Andrew Callahan: Drake Maye, Patriots send a message to the NFL with Monday night blowout

Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald on Dec 2, 2025

Published in Football

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FOXBORO, Mass. — The next NFL MVP calls New England home.

His team lords over the AFC East.

And after being bloodied, beaten and downright lucky to slink out of Cincinnati with a win last week, the Patriots unleashed all they had left before their long-awaited bye.

Even the optimist’s optimist had to admit there was a decent chance that may not have been enough to escape again Monday. Not after a dozen games, including four in the last 22 days.

Turns out, it was enough. More than enough. Enough to deliver a brutal, Big Blue beatdown on national television.

If the Giants hadn’t won two Super Bowl rings at the Pats’ expense, you might feel bad for them. This was real football pain.

Pain that left star pass rusher Brian Burns marinating in some kind of anger and bewilderment while he sat on the bench minutes after his team had already retreated into the halftime locker room trailing by 23.

For the 30 other teams sitting and watching Monday just like Burns, the game was something else: a warning.

The road to the Super Bowl might run through Foxboro again. Prepare accordingly.

How else would you describe the Patriots’ response to last week’s win, which appeared to dent their championship dreams? Will Campbell was arguably their most indispensable player after Drake Maye, and he’s out for at least until the New Year because of the game they nearly bungled against the Bengals. Jared Wilson, their left guard, could be, too.

The two players who protect Maye when he’s not looking and cannot protect himself were — poof —gone.

Meanwhile, thanks to players like Burns, the Giants had begun to emerge from the shadows of the league’s basement. In three straight weeks, they pushed the Lions, Packers and Bears — two playoff teams and a Wild Card contender — to the brink. Their 2-10 record cast a shadow over a top-10 offense brewing over the past two months, and a talented pass rush built to tear apart bad pass-protecting offensive lines like the Patriots’.

Yet the only thing that came apart Monday night was the team around that pass rush. Maye calmly dissected the Giants defense all night, starting with small tears via simple concepts like Kayshon Boutte’s 3-yard touchdown on a fade route. Then, Maye ripped them deep.

Kyle Williams found six points at the end of a 33-yard rainbow Maye tossed down the left sideline two drives after Boutte’s score. That was only the second quarter, when the Patriots led 24-7. Andy Borregales then drilled two more field goals before halftime, kicks that might as well have been kicks to the stomach.

And no one quite gutted the Giants like Marcus Jones, whose 94-yard punt return touchdown in the first quarter was the first sign the Pats might be onto a blowout reminiscent of the last time they had won 10 in a row. Those, of course, were the dynasty days, when even at their most injured and frail, they mustered a type of creativity and resourcefulness to win on all three phases and keep plugging.

No Will Campbell? Josh McDaniels and staff not only coached up his replacement, Vederian Lowe, but unveiled brand new, unseen personnel packages to confuse the Giants and add layers to their offense.

No Milton Williams or Khyiris Tonga? The Patriots patched their defensive line with players like Cory Durden, a Giants castoff who proved worthy of a starting spot at least for one night.

“They told him that he wasn’t good enough to play for the Giants, and we thought he was good enough to play for the Patriots,” Mike Vrabel said post-game. “So, I’m happy for him.”

Through Durden and a host of other veterans, the Patriots defense held New York to 4.1 yards per carry, and sacked rookie Jaxson Dart twice. Speaking of Dart, don’t forget Christian Elliss, who tried to send the rookie into another dimension with a devastating sideline hit that indirectly negated Dart’s 12-yard scramble in the first quarter.

Flags flew immediately after the play. Not for Elliss, but Giants tight end Theo Johnson who instigated a fight on the sideline and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Giants offense moved back three yards and punted.

That’s how bad teams stay bad. Not New England, though. Not anymore.

More than a demonstration of their grit and physicality, both hallmarks of a Vrabel team, this was a win of resources. Of coaching, of toughness and quarterback play.

The Patriots are back. They’ve been back for a while now because of Vrabel and Maye, but also the solutions they can draw from their roster and coaching staff.

The Patriots were injured Monday. Tired. Slow. And yet that first half may have been the best they’ve played all season.

So the bottom line for the rest of the AFC is this: come January, you may be coming to them.

And no matter who they have or how they play, you will have to knock them out.