New Orleans, La. – The Patriots accomplished what they came down to the bayou to achieve by holding on for a 25-19 victory over the Saints at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday.

New England continues to pass every checkpoint in its first season under head coach Mike Vrabel. Following a breakout win in Buffalo last week, Sunday’s game was a classic “trap” game where the Patriots could’ve had a letdown coming off a massive primetime road win in the division. Instead, Vrabel’s team took care of business in New Orleans, led by a masterful first-half performance from QB Drake Maye, and a vintage Patriots double-score in the middle quarters to open a 9-point lead.

Maye continues to play elite-level quarterback, while Vrabel’s program is passing every test with flying colors: take advantage of bad football vs. Carolina, announce your arrival in Buffalo, and avoid falling into the trap in New Orleans to make it three-straight wins for the first time since 2022.

Although it was a good program win, Vrabel still has plenty to coach his football team on this week. The Pats defense didn’t get a stop until midway through the third quarter, with the Saints and QB Spencer Rattler opening the game with FG, FG, TD, FG. New England’s offense was also stuffed on a goal-to-go situation and couldn’t extend the lead in the second half, while not getting much help from the refs, who wiped out 113 yards and a touchdown by calling some iffy offensive pass interferences.

“Kept battling. None of it was perfect today. Give [the Saints] a lot of credit,” Vrabel said post-game. “We’ll have a lot to clean up, but it’s good to get a win.”

The Patriots will need to keep working on certain things. In particular, the rush offense and pass defense, which allowed Rattler to go 20-of-26 for 227 yards in Sunday’s game. Still, let’s not take three straight wins for granted. This team has been in some dark places lately, so to see them match their 2024 win total six games into the season is impressive. They’re building good habits, the quarterback looks outstanding, and they have been better than their opponents for four consecutive weeks.

Here are eight takeaways as the Patriots improve to 4-2 on the season with a win in New Orleans.

1. Player of the Game: WR Kayshon Boutte Delivers Outstanding Performance in Homecoming Game

The Patriots wideout grew up roughly two hours from the Superdome while attending nearby LSU, and Boutte showed out in his homecoming with five catches for 93 yards and two scores. According to Boutte, he had about 40 friends and family in attendance.

Along with catching two touchdown passes, Maye also went to Boutte on a key third down to ice the game with a 21-yard catch on a back-shoulder fade on 3rd-and-11. As he did all afternoon, Boutte was isolated on the outside against press coverage and converted his route perfectly to adjust to the well-placed pass by Maye on the back shoulder. From there, the Pats were able to kneel out the clock after a shrewd challenge by Vrabel to run out the rest of the clock.

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Along with his game-sealing catch, Boutte ran a great route on his second deep touchdown of the first half. This time, the Pats are in a two-receiver stack with Boutte and Douglas to Maye’s left. Boutte runs a corner route with Douglas widening to the flat, and the Pats wideout opens up Saints CB Quincy Riley by attacking Riley’s leverage and then breaking out to the corner, with Maye hitting him in the open void for a touchdown.

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On his first touchdown, Maye’s initial read is to the right on a bluff screen, where the offense fakes a WR screen and then releases the “blockers” upfield on vertical routes. The Saints cover the schemed shot play well, so Maye climbs the pocket and works the backside 1-on-1 with the safety help gravitating toward the initial read side. Boutte does well to finish through contact for his quarterback, who put the ball right on his receiver for a 25-yard touchdown.

The Patriots continue to have different leading receivers, showing the balance they have in their passing game. On Sunday, the local product was the player of the game.

2. QB Drake Maye Continues to Ascend into Elite Quarterback Status

Although we gave the first game ball to Boutte, Maye’s first half was terrific, and he put the game away late with some clutch conversions.

In the first two quarters, Maye was 11-of-13 for 185 passing yards and three scores for a perfect 158.3 passer rating and +17.6 total expected points added (100th percentile). Maye’s teammates on both sides of the ball discussed the belief that the young quarterback is giving them, with DT Christian Barmore saying he jumped off the bench on the Patriots sideline “multiple times” as Maye was dealing.

This week, it was Maye’s deep ball that caught the eye. Despite his big arm, the Pats QB was only attempting a deep ball on 7.7% of his throws in the first five weeks. Although it’s a low deep-pass rate, Maye was 9-of-12 with an elite 96.9 PFF passing grade on deep balls, so he’s a great deep ball thrower who needs more volume. On Sunday, Maye was 4-of-5 for 128 yards and all three touchdowns on deep passes. He also had two other deep completions that were wiped out by iffy penalties.

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— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 12, 2025

The deep passing began right out of the starting gate with a 53-yard touchdown pass to WR DeMario Douglas. New England ran its post-cross concept off a half-boot action, with Douglas on the vertical route against a single-high post safety. Douglas gets Saints S Jonas Sanker turned around in the deep part of the field, and Maye delivers the ball on-time so that Douglas can cut upfield to get the final ~14 yards after the catch – a 39.5-air yard throw for the Pats QB.

We are running out of ways to write about Maye’s year-two leap. He’s been playing at a near-MVP level over the last two weeks.

3. Patriots Defense Tightens Up Late, But Still Room for Significant Improvement

At the end of the day, the Patriots defense held the Saints to 19 points. They’ve now held five of their six opponents to 20 points or fewer, which one could argue is the most important stat.

