bengals.
Here’s what we learned…
Brissett’s toughness buys Drake Maye more time
Jacoby Brissett was emotional going into Sunday’s game, and he wasn’t afraid to talk about it after the fact.
“I think I cried three times before the game,” he said. “I cried when I got to the stadium. I cried when (Jerod) Mayo came up to me before the game and he started laughing, he said, ‘You’re about to win us this game. You’re about to ball out.’ And I had never heard that from a coach. That meant a lot to me. Then I cried when I got out there.”
But Brissett was anything but emotional as he grinded through Sunday’s win. His stoicism despite taking a beating at various points was indicative of the kind of toughness the entire Patriots roster exhibited in their unexpected win.
“He made plays with his legs, he made plays with his arm,” Mayo said. “He’s a tough guy. He took some hits in the game. I’m just like, ‘Man, get up.’ But he did everything we asked him to do.”
Brissett was particularly resilient on the team’s lone touchdown drive of the game. He took a shot from Bengals pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson — which appeared to get starting left tackle Chukwuma Okorafor benched — and still converted a third-and-8 situation to DeMario Douglas. Brissett stared down a free blitzer and threw hot to Austin Hooper for 16 yards. He scrambled twice for first downs, including one run that went for 16 yards on third-and-5.
Brissett scrambled for six more yards and a first down to start the fourth quarter with a third-down conversion. He completed two more passes to tight ends, including one third down conversion, for 24 yards to help set up the final field goal of the day for New England.
His numbers at the end of the afternoon were pedestrian. He completed 15 of his 24 attempts for 121 yards (5.0 per attempt). No touchdowns. No picks. He missed a handful of throws and would’ve been picked in the end zone if not for a Hunter Henry breakup.
But it was the kind of workmanlike day from the veteran quarterback that can work when the running game is cooking and the Patriots defense is turning the ball over.
If the Patriots can stick with Sunday’s formula, that should only buy rookie quarterback Drake Maye — who saw more practice reps than a typical backup might last week — more time to develop behind the scenes.
If Brissett can continue to show off his toughness; if he can continue to make mostly-good decisions; if he can continue to win; there’s no need to rush New England’s prized asset. In a year where Maye’s development is of the utmost importance, that’s the ultimate side benefit for the Patriots as they bask in the glow of their first win of 2024.
Jerod Mayo can coach
Mayo has been very open about the fact that he wants his team to be smart, tough and dependable. And he’s been very open about the fact that he understands those were the same qualities his old boss Bill Belichick wanted to see in his teams.
While Mayo will go about his job differently than Belichick did in many facets, he was still raised on Patriots football. He’s seen how grind-it-out teams who don’t commit critical errors can experience success at the highest levels of the sport.
That’s what he’s chasing in his new role. And that’s what his team did in his first regular-season game as head coach.
Mayo’s team was smarter than Zac Taylor’s, not turning it over and creating two turnovers of their own. And that doesn’t include the turnover on downs the Patriots pulled off thanks to Jonathan Jones‘ kamikaze fourth-down tackle in the third quarter. (The Patriots had two close calls with a Rhamondre Stevenson fumble and a Brissett would-be pick broken up by Henry. There’s a reason they call it a game of inches.)
Mayo’s team was tougher, out-gaining the Bengals on the ground 170 yards to 70, calling 23 more rushing attempts than their hosts as they salted the game away never losing the lead they established in the second-quarter.
And Mayo’s team was more dependable, allowing just one sack in Concinnati’s three. The Patriots converted more third downs (six to four) and possessed the football for eight more minutes than their opponent.
Players gave him a Gatorade bath as the clock wound down, and they sang his praises in the locker room after the fact.
“He’s a player’s coach,” Jabrill Peppers said. “He’s great with the Xs and Os, great motivator. And he’s just a guy you want to play for.
“He knows what to say. He can be a funny guy, but he knows when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. I think that’s a great mix. Treats his players like professionals, and it’s up to us to take that seriously. He had a great game plan and I think we executed it well.”
“Felt really good,” Joe Cardona said. “Even more sweet to help a former teammate get his first win as a head coach in the NFL… Any personal affection I have for this game and for the team’s win pales in comparison to how I feel to have helped Jerod, Matthew (Slater), Dont’a (Hightower) and the rest of this staff get their first.”
Though there were veterans who acknowledged following training camp that their bodies needed a rest because of the grinding nature of the practices Mayo ran — they had a routine of practicing hard and in pads for several days before getting a day off, and they at times tackled to the ground — the new head coach was credited late Sunday afternoon for preparing his team to win the kind of game it won to start the season.
“I definitely think the camp we had was very physical,” said Vederian Lowe. “We ran a lot. Very physical, day in and day out. It was all to get us primed for the season. That’s what it’s for.
“We bust our ass in the summer and training camp to get ready for games like this. We know they’re going to come down us running the ball and they know we’re going to run the ball. That’s why we work so hard in OTAs and camp to get ready for games like this.”
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“We said before the game, it’s going to be a certain point in the game where we’re just going to overpower them,” Brissett said. “We’re going to out-condition them and do all the little things right more than them because of all the work we put in. And I think that was on display.”
