Jordan Love Throws for 372 Yards as the Packers Rout Drake Maye and the Patriots 45-27

In more than 25 years of football at Gillette Stadium, no visiting team had ever scored more than 42 points against the New England Patriots. The Green Bay Packers reached 42 with four minutes still left in the third quarter, then tacked on a field goal for good measure.

Jordan Love threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns, ran for a fourth, and the Green Bay defense intercepted Drake Maye three times before halftime in a 45-27 rout on Sunday afternoon in Foxborough. The Packers improve to 6-3 and have won five of their last six. New England, which came in at 5-3 just like Green Bay, falls to 5-4 on a day that was supposed to belong to the home crowd, with Tom Brady back in the building and Rob Gronkowski honored at halftime as part of the Patriots Hall of Fame weekend.

Three Picks and an Avalanche

The tone was set on the first pass Maye threw. Xavier McKinney jumped it and returned it 36 yards to the New England 14, and Love finished the short field himself with a 13-yard touchdown scramble. The next Green Bay possession covered 86 yards in seven plays, and Matthew Golden was involved in 81 of them: a 49-yard catch, a pass interference flag drawn on Christian Gonzalez, and finally a 5-yard touchdown grab. It was 14-0 with 7:59 still to play in the first quarter.

Trey Smack opened the second quarter with a 41-yard field goal. New England finally got on the board when Maye hit Rhamondre Stevenson on a wheel route for a 30-yard touchdown, but the respite was brief. McKinney picked off Maye again for McKinney's fifth interception of the season, and Evan Williams ran down a deep ball for the third pick of the half, the safety's third of the year. Kaleb Johnson cashed in with a 2-yard run, the first touchdown of Johnson's career, for a 24-7 lead. Maye steered one more scoring drive before the break, finding Efton Chism for an 8-yard score with 2:37 left, and Green Bay went to the locker room up 24-14.

Whatever hope that drive created was gone before the third quarter ended. Love found Savion Williams for a 10-yard touchdown on a catch Matt LaFleur singled out afterward, and Smack drilled a 51-yarder to make it 34-14. Love then hit Christian Watson for a 39-yard score and scrambled in for the two-point conversion, and Maye's 22-yard touchdown to Mack Hollins only trimmed the gap to 42-21 entering the fourth.

The fourth quarter was paperwork. Smack's third field goal, from 38 yards, made it 45-21, Tyrod Taylor relieved Love with about nine minutes left, and Corey Kiner's 4-yard touchdown run set the final margin.

Love in the Flow State

Love finished 23 of 29 for 372 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 153.2 passer rating, and one of those scoring throws was the 100th touchdown pass of his career, per Packers.com. In the first half alone, Love completed three passes of 40-plus yards, something no Packers quarterback had done since Aaron Rodgers in 2014. "It feels like you're in that flow state and just finding ways to get guys the ball," Love said. LaFleur put it more bluntly: "Those are low percentage throws in theory, but he's making them look high percentage."

The two receivers on the other end of those throws had the best days of their careers. Ten days after breaking a rib against Carolina in a Thursday night win at Lambeau, Watson caught seven passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. Golden added 10 catches for 164 yards and a score. Together they hauled in 17 of the 18 balls thrown their way for 335 yards, and per Packers.com they are the first Green Bay teammates to each top 150 receiving yards with a touchdown in the same game since Don Hutson and Andy Uram did it in 1942.

The defense did its part with four takeaways. McKinney's two picks were joined by Williams' interception and an Isaiah McDuffie strip of Stevenson that McDuffie also recovered, and Green Bay converted those takeaways into three touchdowns. The Packers also sacked Maye four times, with Karl Brooks responsible for two of them. Smack, 10 days after doinking an extra point off the upright against Carolina, went 3 for 3 on field goals and 4 for 4 on extra points.

For New England, Maye finished 21 of 38 for 299 yards with three touchdowns, three interceptions and a 74.3 rating, and DeMario Douglas caught five passes for 102 yards. Maye owned it. "I wasn't good today," Maye said. "I feel like in the times we had chances to get back into the game, I messed them up." Cornerback Christian Gonzalez was just as direct: "I had a bad game. So, I'm not shaken up by it."

The Strip at the 39

The Patriots never led, but the third quarter held one last chance. After Smack's 51-yarder, New England trailed by 20 with plenty of clock left. Instead, McDuffie punched the ball out of Stevenson's grasp and fell on it at the New England 39.

Love hit Watson for a 39-yard touchdown from that exact spot, then took off on a scramble for two more points. Between the 5:17 and 4:10 marks of the third quarter, a 20-point game became a 28-point game. "It's tough when you don't get any turnovers and allow X plays, and then you turn it over offensively," Mike Vrabel said.

The Numbers Behind It

• 478 total yards for Green Bay, which per Packers.com is the franchise's first road game with 45-plus points and 450-plus yards since 1962 at Philadelphia.
• 335 receiving yards from Watson and Golden on 17 catches.
• 3 first-half interceptions of Maye, two by McKinney.
• 129 rushing yards on 32 carries, Green Bay's first 100-yard rushing game of the season.
• 45 points allowed by New England, the most in a regular-season game since a 45-7 loss to the Jets in 1993, according to the Associated Press.

Green Bay Is Rolling, New England Has Questions

"That was a total team victory right there in terms of offensively, defensively, and special teams," LaFleur said. Per Packers.com, Green Bay has now forced at least two takeaways in six straight games, its longest such streak since 2002. LaFleur still called the Packers "far from a finished product," and the injury list gives that some weight: Josh Jacobs left early with a fractured finger and did not return, linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper exited with a chest injury, and receiver Bo Melton was evaluated for a concussion. The Packers host the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 15 before their bye.

New England has dropped two of its last three, and the injuries piled up on top of the result. Stevenson left with a knee injury in the second half and did not return, and offensive linemen Will Campbell and Ben Brown and cornerback Carlton Davis III were also hurt. "I'm not sure the extent of what it is," Vrabel said of Stevenson. Vrabel took the loss on himself: "Just like it is every single week when we don't win, it's all of us, and it starts with me." The Patriots face the Detroit Lions in Munich on Nov. 15, then get their bye.

Somebody Else's Highlight Reel

Foxborough showed up to celebrate Gronkowski and catch a glimpse of Brady, two men who built a dynasty on a quarterback trusting the targets to win. The visitors spent the afternoon running that same play on repeat. "We trust that guys are going to get open and make plays, and we did that tonight," Love said. The home fans had seen that movie before. They just had never seen the road team star in it.

Stats from the box score via theScore and Packers.com. Postgame quotes from the Patriots.com postgame transcripts. Additional reporting from the Associated Press and Fox Sports.