FOXBOROUGH — Drake Maye had an interception on a badly thrown ball and he fumbled the ball deep in Patriots territory which led to a Texans touchdown.
He made mistakes. His stat line was messy — two picks, four sacks, a fumble — and the Patriots lost the game.
Yadada yadada yadada.
That doesn’t matter. That’s not what this week was about.
If the Patriots wanted a cleaner stat line in the rookie’s debut, they should have started him last week against a hobbled Dolphins team or next week against a bad Jaguars team. There were plenty of reasons not to start Maye yet this week. But as soon as the Patriots chose to make the Texans Maye’s first opponent, it was about starting his on-field development now.
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Part of that is getting the mistakes out of his system. Against the Texans, those were inevitable. They can chalk ‘em up as doing business with a rookie quarterback. If Maye is still throwing the ball too high or fumbling the ball in Tennessee on Nov. 3, then it’s a bigger issue.
With the lack of talent on the roster, the Patriots could have started John Elway and they probably aren’t beating this Houston team in Week 6 of 2024. Sunday was about searching for promise. It was about inspiring hope and energizing the players on the offense.
And with that was the goal, Maye delivered. He had a game that will sell a few No. 10 jerseys and probably a few tickets and brought some light to what’s been a dark place this season. Suddenly some games actually feel winnable.
Pop Douglas was open — VERY OPEN — near the 30-yard line when Maye scanned the field with 11 seconds left in the first half from the Houston 40. So for a split second, when Maye didn’t throw it to him, it looked like a rookie mistake.
Instead, Maye launched the ball deep down the right sideline toward a receiver in single coverage, the kind of try that Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe and Jacoby Brissett usually saw go incomplete on the rare times they attempted it.
But Maye’s throw was well out of cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.’s reach, but perfectly placed for Kashon Boutte to run underneath it for a 40-yard touchdown pass. Whatever Patriots fans made a late decision to attend because it was Maye’s first game, were rewarded in that moment.
Maye looked confident and eager. He made some mistakes but wasn’t afraid to make them. He wasn’t ready to celebrate a good performance that led to a bad result either.
“Most of my friends and family after a loss, they’ll still worry more about the loss than kind of encouraging plays. That’s kind of the people I’m around,” Maye said. “We care about winning. Just hate losing. That’s the big thing. I think there’s some good things to take away from it today… We’ve got to play complementary football, and we haven’t done that.”
The fact that he’s not feeling good about the game is good, but everyone else can, at least for a week.
Next week and in all of the games that follow the bar will be raised. Maye will expected to build on his successes while learning from his mistakes. The honeymoon is always short. But the marriage looks like it has potential.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
