Foxborough, MA – The Drake Maye era began with a 41-21 loss to the Texans at Gillette Stadium, but the final score doesn't tell the whole story.
There are two ways to look at this 20-point loss to a Texans team with Super Bowl aspirations that is now 5-1 on the season. Houston is a better outfit than New England right now, and Sunday's result wasn't surprising. Although it was more productive, the Pats turned the ball over four times as the offense rode the roller coaster with a rookie quarterback.
If you want to point out the negatives, they're certainly there. The Patriots are still too inconsistent to be competitive against top competition. And you'll sink yourself quickly in this league with four giveaways and falling behind 14-0 right out of the shoot — that's a tough way to live.
However, a loss like this one stings less because third-overall pick Drake Maye flashed franchise quarterback potential. Maye led the offense to season highs in points (21), passing yards (243), and passing touchdowns (3). Physically, the rookie passed the eye test with several standout plays, and Maye grew mentally within the game.
Ultimately, the wins and losses aren't as important as Maye's development. Sunday's game was a great learning experience: Maye grew some confidence by making plays, can download the not-so-good reps into the computer, and will keep improving by learning from these experiences. As a fan, it's fair to be frustrated by the final score. But, realistically, this was a good first start for Maye in the NFL.
Here are eight takeaways as the Patriots drop to 1-5 on the season with a loss to the Texans:
1. SERVPRO Spotlight: Maye Connects With WR Kayshon Boutte on a 40-Yard Touchdown Pass in the Second Quarter
It's been two years, 11 months, and 19 days since the Patriots had a completion travel as far as Maye's bomb to Boutte that made it a one-score game before halftime.
If you were hoping for a flash of greatness, this was it. The play is called a 989 concept, with two outside go routes and an inside post. With the safety shading over the inside route, Boutte is one-on-one with Texans CB Derek Stingley down the right sideline, so Maye gave his guy a chance.
"Pressed up. We've got to give him a chance. That was kind of my thought process; give him a chance," Maye said following the game. "They came out and challenged us and played in man, so tried to let one ride and give Boutte a chance. He made a nice play, and it was pretty cool. I think both of our first touchdowns, so pretty cool moment."
Heading into Week 6, the Patriots were seeing a league-high rate of single-high safety coverages. The blueprint against New England's offense is to play man-to-man and blitz, forcing their line, quarterback, and receivers to win under pressure. To this point, the results have been mixed. On Sunday, Maye completed six passes for 110 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception against man coverage. The 9.2 yards per attempt was a season-high for the Patriots offense.
If they can continue to make the opposition pay for playing man coverage, defenses will have to defend the Maye-led offense differently, which will open up other things offensively.
2. More on QB Drake Maye's First Career Start
Now that we've discussed the highlight of the Patriots season thus far, let's dig deeper into Maye's performance in Sunday's loss to the Texans.
The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as is often the case with Maye. Going back to North Carolina, Maye's critics have always pointed to the volatility of his play: there are high highs but also low lows. Based on my live charting, Maye had seven plus plays to five minus plays on Sunday.
There were times when he sprayed throws, leading to negative or missed plays, especially on his first-quarter interception on a pass intended for Pop Douglas. The ball also could've come out a beat earlier on a third-quarter strip sack. We'll watch the film to get a definitive answer, but it felt like accuracy was more to blame for his minus plays than bad reads.
Returning to the positives, the most encouraging thing about Maye's performance was how he grew within the game. After missing Douglas high on a crosser that led to his first interception, the Pats came back to it later in the game. This time, Maye hit Douglas in stride for a 35-yard touchdown. Rookie QBs need a short memory, and Maye seems to have that.
Along with hitting plays in structure, we also got to see Maye's off-script playmaking. Above, Maye works through his reads on the stick concept, but nobody is open initially. He then buys time by leaving the pocket to his right, and TE Hunter Henry works open for his quarterback on a 30-yard gain. This is a play that was not available to the Patriots offense previously.
The film will tell the whole story for Maye on Sunday. Still, watching live, Maye more than passed the initial eye test in his first career start.
3. Patriots Defense Allows Season-High 41 Points in Loss to the Texans
Standing at his locker following Sunday's loss, veteran defender Davon Godchaux gave an honest assessment of where things stand for the Patriots defense through six weeks.
"Guys have to take accountability. Even if you think the game was over, say in the third quarter, if you thought the game was over after the third quarter, it's just about having pride. It doesn't look like we have pride out there," Godchaux told reporters. "It's really just frustrating."
"The offense gave us 21 points. Usually, our defense, our standard, the opposing offense doesn't score 21 points," Godchaux continued. "We have to figure out a way to get back to the standard of playing great defense. 41 points is embarrassing."
Looking at how the Texans scored 41 points on Sunday, it was a combination of things. First, Godchaux said this was no excuse, but the Pats got some iffy calls early in the game. Houston converted two red-zone third downs on defensive pass interference penalties, which were big swings in the first half. Second, the Pats played man coverage on a season-high 52.9% of Houston's passing plays, and Texans QB C.J. Stroud threw all three of his touchdowns vs. man schemes.
In particular, the Pats had trouble covering Texans wideouts Stefon Diggs (6 catches, 77 yards) and Tank Dell (seven catches, 57 yards) in man coverage. Stroud converted three third downs to Dell and hit a deep out to Diggs to convert on third down in the first half.
