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The one piece of evidence the skeptics miss about the Patriots? They are unbeaten on the road.
New England will look to keep this streak alive as they travel to Cincinnati on Sunday.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 12 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup …
Those skeptical of the 9-2 Patriots, winners of eight in a row, fall back on citing their soft schedule, as if their opponents didn’t perceive them to be a soft-spot on their schedule when the season began.
It’s a cliché and an adage, but it’s true: You can only play who is lined up in front of you every week. Since Week 4, the Patriots have not only stood up to every opponent, but beaten them, often handily, while quarterback Drake Maye (the league leader in completion percentage and passing yards) has emerged, much to the chagrin of the rest of the league, as a franchise quarterback.
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Even if some are hesitant to change their perceptions, the Patriots are for real, and one piece of evidence — one the skeptics somehow miss — is that they are yet to lose on the road this season.
That’s a tell-tale sign of a mentally and physically tough team, and they’ll aim to make it six wins in a row away from Gillette Stadium this season when they take on the Cincinnati Bengals at, uh, Paycor Stadium (it’s still Paul Brown Stadium to me).
It promises to be a fun quarterback matchup, with Maye — who won’t have to deal with Bengals star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, out with a hip injury — dueling with either 40-year-old veteran Joe Flacco, or Joe Burrow, who has been sidelined since Week 3 with a toe injury and returned to practice in full this week.
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Kick it off, Andy Borregales, and let’s get this thing started …
Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks
Christian Barmore: The fifth-year defensive tackle’s return to health and good form after missing all but four games last season while being treated for a frightening blood-clot condition has been one of the least-discussed important developments of the season for the Patriots.
But with fellow defensive tackle Milton Williams — worth every dime of the four-year, $104 million contract he signed in the offseason — out for the next four games with a high ankle sprain, Barmore must take on a bigger role.
The Patriots defense ranks first in the league against the run (84.7 yards per game), and Barmore will be essential in sustaining that. Bengals running back Chase Brown started slow, but has averaged at least 5.5 yards per carry in three of the last four games, picking up 99 yards on 18 carries last Sunday in a 34-12 loss to the Steelers.
Barmore may be even more important when the Bengals pass, particularly if Flacco starts. There are monuments at Stonehenge with more mobility. Flacco struggles mightily under pressure, but can still sling it Bledsoe-style when he has time. Barmore, who picked up his first sack of the season against the Jets, needs to get after the passer this week, too.
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Tee Higgins: For the past couple of seasons, Patriots fans had the reasonable daydream that Higgins would end up in New England. The Patriots desperately needed legitimate weapons on offense, Higgins was a No. 1 receiver cast as a No. 2 behind Ja’Marr Chase in Cincinnati, and the notoriously cheap Bengals surely wouldn’t pay two outstanding receivers.
And yet they did, with Burrow using his clout to make sure both big-time targets remained in his huddle. Higgins signed a four-year, $115 million contract to remain with the Bengals in March.
Higgins, who has 35 catches for 544 yards and 7 touchdowns this season, has been at his best in recent weeks, with five touchdowns over the last four games. That includes two in the Bengals’ 49-47 loss to the Bears in Week 9, when he had a season-high 121 receiving yards.
He’ll need to be at his best this week, with Chase, arguably the best receiver in the entire league, suspended for spitting on the Steelers’ Jalen Ramsey last Sunday. Higgins, at 6 feet, 4 inches and 220 pounds, is the type of big, but athletic receiver that can give the Patriots trouble. But Chase’s absence gives them a couple of ways to try to defend him, whether it’s a Christian Gonzalez lockdown assignment, or Carlton Davis and some safety help.
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Kayshon Boutte: The Patriots offense navigated the third-year receiver’s two-game absence with a hamstring injury without any obvious turbulence.
Maye expertly spread the ball around — Mack Hollins (vs. the Buccaneers) and Stefon Diggs (vs. the Jets) each had 100-yard games in his absence, and another receiver, DeMario Douglas, reached triple digits in the game Boutte got hurt (vs. the Falcons).
But Boutte, a deep threat (18.7 yards per catch) who can be counted on to be where Maye expects him, was missed in subtle ways. Most of his reps went to rookie third-round pick Kyle Williams, who had a 72-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown against the Buccaneers on a perfect Maye throw, but also ran some pass routes over the past two games that gave distinct Tony Simmons flashbacks. (Or Bethel Johnson, if you prefer a speedster with a sometimes faulty GPS from this century.)