However, the efficiency numbers for New England’s defense continue to be so-so. On Sunday, they allowed +0.26 expected points added and nearly 8.1 yards per play in the first quarter, failing to stop New Orleans from scoring on their four drives. Rattler also had only six incompletions, which might’ve been because the Patriots majored in zone coverages against a speedy group of Saints skill players. Ultimately, the Saints couldn’t sustain offense, settling for four field goals, so the bend-don’t-break defense worked even though it was inconsistent.

For example, the game started with a 53-yard bomb from Rattler to WR Chris Olave on the first play from scrimmage. Along with playing 21 of 30 drop-backs in zone coverage, the Patriots also blitzed Rattler often in the first half. Rattler had struggled against the blitz in the first five weeks, so there was sound reasoning for it, but the Saints QB went 5-for-8 for 90 yards vs. the blitz on Sunday.

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— NFL (@NFL) October 12, 2025

The Patriots defense started slowly when Saints QB Spencer Ratler hit Olave on a 53-yard bomb on the first play from scrimmage. The Pats blitzed CB Carlton Davis from the short side of the field, forcing S Kyle Dugger to rotate onto the deep-third in cover three, where he got matched against Olave. That’s not a matchup the Patriots want, a safety vs. the Saints best receiver. When the blitz doesn’t get home, Dugger is in a tough spot.

Eventually, some of the Patriots zone pressures began to get home. Still, if you were wondering why there were so many completions underneath zone-dropping corners, New England gave the Saints receivers plenty of cushion in Sunday’s game. The Patriots defense forced a fumble and a key fumble late, so they righted the ship when it counted, but the shaky starts are becoming a theme for this side of the ball.

4. Patriots Run Game Struggles Continue as an Area of Needed Improvement

With the Patriots passing game firing on all cylinders, they can get away with a pedestrian run game that’s providing balance and allowing for scripted play-action concepts. That said, the Pats once again struggled on the ground to the tune of -0.38 expected points added and a 38% success rate, with the Pats RBs tallying just 45 yards on 22 carries (2.05 average). They were also stuffed eight times on those 22 attempts, with a failed goal-to-go sequence and some issues running the ball with the lead in the fourth quarter, leading to Maye needing to put the ball in the air to Boutte to convert a third-and-11 late in the game. Ultimately, the pass offense has been so productive that it hasn’t mattered, but it could catch up to the Patriots eventually. Schematically, the Saints were well-prepared for their gap runs with pullers, leading to several run TFLs.

5. Marcus Jones is Good at Football: That’s It, That’s the Subheader

Although the defense had its ups and downs, captain Marcus Jones is on a two-game heater where he has been one of the Patriots best players. On Sunday, Jones forced an incompletion on a wheel route, nearly intercepted a pass in zone coverage along the sideline and recorded his first-career sack on a key third down stop.

On his first-career sack, the Patriots spun the dial with a zone pressure where Jones blitzed from the slot. While blitzing the nickel, the Pats simulated pressure over the left side of the line ot get the line to slide away from Jones. They then rotated into a cover-three structure, with RB Alvin Kamara seeing the blitz late to get a piece of Jones as EDGE K’Lavon Chaisson is winning on the stunt inside. The pressure causes Rattler to climb the pocket, and Jones is there to get the third-down sack.

Jones is thriving playing the slot/nickel spot in Vrabel’s defense, growing into a leadership role as a captain, and is an electric punt returner. In a contract year, Jones is on the shortlist for team MVP behind Maye.

6. Patriots Lean on RBs Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson vs. Saints

A top storyline heading into Sunday’s game was how the Patriots would replace the 16.6% snap rate left behind by RB Antonio Gibson’s season-ending injury. The Pats elevated practice-squad RB Terrell Jennings, who played a role on kickoff returns, but didn’t play a snap on offense. Henderson and Stevenson were taken off kickoff returns to play exclusively on offense. Stevenson led the way with 41 snaps (13 rush attempts), while Henderson had 17 snaps and nine rush attempts. As mentioned, the Patriots need more from their rushing attack, and it will likely be the Henderson and Stevenson show the rest of the way.

7. Discussing the Fourth Down Decisions and Challenges in New Orleans

Another interesting takeaway from Sunday’s game was a few key challenges and fourth-down decisions by Vrabel. We got our first shrewd challenge by the Pats decision-making duo when Vrabel challenged that Boutte was still in bounds on his third-and-11 conversion. The challenge was successful, allowing the Patriots to kneel out the clock. New England also won an earlier challenge that overturned a call on the field into a fumble and recovery for a takeaway by the Pats defense.

The only iffy decision was on a failed fourth down in the first half. The Pats ran the ball on third-and-7, knowing they’d go for it on fourth down. After the third-down run was stuffed, Ben Baldwin’s win probability model favored kicking a long field goal. It’ll be interesting to hear from Vrabel in the coming days about why they stuck with going for it after the third-down run was stuffed for no gain. The fourth down result was an aborted snap that gave New Orleans the ball on the NE 47.

8. WR Efton Chism III Debuts on Special Teams, Makes a Tackle in Kickoff Coverage

Lastly, undrafted rookie WR Efton Chism III made his NFL debut with a role on special teams. Chism joined practice-squad elevation Terrell Jennings as the Patriots kickoff returners, likely a move made to get Henderson and Stevenson off returns after Gibson was lost for the season returning a kickoff last week. Chism averaged 25.8 yards per return with a long of 28 yards. He also recorded a special teams tackle on the opening kickoff. Although it wasn’t the dynamic play Vrabel wants, the Patriots need to keep their two backs healthy, so they might need to sacrifice some explosiveness by taking Henderson off kickoff returns.