FOXBORO, Mass. — It was impossible not to notice the wardrobe contradiction: With the New England Patriots wearing their beloved Pat Patriot throwback uniforms for Sunday’s Gillette Stadium showdown against the Houston Texans, their quarterback was their kid, Drake Maye, making his first NFL start.
We can go in lots of directions with this, such as how Maye was dressed pretty much like Jim Plunkett when the former Heisman Trophy winner debuted with the Patriots way back in 1971, and how that was appropriate considering we’re talking about two editions of the Patriots from two distinct eras with the same shaky offensive line play. But in focussing on the here and now — specifically Maye’s 20-for-33 passing for 243 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-21 loss to the Texans — it’s best to begin at the very beginning. As in:
First-and-10 at New England’s 23-yard line: Running back Antonio Gibson up the middle for no gain (tackled by Folorunso Fatukasi and Henry To’oTo’o).
Second-and-10 at New England’s 23: Gibson to the left for 1 yard (tackled by Mario Edwards Jr. and Danielle Hunter).
Why shine a light on a pair of nothing-to-write-home-about rushing attempts on New England’s opening drive? Here’s why: No sooner had Gibson been brought down on that second attempt did the Gillette Stadium masses unleash a rolling thunder of boos that could be heard as far away as Pawtucket, R.I. And they weren’t booing to express dissatisfaction with Gibson’s inability to find some daylight.
What Patriots followers wanted, what they needed, what they’ve been clamoring for, was some quality time with Maye, the third pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Having long since determined this year’s Patriots aren’t going anywhere other than back to the drawing board, the hometown mob wanted to see a little of the future. And while even casual fans could appreciate the logic of going with a couple of safe running plays to begin the first drive of Maye’s first start, all in the spirit of letting the kid get his feet wet, shake off the butterflies, get “acclimated” and on and on — they still yearned for an out-of-the-gate deep ball. In fact, I’ll go so far as to submit that Patriots coach Jerod Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt should have ordered up a would-be home run ball on that first pass, a pass so downtown, so audacious, you’d swear you were watching Tom Brady to Randy Moss in the crazy days of 2007.
Had Maye been given organizational blessings to do so, and had he been successful, documentarians would have looked back on it as the moment the Patriots charted a course to emerging as the surprise winner of Super Bowl LIX, sort of like when Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek smooshed his catcher’s mitt into the handsome yap of the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez during the summer of 2004. OK, so that’s a reach, big-time. But Gillette Stadium has been sorely lacking in big-time excitement now that You Know Who and You Also Know Who have remade themselves into sports personalities.
As it was, sure, the place did go nuts when New England began its second drive — the Texans were already ahead 14-0 by then — and Maye got things going with an 8-yard completion to Kendrick Bourne. And that was just a lot of overheated mumbling compared to what took place with under a minute remaining before halftime. That’s when Maye dropped back and delivered a perfectly thrown ball right into the hands of an on-the-fly Kayshon Boutte just inside the goal line.
It went into the scorebook as a 40-yard touchdown. It went into the Patriot history book as the first touchdown of Maye’s NFL career.
.@DrakeMaye2‘s first @NFL TD is to @KayshonBoutte1 🏈
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/Oi7BpFvq6H
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 13, 2024
Maye also threw touchdown passes to Hunter Henry (6 yards) and Demario Douglas (35 yards). There were red marks on his report card for the two interceptions he threw. Passer rating: 88.3. (Fun fact: Jimmy Garoppolo’s 106.1 passer rating on Sept. 11, 2016, is the highest in franchise history for a quarterback whose first NFL start took place as a Patriot. Scott Zolak is next at 105.7.)
.@DrakeMaye2 goes to @Hunter_Henry84 for 6️⃣
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/qZE46niPyV
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 13, 2024
.@popshotta3 goes 3️⃣5️⃣ yards for his first NFL TD!
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/NZt5GxcULw
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 13, 2024
The Patriots owe a debt of gratitude to Jacoby Brissett, a veteran journeyman who was given a thankless assignment as New England’s starting quarterback and did what he could for five games. But Maye’s debut had to be pure joy for Pats fans. Yes, the Pats made all kinds of mistakes and were cited for all kinds of penalties, but it did not, could not, overshadow the tiny glimpse of the future that was seen in real time on Sunday. Consider this: According to Next Gen Stats, Maye’s touchdown pass to Boutte traveled 51.7 yards in the air, making it the longest completion by a Patriots quarterback in three years.
After the game was over, it was Mayo’s responsibility as head coach to begin his remarks by talking about the bad stuff, such as when he said, “The penalties in the first half, just too many. It’s the same story over and over again. Had three or four turnovers in the game. Can’t win if you lose that battle. Defensively I would say just the fundamentals of just tackling, our run fits have to improve. They have to improve. I told all those guys, I said, ‘You should feel like crap today. You should feel like crap.’”
But all that crap aside, Mayo should be secretly pleased. The Patriots have plenty of problems, many of which can’t truly be addressed until the season is over and the wheeling and dealing for 2025 and beyond begins, but the refining of Drake Maye is underway. And Sunday represents a promising start.
Drake Maye’s take on all this? The way it generally works when rookies make their first start, in any sport, is that said rookie says all the right things when interviewed by the media. But later, when communicating with friends, family and former teammates, they gush like an 11-year-old who’s been named starting shortstop of their Little League team. And yet Maye went in a different direction when was asked about the expected avalanche of congratulatory messages that no doubt were piling up on his phone.
“Most of my friends and family, after a loss, they’ll still worry more about the loss than the encouraging plays,” Maye said. “That’s kind of the people I’m around. We care about winning. Just hate losing. That’s the big thing.”
Almost grudgingly, Maye noted there were “some good things to take away” from the game, but then it was right back to the oratorical rock pile.
“We’ve got to play complementary football,” he said. “And we haven’t done that.”
True. And what Mayo said is true. What’s even truer is that the Patriots, despite Sunday’s loss, a loss that drops them to 1-5, are much better positioned for the future than they were going into the game.
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(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
