The Patriots didn’t get the kind of lift they needed from the two players they count on most, and that made Sunday’s 45-27 loss to the Packers feel even heavier.
New England head coach Mike Vrabel didn’t dance around it after the game.
“When your best players don’t play good, you don’t have much of a chance in this league. So, we expect a lot more,” Vrabel said.
That message applied most directly to quarterback Drake Maye and cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who both had rough afternoons in Green Bay.
Gonzalez had been the Patriots’ shutdown answer on the back end, but the Packers found openings anyway. Wide receivers Matthew Golden and Christian Watson each topped 80 receiving yards with Gonzalez in coverage, something no single receiver had done against him all season.
Through his first six games, Gonzalez had allowed just 196 yards in coverage. On Sunday, he gave up a career-high 10 catches for 187 yards.
“Obviously, it is frustrating. I want to be who I am for the team, and everybody that knows what I am.
But, it’s football. I’m going to have a bad game,” Gonzalez said.
“So, it’s the same as I come up here week in, week out. If it’s a good game, I say, ‘All right.
We move on.’ It’s just like that.”
Vrabel said the Patriots need more from him, but he made clear the problems went beyond one defender.
“We expect a lot more. He expects a lot more.
We need more from him and everybody else. It wasn’t just him.”
Maye’s day started in the worst possible way. His first pass was picked off by Packers safety Xavier McKinney, and Green Bay turned that takeaway into a touchdown two plays later. Less than two minutes into the game, New England was already down 7-0, and the Packers never gave the lead back.
Maye threw two more interceptions after that, including one that ended with him on the bench.
“I’m disappointed in myself for, you can’t put the team in the hole straight off the bat, first possession, first half,” Maye said.
Later, he pointed to missed chances that could have kept the Patriots in striking distance.
“I feel like in the times we had chances to get back into the game, I messed them up, and we had chances to put us back within three points multiple times, and just frustrating,” Maye said. “I got to do a better job from a whole perspective, communication, doing the little things right, and I just, I wasn’t good.
I wasn’t good today. And we got to bounce back.”
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