For players to put in that kind of summertime work, there needs to be buy-in to the coach charting the course. Clearly Mayo had that, and the payoff was evident in Cincinnati.
“It’s the way we practice,” Peppers said. “I’ve only been two other places. Nobody practices how we practice as far as our conditioning, the tenacity at practice. When we’re in full pads, it’s damn near a game except we’re not going to the ground. Physicality is one thing that we definitely hang our hat on.”
Rhamondre Stevenson is a handful
When Rhamondre Stevenson first met Alex Van Pelt, he liked what he heard. The new Patriots offensive coordinator was going to bring a style of offense that made it easy for Stevenson to envision having games like the one he had in Cincinnati.
“He told me he loves to run the ball and he’s a control-the-line-of-scrimmage kind of coach,” Stevenson said. “I heard that, I knew that me and all the other running backs were going to have opportunities.”
Stevenson showed in Week 1 what a productive marriage this could be in 2024, running for 120 yards and a touchdown at a rate of 4.8 yards per attempt.
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His gains came on the outside-zone staple of Van Pelt’s offense, but there were also downhill runs Van Pelt mixed in for his workhorse back. With double-teams at the line of scrimmage and Stevenson using his instincts to find open running lanes, he milked the clock to win the game in its waning moments.
“That’s a huge challenge for us,” Stevenson said. “Four-minute (offense), they know we’re going to run the ball. It’s us against you. And we were the hammer, not the nail.”
“Rhamondre was like, ‘Just give me the ball and let me run downhill.’ And [Van Pelt] did a good job,” Brissett said. “I think he does a really good job of trusting us out there. And Rhamondre says, ‘I don’t want to run outside zone no more. I want to run downhill.’ And that’s what we did.”
Stevenson ran through arm tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage throughout the afternoon, punishing tacklers at the ends of runs as well. He ended up creating 22 yards over expectation, according to Next Gen Stats, thanks in large part to his vision and a hard-charging style that energized his blockers.
“I love blocking for Mondre,” Lowe said. “He has such great vision. I think that’s one of his best traits is his vision, him being able to see the holes. Then he hits them full go. He makes one little shimmy cut, he can make a guy miss, then boom, six yards right there. I think that’s what makes him so great. I love blocking for him, and I’m excited to see what he does the rest of the season.”
“At the end of the game, they knew what we were going to do and couldn’t stop it,” Caedan Wallace said. “It’s times like that that you love… Everyone in the stadium knew what we were about to do and we did it to them anyway. Moving a guy from Point A to Point B is something o-linemen love doing and we were successful at it multiple times.”
Patriots defense will limit big plays
Not many teams in the NFL are built to win games by throwing 24 passes for 121 yards. But with the Patriots defense playing the way it played on Sunday, that can still yield a winning performance.
One way to describe defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington’s unit on Sunday? Stifling. Particularly in the secondary.
Joe Burrow completed a high percentage of his attempts (21-for-29) but for only 164 yards. His average depth of target — despite having explosive wideout Ja’Marr Chase available — was only 5.6 yards (sixth-lowest in the NFL in Week 1), meaning he rarely even tested the Patriots down the field.
Changing coverages, using two-high safety shells, and forcing the Bengals to check the ball down to short-range options limited what Cincinnati wanted to do. There were creative wrinkles, like Christian Gonzalez dropping to play safety when it looked like he might be in man coverage on Chase. But the plan to force dink-and-dunk attempts while rallying to the football and tackling with force … worked.
Christian Gonzalez was the lynchpin, shadowing Chase for 20 of Chase’s 28 routes, per ESPN Stats and Info. Chase reeled in just three passes for 14 yards on those snaps. The Patriots allowed just one play of more than 20 yards to the Bengals, a 28-yard grab on a seam route against zone. Not bad against what has been one of the scariest big-play offenses in football for the last several seasons.
Having Keion White submit a three-sack game (one thanks to an assist from Joshua Uche, who generated the pressure that forced Burrow into White’s lap) certainly helped. But the skill level and versatility the Patriots exhibited in the secondary is something that should translate from week to week.
Until and unless opponents show they can run at will against New England, forcing bodies from the secondary into the box, Mayo’s group of defensive backs look like they are going to be really hard to puncture.
New sponsorship in Jabrill Peppers’ future?
Jabrill Peppers is not a doctor, but he did swim at a Holiday Inn Express on Saturday night. And Sunday morning.
The Patriots safety suffered a hip injury after landing awkwardly during Friday’s practice. He was uncomfortable enough that he felt he slept only a couple of hours that night. Then he had a hard time simply walking on Saturday morning and was officially listed as questionable.
So how did he get onto the field for Sunday? The Holiday Inn Express pool.
With the Patriots staying at The Summit Hotel in Cincinnati, Peppers and team physical therapist Chris Dolan walked over to the nearby Holiday Inn Express to get Peppers in the water and “get his legs going,” as he described it.
That happened on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and he was able to be cleared by Sunday afternoon following a pregame workout.
“There was no way I was missing the first game of the season,” he said. “My leg would’ve had to fall off.”
