Injuries mounting, but Patriots still should have enough to extend win streak to 10 games against disappointing Giants
New England Patriots
It would be a mistake for the Patriots to look past the Giants.
Giants pass rusher Brian Burns should be a challenge for the backups on the left side of the Patriots’ offensive line (Jack Dempsey/Associated Press). Jack Dempsey
November 28, 2025 | 11:40 AM
7 minutes to read
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 13 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
Drake Maye and the Patriots have a chance to extend their remarkable winning streak to 10 games — which would be the franchise’s longest since 2015 — against the Giants on Monday night.
That chance comes in prime time (their first “Monday Night Football” appearance since December 2022) and in their all-time sharpest uniforms (the Pat Patriot gear, obviously, worn from 1984-92).
The Patriots will look their best in front of a national audience. But will it be a challenge to play their best? Injuries have been mounting, with left tackle Will Campbell joining All-Pro-caliber defensive tackle Milton Williams on injured reserve this past week. Next week’s bye has been a long time coming, and it will be welcome.
But they cannot look past the Giants, who are playing their third game under interim coach (and brief onetime Patriot) Mike Kafka.
With fearless rookie Jaxson Dart (who has been in concussion protocol) or wild card Jameis Winston at quarterback, the Giants have had a competent offense, even after losing receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo to season-ending injuries.
The defense has been dismal but can get after the passer. The Patriots should stretch that win streak to double digits. But the degree of difficulty is higher than it would have been before the infirmary started to fill up.
Kick it off, Borregales, and let’s get this thing started . . .
Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks
Brian Burns: Let’s just say this isn’t the ideal week for the Patriots to have to turn to two backups on the left side of the offensive line.
Based on his and his teammates’ reaction and postgame mood, Campbell’s knee injury looked like a worst-case scenario when he was carted to the locker room during the third quarter of the win over the Bengals. Turns out he suffered an MCL sprain, which is far from the worst outcome but has landed him on injured reserve, meaning he’ll miss at least four games.
Couple his absence with the likelihood that rookie left guard Jared Wilson misses a few weeks with an ankle sprain, and the crucial responsibility of protecting Maye’s blindside falls to tackle Vederian Lowe and guard Ben Brown, who aren’t exactly the second coming of Leon Gray and John Hannah.
The Giants have won two games, which suggests that they don’t do much of anything well. That’s mostly true. Their offense has been sporadically competent, depending on who’s healthy, but their defense has been porous, ranking 30th overall (385 yards per game), and last against the run (157.2 yards per game). Over the last six games, they’ve allowed an average of 30 points, including 34 to the Lions in an overtime loss last Sunday.
But one thing the Giants’ defense can do very well, with consistency and ferocity, is get after the quarterback. Sometimes it seems like it’s the only thing it wants to do.
Burns, an outside linebacker best known around here for surviving a Mac Jones cheap shot when he was with the Panthers, has 13 sacks and 21 of the Giants’ 48 quarterback hits. He is a menace to opposing quarterbacks, and he has help from the likes of Kayvon Thibodeaux, Dexter Lawrence, and rookie Abdul Carter, who has just a half-sack but is second to Burns with 12 QB hits.
Andy Borregales: I’ve been kicking myself, so to speak, all week for failing to give the Patriots rookie a salute in my postgame review after his stellar performance against the Bengals.
So consider this a necessary makeup call, as well as a realization on why I overlooked his career-high four field goals (in four attempts), which proved essential in the 26-20 win:
There wasn’t much suspense. I just kind of expect him to come through now.
That faith supports Borregales’s remarkable amount of progress from the Week 2 win over the Dolphins, when he missed a pair of extra points, the kind of rookie kicker mistakes that will quickly have fans pining for the Best Unemployed Veteran Kicker.
Since missing the two extra points against the Dolphins, the sixth-round pick has made all 31 attempts. since. He’s also hit 19 of 21 field goal tries this season, missing the first attempt of his career (a 40-yarder in the Week 1 loss to the Raiders) and a 45-yarder in Week 11 versus the Jets.
Borregales was named AFC special teams player of the week for his efforts in Cincinnati, when he made a 41-yarder in the final minute of the first quarter, a 45-yarder late in the third, a 19-yarder a little less than six minutes left in the game, and most crucially, a 52-yarder with 1:51 to go.