Lastly, the Patriots allowed explosive runs of 59, 54, and 20 yards. The play that hurt the Pats the most on the ground was a wham scheme, where the blocking allows for the defensive line to get upfield unblocked initially and then blocks them at an angle to crease the defense.
Following the game, head coach Jerod Mayo echoed Godchaux's frustrations with the self-inflicted wounds by his defense, especially with their run fits and missed tackles.
"Defensively, I would say just the fundamentals of just tackling and our run fits have to improve," Mayo said. "You take away those two long runs, we had two runs over 50 yards. That's just not winning football."
The Patriots offense took a step forward this week. However, the Pats defense needs to find its form to get things headed in the right direction.
4. Offensive Line Continues to Cycle Through Bodies at Center and Tackle
During the practice week, starting C Nick Leverett was a limited participant due to an ankle injury, and reporters saw backup Ben Brown taking reps with the starters on Friday.
After speaking with Brown and Leverett following Sunday's game, it seemed like Leverett was a game-time decision due to his ankle injury, which ultimately held him out of the lineup. Brown told Patriots.com he didn't find out for certain that he was starting until Sunday morning. Despite just two practices, Brown made all the line calls, which is extremely impressive given how little experience he has in New England's offensive system after signing to the roster on Wednesday.
To make matters more difficult, starting left tackle Vederian Lowe left the game after playing just ten snaps and did not return due to an ankle injury. Lowe, the Pats best pass-blocking tackle, was replaced by backup T/G Zach Thomas. At one point, the O-Line looked like this: LT Thomas (waiver claim), LG Jordan (started season on practice squad), C Brown (signed Wednesday), RG Onwenu (only entrenched starter), and RT Jacobs (waiver claim).
According to NextGen Stats, Maye was pressured on a relatively high 47.6% of his drop-backs with a 31% bitz rate. In terms of quick pressures, here were NGS's numbers: RT Trey Jacobs (three, two sacks), LG Michael Jordan (two), LT Thomas (two, two sacks), Brown (two), and starting right guard Mike Onwenu allowed one quick pressure.
With backups galore on the offensive line, the Patriots running backs only managed 44 rushing yards on 21 attempts with a long of seven yards. Without lead-back Rhamondre Stevenson, the run-game managed only four successful runs with six stuffs by the backs.
At this point, the attrition this group has endured is pretty crazy. The Patriots can't keep the same starting five healthy, leading to many of their blocking issues.
5. Highlighting OC Alex Van Pelt's Play-Calling for Rookie QB Drake Maye
Another element of Maye taking over as the starter is how Van Pelt will build the offense around the third-overall pick's skill set. Like with any first-round quarterback, it's on the coordinator to adjust to Maye's strengths, just like you're seeing in Washington, Chicago, and Denver.
On Sunday, we saw some of that. The Pats were only under center on 19% of their offensive plays. In the first five weeks, they ranked eighth with an under-center rate of 38%. Along with playing more out of the gun, we also saw a higher RPO/play-action rate (18.9%), and the Pats really seemed to spam crossers and vertical routes for Maye to attack man coverage.
It was an interesting start with back-to-back run plays to set up a third-and-9 as Maye's first pass attempt. Van Pelt came back to a boot-action layup to get Maye going on the second drive, which we expected. Lastly, RT Trey Jacobs was on an island on 90.5% of his pass-blocking snaps, while Thomas was blocking 1-on-1 on 80% of his pass plays.
If the Patriots continue to work with third-string tackles, Van Pelt might scheme more help for Jacobs and Thomas. Texans edge rushers Will Anderson (three sacks, five pressures) and Danielle Hunter (strip-sack, three hurries) were only doubled a combined four times.
6. WRs DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte Register First-Career Touchdowns
Another positive for the Patriots offense was WR DeMario Douglas finishing with six catches for a career-high 92 yards and his first career touchdown. Douglas has been the Pats best receiver vs. man coverage, and Pop did it again with three catches for 59 yards against man. Boutte also showed excellent long speed to separate late from Texans CB Derek Stingley on the 40-yard touchdown, as both second-year wideouts found pay-dirt for the first time in the NFL.
7. Pass Defense Can Build on Holding Texans in Check on Third Down (4-11)
There were some positives as the game wore on. Mainly, the Pats ran a few good simulated pressures on third down that got home, with LB/S Marte Mapu coming through the line unblocked for a second-quarter sack where there was good man coverage in the secondary. The Pats leaned into more man coverage with their third-down pressure package, a Belichick staple, and the results have been better than the zone pressures they ran earlier in the season.
As for star CB Christian Gonzalez, he split his time on Texans WRs Stefon Diggs (10 routes) and Tank Dell (11 routes). Gonzalez allowed four catches for 39 yards and a touchdown against Diggs. Gonzo got beat to the inside without safety help on the touchdown, but held his own other than that. Hopefully, the pass defense can build on their positive plays.
8. Special Teams Continue to Hold Up Its End of the Bargain
The special teams units continue to do their job for the Patriots. Punter Bryce Baringer recorded a 50-plus yard punt for the 23rd consecutive game, the longest active streak in the NFL. Baringer also had two punts downed inside the 20-yard line, while K Joey Slye made all three of his extra points. Lastly, fresh off a three-year contract extension, coverage ace Brenden Schooler logged his sixth special teams tackle of the season.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
