Boston, MA
Callahan: The Patriots’ silent killer and 4 more Week 7 thoughts
LONDON — Welcome to the Friday Five, England edition!
Each week during the NFL regular season, I will drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.
Ready, set, football.
1. Killer first quarters
The Patriots opened practice this week with an unusual period.
The starting offense faced the starting defense down in the red zone. Full speed, full contact, full go.
The idea, Jerod Mayo explained Wednesday morning, was to jump-start one of the slowest starting teams in the NFL and address another area where the Pats have struggled. Offensively, they are scoring touchdowns on a league-lowest 35.7% of their trips inside opponents’ 20-yard line. Defensively, life isn’t much better, tied for the 10th-worst touchdown percentage allowed in the red zone.
As for their slow starts, the Patriots trailed 14-0 after the first quarter last weekend to Houston, and dug double-digit halftime holes versus the Jets and 49ers. Overall, they’re allowing almost as many points in the first half (11.3 points per game) as they’re scoring per game (13.8).
It’s hard to win like that generally in the NFL, but especially as a run-first offense with pass protection issues.
2. Maye-king time
Drake Maye’s off-schedule plays were some of the most impressive he made last weekend in his starting debut. Maye gained 30 yards on an unplanned pitch-and-catch with tight end Hunter Henry and scrambled for 11 yards on another extended play. On dropbacks where he held the ball for longer than 2.5 seconds, Maye gained a first down 42% of the time compared to 28% when he got rid of it within 2.5 seconds.
Most of all, Maye’s ability to escape and keep plays alive figures to help a receiving corps that struggles to separate.
Because, as Patriots defensive back Jonathan Jones put it to me this week: “You know, if you can give (receivers) six seconds, at some point even grandma’s going to get open. They don’t need much space, the way these quarterbacks can throw the ball. The quarterbacks get outside the pocket, and as a defensive back, I know the whole world’s mad, but I’m like, you can’t even cover grandma forever.”
3. Play-action attack
Under offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, the Patriots’ offense is designed to generate explosive plays off deep play-action shots.
So far, thanks to problems at quarterback, receiver and in pass protections, the Pats haven’t completed a single deep pass off play-action. While Maye’s arm has given the offense new life, play-action dropbacks are still relatively new for the former college quarterback who worked exclusively out of the shotgun. Maye said this week he feels more comfortable making those drops — his footwork has shown marked improvement the last few months — but the ability to read a defense a second time after turning his back on a play fake is a different challenge.
Callahan: The Patriots are making more changes after Drake Maye, so who’s up next?
“Our defense does a good job of flipping up the coverages and changing the picture post-snap, and that’s something that I’ve really started to kind of understand and learn,” Maye said this week. “The picture I’m seeing when I first get the snap versus when I turn my back and look at it may be different. So, just trying to find my checkdowns or find an outlet, that’ll be something that I’ll kind of build towards. Then, other than that, try to exploit them with matchups.”
Last year with Van Pelt, the Browns passed for the fourth-most yards in the league off play-action. This season, the Patriots have the fewest completions and second-fewest passing yards off play-action. Expect to see more bombs on Sunday, due to Maye’s comfort and Jacksonville allowing more completions and yards than versus play-action than any defense in the NFL, per Sports Info. Solutions.
4. Underdog history
The Jaguars are slated as 5.5-point favorites for Sunday’s game, the first time they’ve been favored to beat the Pats since 2006.
Back then, the Patriots held on for a 24-21 win at Jacksonville on Christmas Eve and clinched the AFC East title. Tom Brady’s leading receiver was rookie tight end David Thomas, who had 83 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Mayo was a young college linebacker at Tennessee and Maye was barely four years old.
Before that regular-season win, the Jags were last favored over the Patriots in a 1999 Wild Card playoff game. At kickoff, more than half of the Patriots’ current players hadn’t been born.
5. English extra points
The Patriots will practice Friday at the Harrow School, an all-boys boarding school in greater London that Winston Churchill attended. Mayo and Maye are scheduled to hold press conferences before practice at 9 a.m. ET, while other players will meet the media after practice around 11 a.m. ET. … This weekend will mark Maye’s second trip to London, after he said he visited family and attended the Summer Olympics in 2012. … The Patriots will kick off in Wembley Stadium for the first time since 2012, when they trashed the Rams 45-7. Mayo finished second in tackles that game with seven, while Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdowns from Tom Brady and finished with a game-high 146 receiving yards. … The Patriots could return to Europe next season for a third international game in as many years, should they play a “home game” in Germany again or are selected to kick off in Madrid against the Dolphins, who are expected to play in Spain next year.