The 23-year-old Borregales — who was born on Jan. 2, 2002, a month and a day before Adam Vinatieri’s winning 48-yard field goal in Super Bowl XXXVI — has 90 points this season. That puts him well within striking distance of the Patriots’ rookie record, held by Stephen Gostkowski, who tallied 103 in 2006.
Patriots rookie kicker Andy Borregales has been close to automatic since some early-season struggles (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff). – Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
Stefon Diggs: By all accounts, the sometimes mercurial receiver has been a model team player this season, in part, I think, because coach Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels let him have his say. Diggs has been happy to see other receivers have their moments, and they have — four different Patriots pass catchers have had a 100-yard performance in the last four games. Diggs was one of them, with nine catches for 105 yards against the Jets. Given the Patriots’ downgrades on the offensive line, this ought to be a week where his savvy route-running and ability to get open quickly are of great value to Maye, who is going to have to rid of the ball in a hurry for his own sake.
The flashback
Nope, not diving into those two Super Bowls today. Yeah, those two, between these teams. You can revisit those on your own time, if it’s not still too soon. (It’s still too soon.)
Instead, let’s take a look at a, uh, considerably less-devastating matchup between the Patriots and Giants, one that occurred late in another season when the Patriots ended up in the Super Bowl.
On Dec. 21, 1996, on a chilly (26 degrees at kickoff) Saturday afternoon at the Meadowlands, the Patriots rallied from a 22-0 halftime deficit to beat the Giants, 23-22. The victory in the regular-season finale secured a first-round playoff bye for Bill Parcells’s crew.
The Patriots pulled off the comeback with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes from Drew Bledsoe, who found his fastball in the final frame after spraying passes all over East Rutherford, N.J., in the first half.
Trailing, 22-3, entering the fourth, the rally began with a 26-yard touchdown strike from Bledsoe to rookie receiver Terry Glenn. That catch, which came on third and 2 with 12:20 remaining, was one of Glenn’s eight receptions in the game, for 124 yards.
The second touchdown came just 1:11 after Glenn’s, when David Meggett returned a punt 60 yards for a score, cutting the Giants’ lead to 22-17.
The Patriots finally seized the lead, the game, and that playoff bye on what probably was their last chance. With 1:23 left, Bledsoe fired a 13-yard TD strike to tight end Ben Coates — who as usual caught the ball despite having multiple hapless defenders draped on him. Coates dragged two Giants the final 5 yards to the end zone, capping a comeback that delighted the young Patriots.
Patriots tight end Ben Coates dragged the Giants’ Tito Wooten into the end zone for the winning touchdown on Dec. 21, 1996 (AFP/Getty Images/Getty). – AFP/Getty Images
“We have the heart of a lion,” said third-year defensive end Willie McGinest. “We fight. We fight until our opponent is down and out. I’ve never seen this team so happy. We’ve achieved every goal we’ve set out to accomplish to this point.”
It must be noted that a particularly unsung Patriot (at the time) made one of the best catches you will ever see on the winning drive. On third and 13 from the Giants’ 42-yard-line, Bledsoe fired a pass over the middle to backup receiver Troy Brown.
The pass was behind him, and as Brown — now an offensive assistant with the Giants — reached back, he slipped, plucking the ball out of the air while on his back. Thirteen-yard gain, first down … and a play Patriots fans who saw it live can still see clearly in their minds all these years later.
“Nobody knows who Troy Brown is,” said Bledsoe. “But I’ve been saying all along the guy can catch anything.”
That sure was confirmed time and again in the years to come.
Grievance of the week
Every team endures impactful injuries. Every player does at some point in a career. As Vrabel noted Friday, “The injury rate in the NFL is 100 percent.”
But it’s a bummer that one of the inevitable cruelties of their profession is starting to catch up with several Patriots.
As noted earlier, the injuries to Campbell and Wilson on the left side of the offensive line are going to have some effect. It’s just a matter of how much. Special teams ace Brenden Schooler got knocked out of the Bengals game with an ankle injury. Khyiris Tonga, one of the free agent finds of the season, is dealing with a chest injury, and the defensive tackle who moonlights very well as a short-yardage blocking back was missed in both regards against the Bengals.
And Williams’s absence — he suffered a high-ankle sprain against the Jets — might be the most damaging of all.
Prediction, or if Eli Manning belongs in the Hall of Fame, so does Jim Plunkett . . .
TreVeyon Henderson breaks a couple of long ones against the league’s worst run defense as the Patriots pull away late. Maybe they will even figure out how to score from the 1 this week. Patriots 34, Giants 24.
Chad Finn
Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.
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