FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Drake Maye’s first NFL start felt like a game of tug of war: the New England Patriots offense against the New England Patriots offense.
Maye against Maye.
It was not surprising that when Maye stepped on the field for his first drive against the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, the Patriots were already down 7-0. It felt symbolic: beginning his career from behind. This Patriots roster looks incomplete, and the No. 3 overall pick will have to deal with the lack of a supporting cast for as long as he plays this season.
Against DeMeco Ryans’ blitz-happy defense, Maye was working with an offensive line that included a starting center, Ben Brown, who’d flown overnight from Las Vegas on Wednesday after signing off the Raiders‘ practice squad. And Brown was a member of the sixth offensive line combination in six weeks for New England. Running back Rhamondre Stevenson missed the game with an injury. And the offense is still devoid of an elite playmaker, with the team whiffing on acquiring receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Calvin Ridley over the past six months.
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But the Maye we saw in the fourth quarter was a hell of a lot different than the one we saw in the first quarter.
Spoiler alert: Maye didn’t win. The Texans blew out the Patriots 41-21.
But Maye won over his locker room.
“He’s going to get better and better. It’s going to get scary,” receiver Demario Douglas, who finished the game- with a career-high 92 yards and his first career touchdown, told FOX Sports.
It was a game of firsts. There was Douglas’ TD. Maye threw the first three touchdowns of his career. Kayshon Boutte scored his first. It was hardly tight end Hunter Henry’s first touchdown, but he scored — and left the game with a positive impression of the rookie QB.
“He’s got a ton of talent. I think everybody can see that. We’re all excited to play for him,” Henry told FOX Sports. “There’s gonna be some nerves. There’s gonna be some things that he’s gonna have to see — the speed of the game, the speed of things, just the environment, everything.”
Perhaps that’s why it’s most important to look closely at what we saw in the final 15 minutes rather than what we saw in the first. Because before the game, Maye admitted he’d be nervous. That’s what it looked like. On his third pass of the game, he had time to throw, a clean pocket and an open Douglas. And Maye threw high: an easy interception for the Texans.
“You can’t miss high over the middle in this league,” Maye said postgame. “That’s what they always say: You can’t miss high over the middle.”
Lesson learned.
His second interception came on a tipped ball on a screen pass. He took the blame for that, too. He beat himself up for his other turnover, a strip sack, that led to a short field and a touchdown.
That was the bad. But the good? There was plenty of that.
Maye finished 20 of 33 for 243 yards, three touchdowns and the three turnovers. He also took four sacks but led the team in rushing with five carries for 38 yards. He grew more comfortable in the pocket and out of it.
Maye clearly started to shake his nerves when the team went into a 2-minute drill to close the first half. That’s when he had the confidence to go for a kill shot.
“The Texans were kind of squatting on us a little bit [in coverage],” Maye said of his first touchdown.
Even after missing the easy five-yard pass for a pick, he still had the guts to go for a 40-yard bomb — and drop it into a bucket. It was a perfect throw for Boutte to get the ball in stride. And there was another guy that was even more open: Douglas. If Maye wanted to, he could have thrown it to the middle of the field for a chunk. The QB trusted what he saw before the snap, stayed aggressive and took the touchdown.
It was the longest touchdown (51.7 yards in the air) by a Patriots quarterback in the past three years, per Next Gen Stats.
“He hates to lose,” Brown, the center, said. “I’m excited he’s our quarterback.”
There was one other throw that seemed extraordinary for a rookie in his first start.
On a third-and-5 in the fourth quarter, Maye saw a six-man blitz and had to get the ball out quickly. He delivered in-stride to Douglas, so that the WR could get yards after the catch. Douglas then took it to the house for 35 yards.
Defenses will often blitz rookies until they can prove they can beat it. Well, that play was a message to the league from Maye: I can handle the pressure.
And it was the most points (21) from the Patriots offense this season.
I was dubious that Maye could develop in such an adverse situation. But the Patriots didn’t spoil him in his first game. He made instant strides.
The one caveat is that he grew more comfortable as the game got more out of hand. So that’s something worth monitoring: Can he play loose when the pressure is on? He never held the lead. In the one spot where he had a chance to cut the Houston lead to seven points, he took a sack fumble. It’s not good enough to play good football as an NFL quarterback. An NFL QB has to play good situational football, and that’s where Maye has a long way to go. That’s where Bill Belichick was once a mastermind in helping his QB. That’s where rookie head coach Jerod Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt have yet to prove themselves.
“It’s definitely encouraging,” Mayo said. “From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down. I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down. We’ve just got to be better.”
All three of them — Mayo, Van Pelt and Maye — are learning how to do this together for the first time in their new roles. It’s OK for the coaches to let Maye down in his first game. It’s OK for the QB to let the coaches down in his first game. But it will be different in the weeks to come.
We confirmed what we already knew — that Maye has all the tools for the NFL. Now comes the hard part: His supporting cast will have to guide his development forward.
Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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