Watching the Patriots get steamrolled isn’t fun, but it may very well happen again this week against the talented 49ers

The 49ers would have to suffer, oh, another half-dozen significant injuries for the Patriots to have a fighting chance.

Welcome to Season 13, Episode 4 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup …

Before we plunge into this Patriots-49ers matchup, a quick query for those of you who want Drake Maye to become the QB1 sometime soon:

What do you think will happen if he plays?

That he’ll suddenly be the elixir for the gaping, offense-ruining hole at left tackle, which this week could be filled by (checks updated roster) Demontrey Jacobs? That he’ll make headier rapid-fire decisions than Jacoby Brissett, who somehow hasn’t turned the ball over despite being under siege on nearly 50 percent of his dropbacks this season? That his arm talent can overcome an offense that is at least one more productive draft away from anything resembling competence?

That’s not what would happen. Here’s what would happen: Maye would absorb a bludgeoning, because his internal clock isn’t set properly to be an NFL quarterback yet … well, that, and they’re one more injury away from ringing up Matt Light to see if he can play left tackle next week. Maye would make the kind of desperation mistakes that Brissett has not, and so the losses would become more lopsided. And his confidence would take as many, if not more, hits than his torso.

This is both common sense and the clear truth: Until the line is repaired or until Brissett gets hurt — and the latter is far more likely than the former this season — Maye cannot start.

It would be detrimental to everything that matters in the long term, and the long term is all that matters.

Watching them get steamrolled by the likes of the Jets is not fun. But this is how it has to be.

Kick it off, Slye, and let’s get this thing started …

Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks

Brandon Aiyuk: A specific hypothetical might have been more tempting to ponder in the buildup to this game if the answer weren’t so obvious.

That hypothetical: How would Aiyuk, a second-team All-Pro last year, be faring with the Patriots had he not nixed a potential trade here in August during a contract holdout?

The answer: Not very well. Because unless he had somehow figured out a way to bring three-time All-Pro tackle Trent Williams to Foxborough with him, the same quarterback-under-siege, no-time-to-throw issues stunting the offense would still be happening, no matter how open Aiyuk was able to get.

In the big picture, it is too bad that Aiyuk nixed any possibility of coming to New England after it was reported that both the Patriots and Browns had “the framework of a deal in place” to acquire him.

Aiyuk, who is only 26, would have been an ideal fit as the de facto No. 1 receiver once Maye is ready to play and the offensive line is repaired. So, you know … next year. Hopefully.

Perhaps because of his holdout — which ended when he signed a four-year, $120 million deal on Aug. 29 — or perhaps because of added attention he’s receiving with Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle dealing with injuries of varying seriousness, Aiyuk is struggling by his standards with the 49ers.

Last season, he was prolific and efficient, catching 75 of 105 targets for 1,342 yards, 7 touchdowns, and a 17.9-yard average. Through three games this year, he has just 11 receptions on 20 targets for 119 yards.

He’s still waiting to score his first touchdown, and last week ceded the spotlight to Jauan Jennings, who did a more-than-passable Jerry Rice imitation against the Rams with 11 receptions on 12 targets for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Patriots aren’t about to overlook Aiyuk despite the slow start. Their willingness to trade for him and give him a nine-figure contract are acknowledgment enough of their respect for his game.

Fred Warner: Tell me how well the Patriots can run the ball Sunday, and I’ll tell you how they will fare on the scoreboard.

They managed just 78 yards on the ground in the loss to the Jets, with Rhamondre Stevenson held to 23 on six carries. Still, the Patriots rank eighth in the NFL in rushing at 144.3 yards per game even with last Thursday’s hiccup.

The 49ers (10th-ranked run defense, 104 yards per game) will be without stellar defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, who is out for the season with a torn pectoral. What they do have is the best linebacker in the NFL in Warner, who has compiled at least 118 tackles in each of his six full seasons. The Patriots must prevent him from singlehandedly stifling Stevenson.

Jahlani Tavai: The Jets ran for 133 yards last week against the Patriots, their first game without reliable linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley, who was placed on injured reserve this past week.

Raekwon McMillan and Tavai each had 10 tackles in Bentley’s absence; Tavai, even with a foolish unnecessary roughness penalty, was the far more consistent performer. He’s the Patriots’ best healthy linebacker and needs to be productive and disciplined against Kyle Shanahan’s clever offense (408.3 yards per game, third in the NFL).

