The good, the bad, the s—t that gets you beat from Patriots vs. Raiders

Ahead of his first training camp as Patriots head coach in 2025, Mike Vrabel explained that he was judging his team's performances by three distinct categories: the good, the bad, and the s—t that gets you beat. If Vrabel looks at his team through those specific categorizations, we shall follow his lead.

The New England Patriots are back looking like one of the best teams in football, and doing what good teams do: take care of business against inferior opponents. The Las Vegas Raiders, despite entering Week 5 with a 3-1 record, were just that. However, that does not mean the Patriots were not also very good; you don't win 45-17 by accident.

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With that said, let's dive into our weekly breakdown of the good and the not-so-good from the win in Buffalo.

The good: Drake Maye and a whole lot else

As Pats Pulpit's own Andrew Guindon so aptly put it, the Patriots' starting quarterback has found his mojo again. Maye was simply excellent against the Raiders.

The third-year passer completing 26 of his 34 attempts for 374 yards and contributing five total touchdowns: he threw four of them and also found the end zone himself on a 3-yard run. A second straight AFC Offensive Player of the Week trophy coming his way looks like a formality at this point.

"I felt like he was in control," said Mike Vrabel after the game. "Gave him some time, and we always talk about when we have clean pockets and his ability to transfer up into really good pockets that we're going to gain yards — and being able to recognize man or zone, or where he wants to go with the football, and the timing of it."

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For as good as Maye was, he is not the only Patriot deserving of a mention in this category. Wide receivers DeMario Douglas, Efton Chism and Kyle Williams, offensive tackle Caleb Lomu, outside linebacker Elijah Ponder, and cornerback Kindle Vildor were all among the players to rise to the occasion on Sunday and help New England celebrate a decisive victory; the same is true for Dre'Mont Jones, who made one of the biggest plays of the game on an 11-yard tackle for loss.

In fact, the entire operation was mostly clean. The offense was efficient outside of Maye's showing and also managed to overcome setbacks such as losing both left tackle Will Campbell and running back TreVeyon Henderson to injury within a span of only three plays in the second quarter; the defense, meanwhile, put the clamps on the Raiders despite missing four cornerbacks due to injury.

Needless to say, there was a lot to feel good about coming out of this game.

The bad: TE1 coverage

We could mention injuries here, because losing players the caliber of Will Campbell and TreVeyon Henderson can have a direct impact on winning or losing. That said, injuries are mostly freak accidents and do not reflect upon a team's abilities.

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So, what does fall into this category? Honestly, not a lot; the Patriots did play a relatively clean game outside of some hiccups. The most notable of those was the team's inability to cover Raiders tight end Brock Bowers even though him being the team's favorite target was no surprise. And yet, he still finished with eight catches for 110 yards and a touchdown.

The Patriots were short-handed in the secondary without Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis, and the former in particular should have helped against Bowers. Nonetheless, the replacement players had their hands full with him.

Of course, if this level of performance by one of the best TEs in the NFL is what it takes to land in this here category, it tells you all you need to know about the quality of New England's performance on Sunday. Bower's outing ultimately was a blip on the radar.

The s—t that gets you beat: Excessive enalties

The officials were admittedly quick to toss penalty flags on Sunday, and some of those fell into the ticky-tacky category. That said, the Patriots need to be able to clean up the operation especially when being officiated by a crew setting the tone from the very get-go.

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Getting flagged 12 times for a loss of 116 yards is typically not a winning recipe, regardless of the refs. It didn't matter too much versus the Raiders because the rest of the performance was of a high standard, but Mike Vrabel was still clearly unhappy after the game.

"The penalties are ridiculous," he said. "We'll have to focus on that and figure out things that we can improve on, which there'll be a lot of."