The Patriots finally gave fans what they wanted: Drake Maye and a little glimpse of the future

FOXBORO, Mass. — It was impossible to miss the wardrobe contradiction: As the New England Patriots wore their beloved Pat Patriot jerseys for Sunday’s showdown at Gillette Stadium against the Houston Texans, their quarterback was their child, Drake Maye, who was playing his first NFL made start.

We can go in many directions with this, such as how Maye was dressed quite similarly to Jim Plunkett when the former Heisman Trophy winner made his debut with the Patriots in 1971, and how appropriate that was considering he was two editions of the Patriots are from two different eras with the same shaky offensive line play. But when focusing on the here and now — particularly Maye’s 20-for-33 passing for 243 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-21 loss to the Texans — it’s best to start at the beginning. As in…

First-and-10 at the New England 23-yard line: Running back Antonio Gibson up the middle for no gain (tackled by Folorunso Fatukasi and Henry To’oTo’o).

Second-and-10 at New England’s 23: Gibson to the left side for 1 yard (attacked by Mario Edwards Jr. and Danielle Hunter).

Why spotlight two rushing attempts in New England’s opener? Here’s why: As soon as Gibson fell on that second attempt, the crowds at Gillette Stadium unleashed a thunderous thunder of boos that could be heard as far away as Pawtucket, Rhode Island. And they didn’t boo to express their dissatisfaction with Gibson’s inability to find some daylight.

What the Patriots faithful wanted, what they needed, and what they craved was some time with Maye, the third pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. This year’s Patriots decided long ago that they would do nothing but go to the drawing board To return, the gang from their hometown wanted to see a little of the future. And while even casual fans will appreciate the logic of starting the first drive of Maye’s first start with a few sure-footed running plays – all in the spirit of letting the kid get his feet wet, shake off the butterflies and “get used to it.” “ can and so on – they were still longing for a deep ball out of the goal. I’ll even go so far as to mention Patriots coach Jerod Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt should I called in a supposed home run ball on that first pass, a pass so downtown, so daring, you’d swear you were watching Tom Brady to Randy Moss in the wild days of 2007.

Had Maye received the organizational blessing and been successful, documentarians could have looked back on it as if the Patriots were on their way to being the surprise winner of Super Bowl LIX, as the catcher of the Boston Red Sox, so to speak. In the summer of 2004, Jason Varitek put on his catcher’s glove in the handsome ball of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees. Okay, so that’s a reach – really big. But since You Know Who and You Also Know Who have become sports personalities, Gillette Stadium has been sorely lacking in major excitement.

As it was, things naturally got out of hand as New England began its second drive – the Texans were already up 14-0 at that point – and Maye got things started with an 8-yard completion to Kendrick Bourne. And that was just a lot of overheated mumbling compared to what took place less than a minute before halftime. Maye then dropped back and delivered a perfectly thrown ball straight into the hands of a speedy Kayshon Boutte just inside the goal line.

It went into the scorebook as a 40-yard touchdown. It went down in Patriots history as the first touchdown of Maye’s NFL career.

.@DrakeMaye2is the first @NFL TD is closed @KayshonBoutte1 🏈

📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/Oi7BpFvq6H

– New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 13, 2024

Maye also threw touchdown passes to Hunter Henry (6 yards) and Demario Douglas (35 yards). There were red marks on his report card for the two interceptions he threw. Passer rating: 88.3. (Fun fact: Jimmy Garoppolo’s passer rating of 106.1 on September 11, 2016 is the highest in franchise history for a quarterback whose first NFL start came as a Patriot. Next is Scott Zolak at 105.7.)

.@DrakeMaye2 goes to @Hunter_Henry84 for 6️⃣

📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/qZE46niPyV

– New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 13, 2024

.@popshotta3 manages 3️⃣5️⃣ yards for his first NFL TD!

📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/NZt5GxcULw

– New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 13, 2024

The Patriots owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jacoby Brissett, a veteran journeyman who was given a thankless job as New England’s starting quarterback and did what he could for five games. But Mayes’ debut had to be pure joy for Pats fans. Yes, the Pats made all kinds of mistakes and were hit with all kinds of penalties, but that didn’t and couldn’t overshadow the tiny glimpse of the future that was on display in real time on Sunday. Consider this: According to Next Gen Stats, Maye’s touchdown pass to Boutte traveled 51.7 yards in the air, making it the longest pass by a Patriots quarterback in three years.

After the game, it was Mayo’s responsibility as head coach to begin his remarks by talking about the bad things, like when he said, “The penalties in the first half, just too many.” It’s that again and again same story. Had three or four turnovers in the game. If you lose this fight, you can’t win. Defensively I would say we just need to improve on the basics of tackling and our running pass. You have to improve. I told all these people, ‘Today you should feel like crap.'” You should feel like crap.'”

But all that crap aside, Mayo should be secretly happy. The Patriots have a lot of problems, many of which can’t be solved until the season is over and planning begins for 2025 and beyond, but Drake Maye’s refinement is underway. And Sunday was a promising start.

Maye’s opinion on all this? When newcomers first start out in a sport, the way it generally works is that the newcomer says the right things during media interviews. But later, when they communicate with friends, family and former teammates, they gush like an 11-year-old who was named shortstop on his Little League team. And yet, Maye went in a different direction when asked about the expected avalanche of congratulatory messages that were no doubt piling up on his phone.

“Most of my friends and relatives, after a loss, are still more worried about the loss than the encouraging games,” Maye said. “These are the people I’m with. Victory is important to us. I just hate losing. That’s the big thing.”

Almost reluctantly, Maye remarked that there were “some good things to take away” from the game, but then it went back to the oratorical pile of stones.

“We have to play complementary football,” he said. “And we didn’t do that.”

TRUE. And what Mayo said is true. What’s even truer is that despite Sunday’s loss, which drops them to 1-5, the Patriots are in a much better position for the future than they were before the game.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)