It doesn't get much worse than what happened to the New England Patriots on Sunday.
That's saying a lot for a team that was blown out in their home building in a 45-27 loss to the Green Bay Packers last week. This week, they faced another top-tier team in the Detroit Lions in Munich and got absolutely decimated. Even worse, they lost their starting quarterback, Drake Maye, to an ankle injury on the first drive of the game.
Maye was seen limping badly on the sidelines before heading off to the locker room and being ruled out for the rest of the game. It's the worst-case scenario for a Patriots team that might have seen its playoff hopes go up in smoke in front of thousands of adoring German fans.
Once Maye left the game, the offense looked like
a disaster. If anything, it served as an I told you so for any remaining skeptics of the Patriots' young quarterback. Maye clearly hides a lot of deficiencies for a unit that didn't look remotely competitive without him on the field.
A.J. Brown returned for the game, but he mustered only two receptions for 27 yards on six targets. He came up slowly after a 22-yard reception and went into the blue medical tent. And he never returned to the game. It was largely another uneventful performance from the former three-time All-Pro receiver.
But the real issue for the Patriots was on defense.
The same defensive unit that got torched by the Packers last week looked just as bad against the Lions this week. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs ate them for lunch on the ground and through the air, and quarterback Jared Goff feasted on yards after the catch in a game where he wasn't all that efficient.
Goff threw two interceptions to the Patriots—one to cornerback Christian Gonzalez and another to safety Kevin Byard. But none of it mattered in a game where Tommy DeVito was getting hit and thrown around like a crash test dummy in the offensive backfield. The Lions finished with 494 total yards on a day when Gibbs had 22 carries for 153 yards and two touchdowns, along with seven catches for 99 yards.
Maye's injury outlook will ultimately determine the rest of New England's season. If he's out for any extended period of time, it could signal the end of a season that started with so much hope for the Patriots. They'll head into the bye week with Maye's injury status looming larger than any has all year.
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This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: Instant analysis of Drake Maye injury, Patriots' blowout loss to Lions
