Patriots-Jaguars recap: Drake Maye pulled in a 35-6 loss at Jacksonville
Maye turned it over three times and gave way to Tommy DeVito, and a defense that had allowed 16 points in two games gave up 35. New England is 1-2.
Maye turned it over three times and did not finish
The bottom line: Maye went 14 of 25 for 199 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions, fumbled twice and lost one, and gave way to Tommy DeVito in the fourth quarter.
The details:
- Both interceptions were thrown into coverage. On third-and-goal he threw one to cornerback Travis Hunter, the first interception of Hunter’s career, the Associated Press reported via ESPN. He threw the other directly to cornerback Jarrian Jones, setting up a Jacksonville score.
- On the lost fumble, the ball came out of his right hand with no defender near him.
- DeVito finished 3 of 5 for 30 yards.
- Maye has one touchdown pass and six interceptions in three games. He threw 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions last season, when he was the MVP runner-up.
- “I’m always going to be confident in myself to make plays,” Maye said. “These mistakes, you got to eliminate them. The more that we get out of our own way, the more the confidence in myself and this team will build.”
- Mike Vrabel: “I think he knows what to do. I think we have to do it better. We all want to make plays. We just have to make some good ones. If it’s not there, I think sometimes you can want it too badly, and we can’t force it.”
The defense gave up more than it had all season
The bottom line: New England had allowed 16 points in two games. Jacksonville scored 35.
- Trevor Lawrence went 19 of 29 for 182 yards with three touchdown passes and an interception on a tipped ball. He threw scoring passes to Jakobi Meyers and Josh Cameron, and Parker Washington caught a third on a fingertip grab in the end zone.
- Meyers, a Patriot from 2019 to 2022, had seven catches for 64 yards against his former team.
- Bhayshul Tuten ran for 73 yards and a touchdown.
- The one takeaway came when tight coverage from Jaylen Reed produced a deflection that Marcus Jones intercepted, per Yahoo Sports.
- Christian Barmore left at one point with a shoulder injury and played 28 snaps, Patriots.com’s film review noted. The same review described the unit as a strong man-coverage defense that has struggled to disrupt offenses in zone.
- Lawrence took a knee at the 1-yard line with more than eight minutes left rather than score again.
Everything else went wrong too
The bottom line: The Patriots missed a short field goal, gave away a fourth-down conversion with a penalty and made a baserunning error on a kickoff.
- Andy Borregales missed from 38 yards.
- Mack Hollins was flagged for taunting at the end of a 9-yard catch, turning a fourth-and-1 into a field goal attempt.
- Kyle Williams made two field-position errors. He toe-tapped to field a kickoff on the sideline rather than letting it go out of bounds, pinning New England inside its 10 instead of starting at the 40, Pats Pulpit wrote. Later he stepped out of bounds while running toward the end zone on a 34-yard catch, which Patriots.com’s film review also noted.
- The one piece of invention worked. Facing first-and-30 after back-to-back penalties, Maye threw a backward pass to Efton Chism III, who stayed up through a tackle attempt and threw to Hollins for a 16-yard gain that led to a field goal.
- Jacksonville’s Cam Little narrowly missed a 70-yard field goal that would have broken his own NFL record.
Three weeks in, the numbers are not a small sample any more
The bottom line: New England ranks at or near the bottom of the league in most measures of offense.
- The Patriots are last in the NFL in rushing success rate at 28.4%. Buffalo, their next opponent, leads the league at 52.5%.
- They are tied for last in points scored at 12.0 a game, last in points per drive at 1.0, and last in touchdown percentage at 6.7%, per the same film review.
- New England started a third-string right guard on Sunday. The right side of the line allowed nine pressures, and Maye was under pressure on 41.4% of his dropbacks.
- A.J. Brown remains on injured reserve, as do Mike Onwenu, Dell Pettus and Quintayvious Hutchins. See the current Patriots injury report.
Around the game: Liam Coen became the first NFL head coach to win 15 of his first 20 games since Matt LaFleur in 2020. Jacksonville, 2-1, has won six straight regular-season home games. New England plays Buffalo next.
Our take
We picked Patriots 20, Jaguars 17. It finished 35-6, and our main prediction crumbled with it. We argued that a defense which had given up 16 points in two games was good enough to carry an offense that couldn’t score. Sunday took that entire premise away. It gave up 35 in one afternoon.
The case for patience with Maye is real and it’s sitting right there in the numbers. A third-string right guard in front of him. Pressure on 41.4% of his dropbacks. Handoffs to the worst rushing attack in the league by success rate. His best receiver on injured reserve since Week 1. Put anybody in that and the tape gets ugly.
Then watch the two throws that decided it. He dropped the ball with no defender near him. He threw into coverage on third-and-goal and handed a young corner the first interception of his career. Neither one is a pressure play, an offensive line problem or a missing receiver. Those are on the quarterback.
Last year he threw 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions and finished second in the MVP vote. This year it’s one and six. Buffalo is next, and the Bills run the ball better than anybody in football. If the supporting cast is the answer to what’s wrong here, that’s the week to show it.