Williams has a chance to be a fine player, but reliability isn’t his strong suit yet. Three of Maye’s nine incompletions against the Jets went in his direction, and he did not have a catch. He has just three catches on 11 targets this season.
Boutte is a big play threat — only TreVeyon Henderson (six) has more touchdowns than his five this season. He’s caught 23 of his 31 targets, with 20 going for first downs. That’s a dangerous and efficient receiver, and he should have a happy return Sunday against the Bengals’ abysmal defense (32nd overall, 418.2 yards allowed per game; 31st in pass defense, 257.3 yards allowed per game).
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The flashback
Somewhat surprisingly, the Patriots and Bengals have never met in the playoffs. Blame that on the Bengals, obviously. From 1991 through 2020, they missed the playoffs 23 times and lost in the wild-card round the other seven seasons, including five straight years from 2011-15.
The Bengals actually have made three Super Bowls in their history, in 1981, ’88, and 2021. They collided with the Patriots in just one of those seasons, ’88, a Week 7 matchup in Foxborough.
Expectations were low for the Patriots entering the game. The Bengals came in 6-0, while the Patriots were 2-4 and coming off a 45-3 loss to the previously winless Packers. But the Patriots pulled off the upset, intercepting Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason five times and holding on for a 27-21 win in Doug Flutie’s first start at Sullivan Stadium.
Flutie completed 10 of 14 passes for 165 yards, an efficient if not exactly explosive effort. The Patriots were spurred by a plea to run the ball from second-year left tackle Bruce Armstrong to head coach Raymond Berry in the days before the game. Berry agreed with the approach. The Patriots picked up 158 rushing yards on 43 attempts, with former first-round pick Reggie Dupard scoring a pair of touchdowns, his only two of the season.
The win was a relief for the Patriots, who would win seven of their final 10 games to finish 9-7.
“I think if it had been against Foxborough High, it would have been an inspiration and motivation,” said Patriots receiver Cedric Jones afterward. “We needed to beat somebody.”
Grievance of the week
It’s not like we asked for more evidence that we’re living in the stupidest sports television timeline possible. Sentient Monster Truck Pat McAfee’s oversaturated prominence on ESPN is enough for me.
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Yet we were force-fed more evidence anyway on Thursday, when ESPN’s other designated blowhard, Stephen A. Smith, predictably completed the lifecycle of a hot take.
The cycle goes like this: someone on a hot-take show says something dumb, controversial, or usually both — it may be what the take-maker actually believes, but it’s almost entirely designed to get a reaction. The athlete who is the subject of the take is asked about it by the local media or a sports-radio host, and either has no idea what it is about, or pretends to be without a clue. Then the hot-taker, or a co-host hot-taker, gets wind of what the athlete said, and no matter how innocuous the athlete’s response may be, acts like it is the most offensive string of words ever to be spoken. Boom, three days of content, screeching, and debate, at a minimum.
Maye, through no fault of his own, got trapped in that cycle of caterwaulers this week, thanks in large part to his boyhood hero, Cam Newton. You probably heard that Newton, whose 2020 season with the Patriots was one of the best in franchise history by a quarterback who threw the ball like a defensive end, said on “First Take” last Friday that the Patriots’ 9-2 start was “fool’s gold.”
Newton’s comments caught their intended attention on social media, and so Maye was asked about it by co-host Andy Hart during the quarterback’s weekly appearance on WEEI’s afternoon drive program Monday. Maye said he didn’t even know which show Newton was on.
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I believe him. Newton has been on the show only since last October, and Maye has a job that tends to keep him fairly busy during the week. But Maye’s response gave Smith the opening to continue the cycle, and did he ever on Wednesday’s show.
Smith, pathetically, called Maye a liar, touting the show’s ratings success before claiming, “Don’t tell me that you’re an athlete and you don’t know that Cam Newton is on this show.”
If Maye is asked about this latest stupid twist, I’m sure he’ll shrug it off and end the whole ridiculous cycle. And Stephen A. and friends will have to find something else to be fake-offended about.
Prediction, or James Brooks is one of the most overlooked great running backs of all time …
Considering that Maye has emerged as a Most Valuable Player favorite during the Patriots’ ascent from their 1-2 start, it’s somewhat surprising that he doesn’t have a 300-yard passing game yet in his career. His career high, much to my surprise anyway, was his 287-yard effort in the season-opening loss to the Raiders.
In his 25th career game Sunday, and his 24th start, he’ll get there. The streak reaches nine in a row, with the Bills looming. Patriots 31, Bengals 23.
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