The Patriots continue to play sloppy, mistake-ridden football, ruining Drake Maye’s pretty strong debut start. The Texans won 41-21, with C.J. Stroud throwing three touchdowns and Joe Mixon returning from an injury and rushing for more than 100 yards and a touchdown.
A week after committing 12 penalties against Miami, the Patriots committed their first of nine penalties on the day on the opening kickoff. It was a harbinger of a bad day coming. It was a day that when one thing went right, it was followed by something equally wrong
However, back to Maye’s first start. The game didn’t begin well as the offense looked just as stagnant as it had the last four weeks.
But then, right before the first half, Maye got them going. The Patriots went 84 yards in five plays, which was capped off with a beautiful 40-yard touchdown pass from Maye to Kayshon Boutte, which was Maye’s first TD pass of his career. Maye went 3-4 for 69 yards on the drive. This was the type of big play that the passing game was missing.
“His reads were good all day,” Mayo said of Maye. “I thought his reads were good. I’ll watch the film, obviously, but I thought he did a good job.”
Maye’s second touchdown was to a wide-open Hunter Henry, and his third was on a slant to Demario Douglas, where he hit perfectly in stride for a 35-yard score. This was the same play where he threw an interception in the first quarter. You have to like the short-term memory here to go back to it.
Maye also had three turnovers, two interceptions and a strip-sack fumble. One pick was on a deflection, but this is an area that they’ll work with him on cutting down. But for the first time this season, the Patriots had some semblance of an NFL passing game.
Overall, Maye finished 20-33 for 243 yards (7.2-yards per attempt), with three touchdowns and two picks for a passer rating of 88.3. Was it perfect? Heck no. But his performance was far more promising than they had had in the first five games of the season. Other observations include:
Bad Start For the Defense:
The Patriots offered very little in the way of resistance in Houston’s first two drives, both of which resulted in touchdowns. They did a good job of bottling up Mixon as he found little running room. But Stroud was eating them up through the air, spreading the ball around.
It seemed the Patriots had a stop on a third and five deep inside the red zone, but Marte Mapu was called for a (questionable?) pass interference in the end zone, giving the Texans the ball on the one. Two plays later Stroud hit Tank Dell for a touchdown and Houston jumped out to a 7-0 lead.
After the Patriots went three-and-out, Houston quickly moved down the field again through the air. And once again, a pass interference penalty extended a drive. Facing a third and nine from the Patriots 16-yard line, Marcus Jones was flagged for interfering with Tank Dell. Stroud then hit Mixon for an easy ten-yard touchdown making it 14-0. It is hard to win in the NFL falling behind by two touchdowns to a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
The Blueprint Facing The Offense is Changing:
All season, opponents defenses all had the same blueprint in stopping the Patriots offense. Load the box to stop the run, play man coverage, blitz to pressure the QB and take advantage of poor pass protection.
While that play calling hasn’t completely changed, but it showing signs of having to change radically soon. With Drake Maye at the helm, he has the athleticism to buy time with his feet or scramble. He also has the arm strength to make any throw.
Per Mike Dussault of Patriots.com, Facing man coverage with a single high safety, Maye completed six passes for 110 yards with two touchdowns and a pick, with a 9.2-yard average per pass. This is promising because if Maye can continue this trend, it will open up other avenues in the offense.
Douglas Has A Career Day:
Demario Douglas had the most productive day of his career on Sunday catching six passes for 92 yards and a touchdown. With Maye seeing the field better than Jacoby Brissett, Maye was able to find the diminutive but fast WR on several man coverage beaters, including that really nice catch and run for a 35-yard touchdown on a slant.
It was a day of firsts for Maye, Douglas, and Kayshon Boutte today. It was Maye’s first start, his first touchdown pass to Boutte, and the first touchdown receptions for Douglas and Boutte. It seems odd that Douglas didn’t have a score last season. But it is nice to see the three young guys beginning to grow together.
Boutte caught the aforementioned 40-yard touchdown catch at the end of the first half. He beat Texan’s cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. in man coverage down the right sideline.
Why Not Use Timeouts At the End?
With the Patriots possessing the ball at the two-minute warning in Houston territory at the end of the game, the coaches only made a half-hearted effort to score, not using one timeout.
Granted, down 20, the touchdown was meaningless in the game’s outcome but it could have functioned as a two-minute drill for a rookie QB to get experience in how to conduct a drive of those sorts, and leave the game on an up note before they travel to London to take on the Jaguars.
The coaching staff has said since the spring that the goal was to develop Drake Maye. With an entire new coaching staff, this would have been a great opportunity for Maye and the offensive coaches to treat this two-minute drill as if the game was on the line. This was a missed opportunity.
The fans who hung around in the rain to see this final drive were definitely p$$$ed off, and rightfully so. And they booed the team off the field. Not a great look for a struggling team.
Secondary Couldn’t Contain Double “D’s”
C.J. Stroud threw for only 192 yards but was very productive throwing for three touchdowns against one interception for a passer rating over 100. But most of the damage was done by Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell, who the Patriots’ secondary had no answer for.
Diggs finished the game with with six catches on seven targets for 77 yards and a touchdown. Dell finished with seven catches on nine targets for 57 yards and a touchdown.
Christian Gonzalez had his toughest day as a pro. He couldn’t keep Diggs under wraps and allowed six catches on seven targets for 44 yards and a score according to PFF. Jonathan Jones finished the game worse. He allowed five catches on five targets for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Run Defense Gashed by Big Plays:
The Patriots allowed 192 yards rushing to Houston, 113 of them were on three big plays. Joe Mixon had a 59-yard run, which didn’t convert into any points, but he also had a 20-yard touchdown run. Dameon Pierce iced the game with an impressive 54-yard run for a touchdown.
Overall, Houston ran for 192 yards on 28 carries for two touchdowns and a stellar 6.9-yard average. But without those three big plays it was 25 carries for 79 yards. The tackling and run fits, as Jerod Mayo said were things that had to be better.
“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.“
Carousel Along Offensive Line Continues:
The Patriots offensive line can’t catch a break. Pass protection for Drake Maye wasn’t good as he was sacked four times (three by Will Anderson) and hit eight other times. But the injury bug continues, as they started their sixth offensive line combo in six games.
Center Nick Leverett was a game-time decision with an ankle injury. He couldn’t go and center Ben Brown who the Patriots signed mid-week, started with just two practices under his belt. And played well, allowing no sacks, no QB hits, and just two pressures. Most incredibly he made all of the line calls, which shows he was burning the midnight oil, to pick up all of the line calls in such a short amount of time. He had a very good day.
The team’s best pass protector has been Vederian Lowe, and he injured his ankle after just 10 offensive snaps. He was replaced by tackle/guard Zach Thomas. He allowed two sacks on the day. Backup RT Trey Jacobs allowed the other two sacks. After Lowe’s injury, the only starter in the lineup was Mike Onwenu.
Needless to say, the pass protection and run blocking have definitely suffered because of the constant turnover of personnel. They need to have some continuity to build any semblance of a decent offensive line.
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Look for our positional report card asap.
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A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)
