The New England Patriots lost 20-13 at home in the first game of the 2025 season to the Las Vegas Raiders. Funny, but the game didn't seem that close. The Raiders seemed to be the antithesis of the Patriots on both sides of the ball. It was a far cry from some of the expectations.
The black and silver offense made plays on both sides of the ball. Superstar Brock Bowers (who was injured, hope he's OK), Jacobi Meyers, and company had their way with the Patriots' defense all day long. They made big plays when they needed them. The Patriots didn't.
On offense, the Patriots looked the part of a revamped but still lackluster copy of the 2024 version. It did little to inspire confidence or present many challenges to Pete Carroll's defense. While it's clear the Raiders have better personnel all over the field, how the Patriots used their personnel was a major part of the story. They were outcoached significantly.
The Patriots' 2025 offense, same as the 2024 version
The most obvious and egregious problem the Patriots' offense displayed was that it showed little significance at all. The offense remains vanilla, similar to the 2024 one that couldn't score touchdowns. This version scored one at home against the Raiders in an emotional debut of a new coaching staff with a raft of new players on offense. It flopped just as the 2024 version did.
Anyone enthusiastic that a Vrabel-constructed roster and coaching staff could transform a cellar dweller into a winner over one offseason had to be disappointed. It was a flop in several areas. The first was the offensive scheme. Whatever scheme they employed isn't one that's going to succeed in the 2025 NFL.
The Josh McDaniels offense that was run to perfection in the early 2000s by the greatest quarterback ever, Tom Brady, doesn't work in 2025 with Drake Maye. Indeed, McDaniels still resorts to the vanilla offense he employed for years in New England. It was rumored that owner Robert Kraft urged (or was it mandated?) Vrabel to hire McDaniels. Whatever the reason, it was misguided.
McDaniels should have gone early with the run; he didn't and tried to rely on two rookie offensive linemen and pass. Bad decision. In addition, unsurprisingly, he didn't use RPO deception plays except for a play or two, and too often lined up with Maye alone in the backfield. This was exactly what McDaniels had done in 2020 with Cam Newton, with similar poor results.
This smacks of inexperience, a trait that can't be hung on McDaniels. Rather, it's an inability to evolve and utilize the most important tool at his disposal, the dual pass-run threat of Drake Maye. If this pattern continues, the Patriots will likely be escorted right back to the bottom of the AFC East for the third straight year.
Mike Vrabel's new attacking defense underwhelmed
On defense, the result was similar. Mike Vrabel utilized a vanilla defense with little innovation and deception. It was child's play for Geno Smith to rip it to shreds (not that he's not a very good quarterback, he is).
Having emphasized how Vrabel had added playmakers at every level of the defense in his acquisitions, most didn't show up against Las Vegas, with one exception. That was the much-maligned Harold Landry III.
Landry was the Patriots' defensive player on the first level who earned his keep Sunday. Much of that was his own effort, but on one occasion, the Patriots surprisingly used a stunt, and Landry had a clear line to sack Smith for one of his 2.5 sacks.
Where were the stunts on other plays and other innovative approaches to confuse the Raiders' offense and put them on their heels? The answer was that there weren't many at all. That's on Vrabel. The supposed playmakers he brought in on defense didn't make enough plays, and that's a prescription for losing.
Josh McDaniels will be here for the season. If he was foisted upon Vrabel by owner Robert Kraft, Mr. Kraft, take a bow. He's already reaping the "dividends". McDaniels was the wrong coach for the wrong quarterback, with the wrong scheme.
It was never thought that Mike Vrabel would be outcoached. He was with Pete Carroll. Vrabel needs to recognize that and get McDaniels to alter his offensive scheme. He also has to dial up a more aggressive, innovative, and deceptive defense.
Otherwise, it will be a long, cold fall and winter in Foxborough. But thinking positively, if so, there'll be a very high draft pick next April, and that's always a lot of fun.