FOXBOROUGH – The New England Patriots fell into a quick 6-0 hole against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, but the game suddenly and permanently shifted gears when Marcus Jones ripped off an 87-yard punt return for touchdown one possession later. That gave the Pats a 7-6 lead and they’d continue to pour it on from there, racing to a 28-6 halftime lead that would become a 42-13 final; the most points scored at home since Week 17 of 2021.<\/p>\n
Drake Maye went 14-of-17 for 203 yards, with a passing and rushing touchdown in an efficient effort that featured plenty of chunk plays. He was lifted for back-up Josh Dobbs early in the fourth quarter. Marcus Jones set a single-game team record for his punt return yardage (167 yards), while Stefon Diggs led the team with 101 receiving yards, his best performance to date as a Patriot.<\/p>\n
Outside of an initial drive by Carolina, it was an all-around effort for the Patriots, delivering the first home win of the Mike Vrabel era and the first 40-point-plus scoring output since the 2021 season. Most importantly, it was a validating victory for a young New England team to build off of.<\/p>\n
1. Panthers Come Out Firing<\/strong><\/p>\n It didn’t take long for Carolina to take the lead in the game, as the Patriots showed little resistance on the Panthers opening drive, a mix of run and pass that kept the defense on their heels. Bryce Young and company needed just seven plays to travel 76 yards and they didn’t face a single third down. Tommy Tremble came down with the touchdown to cap off the drive but a missed extra point kept the score 6-0. It was the third time in four games that the Patriots allowed an opening drive touchdown to their opponent.<\/p>\n After an opening three-and-out by the Patriots offense, the Patriots defense found their stride after Carolina again moved the ball past midfield on their second possession. K’Lavon Chaisson came up with a run stop on the first third down that the Panthers faced, forcing a punt. Christian Barmore delivered a key pressure on second down to help slow down the Panthers and turn the early tide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH – The New England Patriots fell into a quick 6-0 hole against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":262105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[137087,12553,12554,1232,79770,79769,137086,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-262104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-carolina-panthers-at-new-england-patriots-2025-reg-4","9":"tag-hp-article","10":"tag-hp-featured","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-postgame-analysis","13":"tag-postgame-content","14":"tag-rapid-recap","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115283810344568590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}