ORCHARD PARK - As you might imagine, New England Patriots fans are in quite a state of anxiety this week. Not that anyone cares because that’s a segment of football nation that no one will ever shed a tear for when times are tough, as they are right now.
Their beloved Patriots, the most successful NFL team of the 21st century with their 10 AFC championships and six Super Bowl titles, have stumbled at the start of 2026, losing two of their first three games leading into what is now a critical AFC East showdown Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, even if it’s only Week 4.
And it hasn’t even been so much about the two losses in three games that has the most spoiled fan base in a tizzy. The Patriots lost Week 1 in Seattle to the same Seahawks who beat
them in the Super Bowl last February, and last Sunday they got clobbered in Jacksonville by a Jaguars team that, just like Seattle, is definitely considered a team that will be in the Super Bowl mix this year.
No, the cause for all the consternation is the play of Drake Maye who was supposed to be their next franchise quarterback, the man who they believed would finally move them past the glory of the Tom Brady era after a few years in the wilderness watching the likes of washed up Cam Newton and underwhelming first-round flop Mac Jones.
Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 draft, played well on a bad 3-14 New England team as a rookie, then flourished in Mike Vrabel’s first season as head coach in 2025, finishing runner-up to Matthew Stafford in the NFL MVP balloting and guiding the Patriots to the Super Bowl, taking full advantage of a historically easy schedule.
But Maye was barely functional in the postseason, even though the Patriots won three games before getting waxed by the Seahawks, and his poor play has carried into this season. He has thrown one TD compared to six interceptions, plus lost a fumble and taken nine sacks. Going back to the playoffs, Maye has thrown 10 interceptions and fumbled nine times over his last seven games.
“I think it's disappointing,” Maye said of his performance in Jacksonville where he looked lost. “I think the ball starts rolling like that, we can't get out of our own way, can't get out of my own way personally. So I gotta look myself in the mirror and take this as a turning point. We gotta get some fuel and realize that what we're doing out there offensively is unacceptable. It's been unacceptable for three weeks. So I gotta start with myself and then lead these guys, and we gotta get back after it.”
Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard saw Maye up close last year in the AFC Championship Game when he was the defensive pass game coordinator for the Broncos. Playing without their starting QB, Bo Nix, the Broncos lost 10-7 to New England, certainly not because of Maye as he went just 10 of 21 for 86 yards on a day when the weather turned awful in the second half and neither team could do anything.
Now Leonhard gets a chance to game plan against Maye, and he warned that the 24-year-old has a world of talent and at any point it might click back in for him.
“It's always a tricky mind game you have to play, right?” Leonhard said. “You turn on the tape from last year and it was dynamic. We played him in Denver, obviously at the end of the year, and you got to see the best version of what he was going into that game. He was playing at a high level, really all season. Had some slip-ups in the playoffs, but the body of work he put on tape last year in the regular season was obviously MVP level.
“You're watching a guy now that you can tell he's going through some stuff and struggling a little bit. But at the same time, he drops back and hits his top step and lets one rip, and it's an explosive play. So you just have to put some pressure on him and hope that the trend continues. But great players are eventually going to come out the other side. You just hope it's after you play them.”
Here are three questions for the Bills as they prepare to host the Patriots:
Can the Bills overcome the possible loss of Christian Benford?
We’re not going to know what Benford’s status will be until late in the week because if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Brady, he’s not giving up information on injuries. In fact, we might not know until the game inactives are announced 90 minutes before kickoff.
Benford suffered a toe injury, he did not finish the game after walking gingerly off the field, and he was seen in a walking boot in the locker room afterward. That doesn’t seem ideal, especially for a cornerback, so the expectation would be that he’s not going to play.
If he can’t, that’s obviously a blow to the defense, but missing a game against a Patriots wide receiver group minus A.J. Brown should not be something the Bills can’t overcome, especially if Davison Igbinosun can play the way he did against the Chargers.
“He stepped up in a big way,” defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said. “We needed him when CB went down, and obviously he got some snaps earlier in the game. You don't want a guy's first opportunity to play to be when he has to, right? So he's gotten some snaps the first two games.
“He's learned from it and he stepped up, played huge, tackled really well. Huge one-on-one win on Quentin Johnston, so, proud of him, how he came in there and he's always ready. He's a dialed-in kid who just loves to compete, and he showed up in a big way when we needed him.”
Can the Bills’ offensive line handle the Patriots blitz?
For the season per Pro Football Focus, Josh Allen has been pressured on 40.6% of his dropbacks which is sixth-most in the league among QBs who have dropped back to pass at least 100 times. In terms of pressure-to-sack percentage, Allen has gone down 19.5% of the time which is eighth-most.
The Chargers were able to get heat on Allen primarily with their front four, pressuring him on 38.7% of his 31 dropbacks using just seven blitzes. Simply put, it was not a great day for Buffalo’s offensive line on passing plays as they also committed three holding penalties and two false starts.
“We had multiple penalties, we had six total offensively,” offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael said. “That's not winning football. The pre-snap penalties, those can't happen. Sometimes that's the cost of doing business in football games; those happen, but obviously technique, fundamentals, and those things have to get better.”
Now the line gets a big test against a New England defense that has been blitz-heavy, sending extra rushers 43.8% of the time through three games. Here’s the thing about the Patriots’ aggressiveness, though: It hasn’t worked particularly well because they rank 18th in pressure rate at 35.2% and tied for 12th in sack percentage at 6.7%.
“They present a ton of challenges defensively,” Carmichael said. “From their front all the way to the back end, disruptive. They get a lot of ball disruption, hands on the balls; they're attacking, they're physical, they tackle well. So I think we're gonna have our work cut out for us this week.”
How concerning is James Cook’s fumbling issue?
Cook is clearly one of the most dynamic running backs in the NFL. He won the 2025 rushing title, and through three games his 346 yards are third-most in the league while his 6.0 average per carry is No. 1.
But his fumbling woes need to get fixed because at some point, it’s going to cost the Bills in a big way. Going back to last season, in his last 14 games counting the playoffs, Cook has put the ball on the ground eight times and the opposition recovered five.
In the season opener at Houston, he coughed it up deep in Bills’ territory with three minutes left to play, and if O’Cyrus Torrence hadn’t recovered, the Bills very likely lose the game. Last Sunday he fumbled on the first play of the game and the Chargers took advantage and drove to a quick touchdown. And in the playoff loss at Denver, the Bills were up 7-3 early in the second quarter and driving for more at the Broncos 32 when Cook fumbled and the Broncos recovered and promptly drove to the go-ahead touchdown.
“It's football. We all made mistakes,” Cook said after the Chargers game. “As long as you get the job done and win the game, that's all that matters.” He did get the job done with 154 yards and a touchdown, but the fumbling has to stop because for an offense as prolific as Buffalo’s, it seems the only things that will stop it are turnovers and penalties.
“He's special. When the ball's in his hands, he makes plays, and I think that he'd be the first to tell you that that can't happen,” Carmichael said of Cook’s fumbling. “That message is communicated from the head coach down. Those are things that he realizes, and those are just things that we're going to keep getting better at.”
“A part of it is in the details of practice, maybe changing some things up as far as what you're doing for maybe some drills and stuff like that. But I think that, talking about the whole volume of the offense, it wasn't what we wanted yesterday, and it has to get better quickly.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills face a shaken Drake Maye and three questions of their own
