With Foxborough spending the weekend celebrating past Patriots Super Bowl teams, Sunday’s matchup brought another familiar name into the building: the Packers, the franchise tied to the “Titletown” label. But the early story at 4:25 p.m. was not nostalgia. It was New England digging a hole fast.
By the time the first quarter was halfway gone, the Patriots were already staring at a 14-0 deficit, and Drake Maye had thrown an interception on his first passing attempt of the day. Xavier McKinney stepped in front of the throw intended for Mack Hollins, and Green Bay quickly turned the takeaway into points.
Jordan Love made sure the Patriots paid for it immediately. Two plays after the turnover, he kept the ball himself and scored on a 13-yard scramble to open the scoring.
Then, after New England went three-and-out on its next possession, Love went right back to work. He hit Matthew Golden deep for 49 yards, drew a defensive pass interference call on Christian Gonzalez, and later found Golden again on a quick slant for a wide-open touchdown.
The Packers weren’t done adding to the damage. After New England finally managed a first down on a drive extended by a defensive holding call, the Patriots still couldn’t get anything going on the ground or through the air. Rhamondre Stevenson had three carries for -3 yards at that point, and the absence of TreVeyon Henderson, who was hospitalized earlier this week, was showing in the run game.
Green Bay stretched the lead to 17-0 early in the second quarter after Elijah Ponder brought Love down on third down with a sack that flattened the quarterback. The Packers settled for a field goal, but the Patriots still had no answer.
Then came another swing in the wrong direction for New England. Maye’s second interception of the day came on a throw down the sideline into double coverage.
One Packers defender tipped it, another secured the toe-tap catch to keep it in bounds, and Brandon Cisse was credited with the pick. It was the kind of sequence that made the afternoon look, as the coverage put it, “really Week 3 at Jacksonville-ish right now.”
Maye had only thrown two interceptions over the five weeks since that game, but he already had two in this one. One more would tie his season high of three.
The Patriots did have one notable return on Sunday in wide receiver Mack Hollins, while the Packers continued to wait for Micah Parsons to come back. But with New England missing A.J.
Brown and TreVeyon Henderson again, the early mismatch was obvious. Sunny skies and chilly air may have made it feel like a classic fall afternoon in Foxborough, but the football itself was all Green Bay.
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Patriots Suddenly Have A Bigger Problem Than Just One Blowout
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Tom Bradys Foxborough Return Just Created A Collectible Patriots Moment
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The card is available for purchase for a limited time, which fits neatly with Bradys growing presence in the hobby world. He is also a co-owner of CardVault by Tom Brady, the sports card shop franchise that now has 20 locations across the United States, so the Foxborough appearance added another layer to a post-playing career that keeps circling back to memorabilia, nostalgia and the Patriots audience that knows his name best. [Read more 🡒]