That means, in part, slowing Jordan Mason, who has filled in spectacularly (324 yards, 4.8 per carry) for McCaffrey.

The flashback

Those who remember the Patriots’ 37-20 loss to the 49ers on Oct. 22, 1989, with any vividness probably do so for one of two reasons.

The Week 7 matchup between the 2-4 Patriots and 5-1 49ers was played at an unusual venue: Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. The reason probably doesn’t require too much jogging of the memory.

The game was played five days after the Loma Prieta earthquake, which damaged Candlestick Park in San Francisco — the home of the 49ers and one of the two Bay Area ballparks that were in the process of hosting the World Series between the A’s and Giants.

The other reason? The game brought a violent and abrupt end to the career of a promising 49ers player. On the second play of the game, Patriots running back John Stephens took a pitch and ran a sweep to the right. 49ers safety Jeff Fuller burst toward Stephens and collided with the 216-pound running back helmet-to-helmet.

Stephens got up. Fuller did not. The blow left him with two fractured vertebrae and torn nerves in his shoulder and neck. He never regained use of his right arm.

Stephens, the 1988 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, later acknowledged that he never ran with the same ferocity after what happened to Fuller.

I remember Oct. 22, 1989, for those reasons, of course. But something else too: envy.

Despite the gaping talent void between the teams, the Patriots managed to hang around against a 49ers team that had every right to have their minds wandering elsewhere that Sunday.

Steve Grogan connected with Stanley Morgan (who should be in Canton — I’m obligated to note that at every mention of the Steamer’s name) for a pair of touchdowns, and the game was tied, 17-17, in the third quarter.

Hope was a mirage. Even with Joe Montana leaving on the final series of the first half with a knee injury, the worried and distracted 49ers took the Patriots apart whenever the moment demanded it.

Backup quarterback Steve Young completed 11 of 12 throws for 188 yards and three touchdowns in Montana’s absence, including a 50-yard TD to Jerry Rice.

I can’t tell you why the memory has stayed with me all these years, but I remember watching on my lousy 13-inch television in my University of Maine freshman dorm room what that 49ers team did to a pesky but overmatched Patriots team and thinking, “The Patriots will never have a team as good as these 49ers in my lifetime.”

San Francisco did go on to win the Super Bowl that year, its third of their four in that golden era.

Who could have known that a certain 12-year-old kid in the Bay Area — who surely adored that 49ers team and worried for Fuller that day — would someday grow up to deliver Patriots victories of a magnitude we never dreamed we would experience.

Grievance of the week

Here’s a fact you probably didn’t know: The top 14 single-season leaders in fumbles since the statistic became official in 1945 are all quarterbacks. I sure didn’t know it.

For some reason, former Rams and Dolphins running back Cleveland Gary has always stuck in my mind as the NFL’s fumble king. Turns out he had 24 in his six-year career, including 12 in the 1990 season with the Rams, when he also ran for 14 touchdowns.

But it’s an array of quarterbacks that have put the football on the ground the most often through the years. Kerry Collins (2001 Giants) and Daunte Culpepper (2002 Vikings) share the record with 23. Old friend Drew Bledsoe (2005 Cowboys) is tied for eighth with 17.

The first running back to show up on this ignominious list is Joe Cribbs (1980 Bills), who tied David Carr and several others for 15th place all time with 16 fumbles in his otherwise excellent rookie season (1,185 rushing yards, 11 touchdowns, plus 52 receptions).

I suspect you’ve figured out the ol’ grievance by now. Stevenson has fumbled in all three games this season.

He has lost just one, against the Jets. But when you’re playing in an offense that simply cannot afford mistakes and you’re on pace to set a single-season record for fumbles by a running back, it’s essential to clean that up.

Prediction, or I wonder if Giovanni Carmazzi is still a goat farmer …

The formula for a Patriots victory has a Tyquan Thornton-thin margin for error, but it is obvious: Somehow get a lead, run the ball and then run it again, play mistake-free football, and limit the opposition to field goals rather than touchdowns. Too much to ask against the 49ers, as banged-up as they are? Oh yes, too much to ask. The 49ers would have to suffer, oh, another half-dozen significant injuries for the Patriots to have a fighting chance. 49ers 31, Patriots 13.