The New England Patriots got embarrassed in Jacksonville on Sunday. The offense struggled, the defense struggled, special teams struggled. It looked like the 2024 season all over again, as there was almost nothing positives to take away from the game.
Let’s get into our lessons learned from the 35-6 blowout loss that dropped New England to 1-2 on the year.
Drake Maye is playing like a bottom-5 QB
Drake Maye was a finalist for MVP last season, and we all expected him to take another leap forward this year and put a firm claim in that he is a top-5
quarterback in the NFL. So far, he is trending in the complete opposite direction: he is playing like a bottom-5 QB at the moment.
Not only has he looked bad, but the lengths of bad he has been is downright impressive. He dropped the ball as he was trying to make a throw on Sunday; he threw another horrendous interception in the end zone; he fumbled a few other times, but recovered twice or was already down before the ball came out.
Maye doesn’t just look bad right now, he looks like one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL through three weeks and it is costing the Patriots.
The offseason moves haven’t worked out
Last offseason, the Patriots hit on almost every single one of their free agency moves. This season, not so much.
Kevin Byard has been a non-factor on a defense that got gashed on Sunday; Romeo Doubs has been, to put it nicely, underwhelming; A.J. Brown was hurt in Week 1 and might be out through October as well; Alijah Vera-Tucker has been fine but not 11th-highest-paid-left-guard-in-football great; Dre’Mont Jones is currently hurt, and Reggie Gilliam has had almost zero impact on an offense that cannot consistently run the ball.
The switch from Kayshon Boutte and Stefon Diggs to Brown and Doubs in particular, while good on paper, has not paid any dividends so far and the rest of the offense has taken a turn for the worse because of it. It’s still early, but, after seemingly making all of the right moves last year, the Patriots appear to have made all of the wrong ones this year.
Coaching concerns are real
Multiple pre-snap penalties on the defense, some baffling decisions on both offense and defense, and being clearly outplayed on special teams leaves but one conclusion: the Patriots didn’t look ready to go on Sunday.
The execution obviously hasn’t been good, but the coaching staff has not been up to the task either. It feels like the defense overthought this game; after playing a ton of man defense, the Patriots played a ton of zone, and it was not effective at all, partly because the Patriots simply don’t play zone on quite the same level well given the personnel they have.
We won’t speculate whether or not some of Mike Vrabel’s extra curricular activities have had an impact on the team, but the fact is he needs to be the one to start righting the ship — and quickly.
Carlton Davis competed well in his return
Starting cornerback Carlton Davis missed last week’s game against the Steelers, but played physical in his return this week in Jacksonville. Multiple times, he blew up plays with his quick click-and-close abilities, almost intercepting one pass along the way.
The Patriots have a shutdown corner on one side with Christian Gonzalez, and if Davis can play consistently well on the other side, it could be a big boost for the Patriots defense (especially if Zak Kuhr starts leaning into their man-cover abilities more).
Elijah Ponder and Gabe Jacas look like solid players
There are not many positive things to discuss from a 29-point defeat that was very much over by the third quarter, but two of them have to be the Patriots’ young edge defenders, Elijah Ponder and Gabe Jacas.
It was far from perfect from them, but they both have multiple plays every game where they stick out due to their effort and ability to generate pressure. The defense wasn’t close to good enough on Sunday, including Ponder and Jacas, but there are some positive signs from the youth on the Patriots defense.
Marcus Jones always plays hard
No matter what is going on, you always know that one guy is going to be busting his butt out there, and that’s Marcus Jones. He got his first interception of the season on Sunday, and had a solid return after as well.
His competitive spirits always run hot, even though he did get beat for a touchdown on back-to-back plays (the first of which didn’t count due to an offensive penalty). I would classify those as very good plays by Jaguars wideout Parker Washington instead of bad plays by Jones, but it deserved to be mentioned nonetheless.
Morgan Moses is struggling
The Patriots picking a developmental offensive tackle in the first round this year in hopes of having him replace an established starter no sooner than a year from now drew some criticism after the NFL Draft. However, it seems that they might be needing Caleb Lomu sooner rather than later.
Morgan Moses, after all, has been subpar in almost every regard this year. Against the Jaguars, for example, he was flagged for holding to negate what would have been a game-tying 21-yard touchdown on the very next play after Marcus Jones’ second-quarter pick.
The Patriots need him to play well, especially with Mike Onwenu missing extended time, and possibly the rest of the season, at right guard. On Sunday, Lomu went in and replaced him at the end of the game but the team gave up a safety off the right side on the first play he was in there. It remains to be seen how much he can and will contribute in the near future, but until the youngster is fully prepared to take over, Moses simply needs to play at a higher level.
It’s awfully hard to trust Kyle Williams right now
The Patriots need as much help on offense as they can get right now, but I don’t know how the team could trust second-year receiver Kyle Williams. He struggles to get open on anything but deep go routes, and Drake Maye was picked trying hit him on a hitch where he had zero separation and didn’t fight back to the ball, even if it wasn’t a good throw.
The real issue to me, however, is his game readiness. He caught a kickoff on the sideline — he literally had to toe-tap to catch the ball — pinning the Patriots inside in the 10 instead of letting it get out of bounds to allow his team to start at the 40 instead of the 9. Then, when he finally did make a catch, he stepped out of bounds when running towards the end zone.
For a team like the Patriots whose margin of error is slim right now, missed opportunities such as these simply cannot happen. And with Williams missing two of those in limited action, I don’t know how the team could possibly trust him moving forward.
More injury questions arise
The Patriots have already placed 16 players on injured reserve this season, so their depth, which wasn’t all that good to begin with, has already been tested significantly. On Sunday, the Patriots lost Greg Van Roten, who was in for the injured Mike Onwenu at right guard, and he was replaced by Walter Rouse.
The depth is a serious concern. We will see how long Van Roten is out, but they can’t afford to lose many more guys to still have a chance to compete.
A potentially season-defining game awaits
The Patriots are teetering, and they have to go into Buffalo next week and try to take down the Bills, who have looked very good, at least when Josh Allen isn’t turning the ball over. Even when he does, though, their offense is good enough to keep scoring anyway.
The Patriots have a chance to fight back and show that they can still be a serious contender this season, and that their first three games have been an aberration. On the other hand, they could continue to struggle and look nothing like a team capable of retaining its division crown. Unfortunately, it’s hard to watch a game like the one against the Jaguars and not prepare for the latter.
