The New England Patriots and Houston Texans met on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, as Jerod Mayo's team was handed a 41-21 loss, their fifth in five weeks.
New England now sits at 1-5 through the first six games of their 2024 campaign, and that's not exactly where Mayo and company wanted to be. However, while the other four losses were just dreadful, this one wasn't all bad.
As we continue to break down this loss, let's discuss what we learned from the Patriots' performance in Week 6
Drake Maye showed flashes
After five poor offensive performances, New England replaced veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett with Drake Maye, and he the rookie looked solid.
He made some rookie mistakes, including throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble on a strip-sack, but he also tossed three touchdowns and led the team in rushing yards.
Obviously, it's tough to feel great about a quarterback's performance in a blowout loss, but for this being Maye's first start, he showed something.
DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte are the top wideouts
Heading into the season, hearing that Douglas was one of the team's top weapons by Week 6 wouldn't be too surprising. However, it's very interesting to see how quickly Boutte has risen up the depth chart.
On Sunday, Boutte led the receiver group in snaps (55) while Douglas had (41). Ja'Lynn Polk had 34 and Kendrick Bourne had 34.
Douglas had the best day of any Patriots wideout, catching six passes for 92 yards and a score, while Boutte caught three for 59 yards and a touchdown.
Tyquan Thornton and Javon Baker were both healthy scratches, and K.J. Osborn was active but didn't see a snap
New England's run defense was ugly (but really because of just two big plays)
Without three of their best defenders in the middle of the field (Christian Barmore, Ja'Whaun Bentley and Jabrill Peppers), New England got gashed in the running game.
They allowed the duo of Joe Mixon and Dameon Pierce to rush for 178 yards on 8.5 yards per attempt and two scores. Both had carries that went at least 50 yards. outside of that, they held them to 3.4 yards per rush.
The Patriots need to work on the basics because their tackling has been lacking.
Penalties and turnovers are killer
For a team that isn't going to win the roster battle on paper, they can't afford to hurt themselves over and over, and that was the case again on Sunday.
New England turned the ball over four times in this contest (two interceptions and two fumbles) and had nine penalties (for 50 yards) accepted against them,
Hopefully, some of that is cleaned up with Maye getting more experience, but the fumbles and penalties have been issues all season, and it doesn't feel like they're getting any closer to fixing them.
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