Drake Maye gave the Patriots offense a lift. It may not be enough to fix things this fall.

"We've got to play complementary football, and we haven't done that.”

FOXBOROUGH — As solemn as Gillette Stadium has been so far this fall, Drake Maye gave Patriots fans the jolt they’ve needed.

Amid the cheers bellowing down from the nosebleeds and the three musket volleys fired off following his three touchdowns, the 22-year-old QB offered up hope that New England might have something to look forward to on the gridiron.

But Maye wasn’t focused on any silver linings Sunday evening — even as dozens of friends and family were on site to greet him after his first career NFL start.

Because in the hyper-competitive Maye family, any positives drawn from a game pale in comparison to whatever lopsided result is etched on the scoreboard.

“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 after New England’s 41-21 loss to Houston. “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, and I think back with Coach [Jerod] Mayo, we’ve got to play complementary football, and we haven’t done that.”

In a 2024 campaign where positives might be few and far between for a rebuilding Patriots roster, Sunday’s loss can easily be spun into a step forward — especially with Maye now given the keys to the team’s sputtering offense.

New England could seemingly only go up on offense after Jacoby Brissett’s five-game run as the team’s starting QB. Even though the veteran largely did his job in terms of limiting mistakes and absorbing plenty of punishment, the results on the field were discouraging.

Entering Week 6, New England ranked last in the league in passing yards per game (119.4), along with 31st overall in both total offense (250.8) and points per game (12.4).

With Maye leapfrogging Brissett on the depth chart, New England felt as though its rookie’s howitzer of an arm and athleticism would create more explosive plays — as well as alleviate some O-line woes thanks to Maye’s scrambling ability.

The results spoke for themselves on Sunday against Houston.

Maye completed 20 of 33 passes for 243 passing yards and three touchdowns in his first start — adding an additional 38 yards on the ground.

Maye easily eclipsed Brissett’s most potent passing performance of the season (168 yards vs. 49ers), and has already thrown more TDs than his counterpart has compiled all season (two touchdowns in five games).

Maye became the first Patriots QB to throw at least three touchdowns in a game since Bailey Zappe in Week 14 last season, as well as just the 12th QB in NFL history to record three-plus touchdowns in their first career start.

But beyond the baseline production, Maye’s arm allowed New England to unearth a layer of its offense that it hasn’t been able to utilize in years — explosive plays.

Be it Cam Newton’s run-heavy approach, Mac Jones’ lackluster arm strength, or Bailey Zappe’s inconsistent processing ability, the Patriots’ offense in the post-Brady era has often been hamstrung by an inability to move the ball down the field in one fell swoop.

Before Sunday, the Patriots had only generated two passing touchdowns of 35+ air yards over the past three seasons.

Maye doubled that output in his debut, with a pair of his touchdowns to Kayshon Boutte and DeMario Douglas each going for at least 35 yards.

It was a welcome sign for a Patriots offense often stuck in neutral, as well as a pass-catching corps that struggled to hit its stride with Brissett as QB1. Douglas finished with six catches for 92 yards and his score, while Boutte added three grabs for 59 yards.

“As a receiving group, we’re confident,” Boutte said. “It’s all 11 of us on the field. So just trusting the O-line to do their thing. And if everything is good up front, then we’re all confident that Drake can make those passes. I feel confident we can make those catches.”

But Maye wasn’t harping on the evident strides New England made on the offensive side of the ball on Sunday.

“I think we just hurt ourselves today. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Maye said. “I think we put the defense in bad spots, and with how good our defense is, that’s the last thing we can do. … Just kept hurting ourselves, and in this league, these teams are too good to do that.”

Indeed, the Patriots’ offense was hindered at times by the expected growing pains that come with a rookie QB trying to find his footing at football’s highest level. It also didn’t help that he was thrown into the fire against a Texans defense entering Sunday with a league-leading 42-percent pressure rate.

Maye was knocked for three turnovers on Sunday — two interceptions and a strip sack. Those three turnovers directly led to 14 points for Houston.

But as Mayo noted, the Patriots will put up with the expected learning curves and mistakes that a rookie QB makes — especially if the offense finally begins to show some signs of life.

But when it’s veterans and other key cogs on the roster who are the ones failing to pull on the rope? That’s when questions need to be raised about just how much we should expect from this offense in 2024.

“I thought he showed a lot of poise,” Mayo said of Maye. “I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle, and once again, made some plays.

“And it’s definitely encouraging from a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down. I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down. And it’s gotta be better.”

While Mayo in particular took his defense to task after they relinquished 368 total yards to New England, several other segments of the depth chart did little to prop up their starting QB in his first start.

A brutal fumble from veteran tight end Austin Hooper wiped out another promising drive for New England — and led to another three points via a Texans field goal later in the third quarter.

New England’s run game was nonexistent, with Maye standing as the team’s leading rusher with his 38 yards. Antonio Gibson — stepping in as the team’s top running back in place of the injured Rhamodnre Stevenson — averaged just 1.5 yards per carry.

And a New England offensive line trotting out its sixth starting configuration in six games still struggled to keep its QB off the turf — headlined by Will Anderson’s crushing third-quarter sack that resulted in a fumble recovery by Houston.

Amid the misery of a 1-5 start to the 2024 season, Maye’s play on Sunday should reassure Patriots fans wondering if he can help spur a turnaround for a once-proud Patriots franchise.

But even with Maye’s potential, those positive gains may not be realized until at least 2025 — not if the rest of New England’s roster doesn’t also start taking steps forward.

“We feel like crap right now,” Mayo said. “I would say, just for a rookie quarterback to go out there and do some good things – I just felt like we could have done a better job supporting him.”

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.