MUNICH (AP) — The New England Patriots lost Drake Maye on the first drive against the Detroit Lions.
New England coach Mike Vrabel says with the way his team played, it probably wouldn't have mattered if
his quarterback was able to continue.
The Lions racked up 494 total yards in their 35-10 victory on Sunday in Munich. The Patriots (5-5) have lost back-to-back games and three of their past four entering their bye week.
“There’s a lot we have to fix,” Vrabel said. "You play good teams in this league and you don’t play well, you have no chance and we know that. ... too many missed tackles, too many clean pockets for the quarterback and don’t affect them.
Maye injured his right ankle on a sack by Aidan Hutchinson in the first quarter and didn’t return. Vrabel said Maye would get tests back home before they know the severity of the injury.
The coach added that he didn't consider the sack improper — Hutchinson had caught up to Maye and pulled him down from behind.
“I'm not going to assume there was something there,” Vrabel said. “However it happened, I don’t think it was anything intentional. I’m sure that it wasn’t. That’s part of the game.”
The Lions edge rusher was then injured during his celebration after the sack.
Asked more about Maye's status, Vrabel said he “couldn’t play, couldn’t run, couldn’t do whatever he needed to do to play quarterback, to protect himself, to execute, or function at that level.” He called it “a low leg injury.”
Tommy DeVito completed 12 of 24 for 81 yards with one interception and a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Lan Larison for New England.
The Patriots managed just 151 total yards.
“We never got to establish who we were,” DeVito said. “Kind of felt like we were playing on their terms, and I think that’s just not our style of football. That’s not our offense. That’s not how we want to play. That’s not what we preach.”
DeVito added that “it starts with me.”
“I just have to play better and sustain drives and get the thing going and stop feeling so lax,” he said.
Asked about the potential of starting should Maye be sidelined after the bye, DeVito said: “I’m going to continue the process I have been doing up to this point. As cliche as it sounds, you have to be prepared to be a starter.”
Wide receiver A.J. Brown and running back Rhamondre Stevenson were able to play — after being listed as questionable Friday — but neither was a factor. Brown had two catches for 27 yards before leaving in the second half with a hamstring problem. Stevenson rushed six times for 4 yards.
It wasn't just the offense that struggled.
Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 153 yards and two touchdowns — and caught seven passes for 99 yards. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown caught two of Jared Goff's three touchdown passes.
On St. Brown's 56-yard touchdown catch, cornerback Christian Gonzalez fell toward the sideline while trying to make a tackle after the catch. St. Brown then cut inside to avoid safety Craig Woodson and ran through Marcus Jones’ arm tackle into the end zone for a 7-3 lead.
It was one of several explosive catch-and-run plays for Detroit.
“Feels like there’s plays where we have 10 guys doing the right thing and one guy’s not,” Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss said. “It starts with me and me doing my job, and then it goes down the line.”
Seeing screen passes go for big plays is frustrating, he said.
“We need guys running out of stacks,” he said. “We need (linebackers) running to the hit. We need safeties running down and corners running after the ball. The whole defense.”
Patriots safety Kevin Byard III, who had an interception in the end zone near the end of the first half, said 5-5 is a disappointment but far from a panic.
“We have to reset our mindset going into this stretch run,” he said. “But at the end of the day I would say everything we want is still in front of us. I think that’s one of the positives you can look at coming out of this thing. And we just had to find a way to start winning together as a team, playing complementary football.”
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