Boston, MA
Your 2026 Red Sox season primer
Boston.com Newsletter Signup
Boston.com Logo
Stay up to date with everything Boston. Receive the latest news and breaking updates, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
Boston, MA
Massachusetts State Police trooper ‘relieved of duty’ after drunken driving arrest in Boston
A State Police trooper who was allegedly found “slumped over” in his car at around 5 a.m. in the South End with an open container of High Noon vodka has been “relieved of duty.”
Mass State Police confirmed to the Herald Wednesday night that Trooper Donovan Preston, 31, arrested for alleged drunken driving in Boston this past weekend, “has been relieved of duty.” Preston’s base pay is listed as $80,213.
A Boston Police report states that police arrived at Herald Street on Saturday to see Preston “stopped in lane 2 of the road” with his brake lights on. The suspect was slumped over “with his eyes closed,” the report adds.
“The officer observed that the car was on and in drive. The officer observed an open container of alcohol (High Noon) in the cupholder,” according to the report. The BPD officer then knocked on the window “for approximately 10 seconds before the suspect lifted his head up.”
Once he picked his head up, police said he appeared “confused and he looked around. The suspect’s vehicle began to roll to which the officer announced, ‘Boston Police. Open the Door.’ ”
Preston stopped on the three-lane, outbound road with his black BMW in the middle of two lanes.
A State Police spokesman said in an email: “Trooper Donovan Preston was relieved of duty and will be subject to a department discipline process.” All other comments were directed toward the police report.
That report, provided to the Herald Wednesday night, added that State Police were notified after Preston’s arrest.
The can of High Noon was logged into the evidence book.
This latest OUI case comes as State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley is being investigated in an alleged drunken driving fatal crash in Woburn in 2023 that killed a disabled passenger in a van.
In the Quigley case, his blood alcohol level reportedly tested at a .114 at the hospital following the crash (the legal limit is .08). That detail came out in a wrongful death suit filed by the victim Angelo Schettino’s family.
‘Unless he’s s###-faced, I’m not worried’: Mass State Police dash cam catches aftermath of deadly cruiser crash [+video]
Boston, MA
TSA wait times hit
TSA wait times are still painfully long at airports across the country because of the partial government shutdown. Even if you avoid the problem by leaving Logan Airport in Boston, you will likely run into it when you fly home.
Exhausted travelers flying into Boston from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, said they spent several hours in TSA lines before getting on their flights Tuesday.
Nay Dedrick of Dorchester was to supposed to arrive in Boston at 6 p.m. Monday, but said she missed her flight after waiting “6 to 8 hours” in the long security line in Houston.
“TSA was only 2 people working,” she said. “The line started downstairs and went all the way down to the basement, and then it goes all the way back up to the third floor.”
So, she slept at the airport and tried again on Tuesday.
“It’s very frustrating. I’m very tired,” Dedrick said after finally arriving home in Boston Tuesday afternoon.
Mary Jo Kane of Jamaica Plain arrived at the airport in Houston nearly six hours before her 7 a.m. flight to Boston Tuesday.
“I got there at 2-2:15 (a.m.) and then you go to the TSA and it’s kind of like Disney World during school vacation week,” she said.
One thing these travelers had in common is sympathy for TSA agents.
“I commend them,” Dedrick said.
“These people came in here, they’re not getting paid. Maybe their pay is deferred, but would you come into work?,” Kane said.
TSA agents have now gone 40 days without pay since the Department of Homeland Security stopped getting funding from the government.
-
Detroit, MI1 week agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Science1 week agoHow a Melting Glacier in Antarctica Could Affect Tens of Millions Around the Globe
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Sports5 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
Science1 week agoI had to man up and get a mammogram
-
New Mexico4 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Texas7 days agoHow to buy Houston vs. Texas A&M 2026 March Madness tickets
-
Tennessee3 days agoTennessee Police Investigating Alleged Assault Involving ‘Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson
