New England Patriots' Drake Maye gets past Miami Dolphins' Matthew Judon for a touchdown run during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) AP
For a moment, it looked like the Patriots had given away a winnable game.
De’Von Achane’s scamper down the left sideline with just over a minute left looked like a potential game-winning touchdown for the Dolphins.
CBS’ Andrew Catalon thought so and shouted accordingly on the broadcast. The Miami fans at Hard Rock Stadium thought so too and roared with excitement.
But the officials huddled briefly and ruled that Achane had stepped out at the 26-yard line, shortening a 44-yard run to just 18. After two Dolphin penalties, one short completion and two Patriot sacks, New England escaped with a 33-27 win.
Objectively, the Patriots aren’t a better football team because half of Achane’s left foot landed out of bounds. All of the good and bad plays, penalties and good fortune from Sunday’s game are still on the film they’ll watch this week.
But by holding on to win, they’ll feel like a better football team. They’ll be treated like a better football team, and they’ll start to hold themselves to the higher standards of a better football team. For an uncertain group still coming together, all of that matters.
Nine teams are going to wake up on Monday morning with two losses and the Texans could join those numbers if they lose to Tampa on Monday night.
They’ll all hear how almost 90 percent of teams that open the year with back-to-back losses miss the playoffs.
The Patriots won’t be one of them. At 1-1, they won’t have to hear about their Fort Lauderdale futility or Miami missteps, and how they can’t beat Tua Tagovailoa.
And they’ll have newfound faith in Mike Vrabel’s coaching after seeing his methods produce a victory and new respect for his athleticism after seeing him race down the sideline with Antonio Gibson.
The win was especially valuable for Drake Maye. After an offseason chock-full of national speculation about whether he was ready to take the Year 2 leap forward to stardom, he shanked his tee shot into the woods in last week’s Week 1 loss to the Raiders.
Eight months of speculative adulation for Maye was followed by six days of skepticism and people wondering if his potential had been overstated. On Sunday, Maye was encouragingly good. A Week 2 step forward.
“He’s growing up, it’s early,” Stefon Diggs said. “I feel like he made a jump from last week, just settling in. It’s hard being a young quarterback, but I feel like he is doing the best job he can and obviously four incompletions, that’s something to be happy about.”
Helped by a resurgent running attack led by Rhamondre Stevenson, Maye played a smart football game. He made some good throws and opportunistic runs. For just the second time in his career, he didn’t turn the ball over in a game when he was the primary quarterback.
The Patriots were drastically better on third down (7-for-12) than they’d been last week (4-for-14) and looked much more poised in big spots.
They still committed 12 penalties — including one that cost them an interception — and had a wildly uneven game on special teams, but their successes and a little luck counteracted their mistakes.
“Offensively, the only thing that stopped us today was us,” Vrabel said. “The special teams penalties, there’s a lot to coach from, but it’s a lot easier to coach from a win.”
He’s right. They still have a lot to fix, but they still have an easy schedule and will go into Week 3 against the Steelers feeling energized. The unknown is how big their capacity for improvement is if Christian Gonzalez comes back and Stefon Diggs finds his rhythm
The amount of water in the glass would have measured the same volume, but the end result makes the difference between going into Week 3 with optimism or pessimism.
In the end, the margin, the method and the opponent didn’t matter.
For this team that’s still in the early stages of its evolution, any win on the road is a good win. Any win over an AFC East opponent is a very good win and winning a football game at Miami for the Patriots counts as a great day.
“We’re just trying to get in the win column. All the stuff about the past and all the records, we haven’t won down here since this,” Maye said. “We’re just trying to come down here and do our part and worry about this week and this season and get back after it next week.”
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