Things are starting to look a little different for the New England Patriots after the team walked out of Week 5 with a 45-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Drake Maye played at the level that had him in the MVP mix last season, throwing for four touchdowns on the day. But ESPN's Dan Orlovsky wanted to give some credit to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for the offense's turnaround over the past two games.

On “NFL Live,” waiting for the pregame show for the “Monday Night Football” game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams, Orlovsky revealed every reason why he liked the play calling from McDaniels from Sunday's win over the Raiders. These adjustments appear to be what Maye needed to shake off the early-season rust.

“Giving credit to Josh McDaniels here,” Orlovsky said. “I loved the way he used a bunch of four-by-one formations. Four on one side, one on the other. One, for protection. Two, they ran the same concept out of a bunch of different looks called dagger… So, Josh McDaniels [was] using kind of a somewhat similar formation, but [in] different ways to get to it… I think it just allowed Drake [Maye] to be explosive down the field in the past game.”

Really like this new wrinkle from @Patriots OC McDaniels#nfllive @MikeReiss pic.twitter.com/VFWDjldWS6

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) October 12, 2026

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The 24-year-old signal-caller has looked like a completely different quarterback in the Patriots' last two games. After throwing just one touchdown in the first three, Maye has thrown seven touchdown passes in the past two contests. He's also thrown for 643 yards in those two games.

McDaniels and Maye will have a chance to keep things rolling in Week 6. The Patriots are scheduled to take on the 2-3 New York Jets at home.