‘It’s a bummer.’ It sure is, Drake Maye. The Patriots are letting The Kid QB down.
With another loss, the Patriots thudded to 3-10 after falling to the bold-to-the-point-of-envy Colts.
FOXBOROUGH — The Kid QB deserves better. So much better.
“It’s a bummer,” said Drake Maye, the super-talented rookie quarterback, who once again offered promise of a bright Patriots future in the midst of yet another dismal defeat, a 25-24 last-minute loss Sunday to the Colts. “I hate it for these guys, and I hate it for these coaches. We’re practicing hard. We’re fighting hard, and just came up short.”
“Just Came Up Short” might eventually be the name of the 2024 Patriots season-in-review video. With one more what-if of a loss, the Patriots thudded to 3-10 after falling to the bold-to-the-point-of-envy Colts, who devoured 80 yards on 19 plays on the winning late-fourth quarter touchdown drive — which included three fourth-down conversions — then converted a 2-point play on a charge up the middle by quarterback Anthony Richardson.
It was a wholly original way for the Patriots to lose — oh, and you’d better believe that their rookie coach, Jerod Mayo, would never go for 2 in such a scenario even if the ball were marked on the one-centimeter line.
And yet the loss still felt like an unnecessary sequel, dotted with mostly familiar plot points, in a movie franchise everyone in New England grew tired of long ago.
Maye was far better than he has a right to be given the aforementioned rookie coach and arguably the worst roster in the NFL surrounding him. He completed 24 of 30 passes for 238 yards, with a touchdown and an interception.
The true two-way threat also added 59 yards on the ground, including a 41-yard one-man weave through the Colts’ defense on the Patriots’ second possession that was eerily reminiscent of Steve Grogan, circa 1976.
It should be noted that this was not entirely a solo act for Maye, and feel free to mutter “for once” here. He had plenty of help in the running game from Rhamondre Stevenson (18 carries, 73 yards, including a 32-yard burst on the second play from scrimmage) and Antonio Gibson (seven carries, 62 yards, including a nifty 11-yard go-ahead touchdown run in the fourth quarter.) The Patriots put up 279 total yards in the first half and a season-high 422 overall.
The offense was pretty good and occasionally outstanding … when it gave itself a chance.
Some familiar flaws and recurring mistakes let them down in the end, the kind that have led to four losses in the last five games, the kind that smothered any hints of momentum or progress after the dominating 19-3 win over the malfunctioning Bears in Week 10.
The most familiar and recurring of those flaws? Penalties, of course. Usually by the offensive line.
The Patriots committed seven penalties for 88 yards. Four were holding penalties in the first half, by four different offensive linemen, which is an impressive achievement in a warped kind of way. A fifth holding call was declined.
On the Patriots’ second possession, they had first and goal at the Colts 2, trailing 7-3. But back to back holding penalties by Michael Onwenu (which negated a direct-snap TD run by Stevenson) and Layden Robinson pushed the Patriots back to the 22-yard line, and a drive that should have resulted in a touchdown ended with a Joey Slye 31-yard field goal.
The Patriots’ last drive of the first half was even more frustrating. This time, Robinson and Demontrey Jacobs got flagged for holding, thwarting the rare well-managed two-minute drill by Mayo and his staff. And there was no consolation prize whatsoever this time around — Slye hooked a 25-yarder.
While the offensive line couldn’t stop making mistakes, the defense could not force a mistake — or even make a stop — when one was needed the most. Jahlani Tavai committed a 29-yard pass interference penalty on a Colts touchdown drive in the second quarter, but it was nowhere near the most devastating Patriots PI of the game.
That came on the final drive, when Richardson and the Colts’ constant quest to make something happen downfield finally paid off when Alex Austin was called for a 14-yard pass interference penalty on third and 9 with just 1:18 remaining, and the Patriots clinging to a 24-17 lead. That put the ball on the Patriots 20. Sixty-one seconds later, Alec Pierce’s 3-yard TD reception pulled the Colts to within a point, setting the stage for Richardson’s daring conversion.
The penalties, of course, were not the Patriots’ lone lament. They were just 2 for 6 in the red area, and as reliable as Slye has been this season, he has been called upon to salvage points after promising drives have gone haywire way too often.
“[We] just can’t settle for four field goals [three made attempts] in the red zone and expect to win ball games,’’ lamented Mayo.
Maye probably should not escape full blame for the red-area issues — his interception came on a slightly off-target pass to Hunter Henry late in the third quarter that rattled off a couple of limbs and ended up in the hands of the Colts’ Julian Blackmon at the 7-yard line.
But we’re going to absolve him anyway. The Kid QB is thriving despite a degree of difficulty — in large part due to the habitual mistake-makers around him — that no rookie should be expected to overcome, let alone over and over again.
Drake Maye is the real deal. Pretty much everyone else in his huddle, save for a Hunter Henry here and a Rhamondre Stevenson there, remains suspect.
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