Terrible — but maybe fun? — Patriots might prove to be worth your time

There is such a thing as fun losing, though it only lasts so long. Will Drake Maye continue to make the Patriots worth watching?

It’s been 30 years since former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who was in his sophomore season in the NFL, threw an NFL-record 70 passes to help New England overcome a 20-point deficit and beat the Minnesota Vikings, 24-20. The Athletic ran an entertaining oral history of the win a few years ago– “Put the fricking kid in two-minute!”

After that game, I remember that I wasn’t alone in a youthful confidence that believed the 4-6 Patriots would whip off six straight victories and make the playoffs after having won only 13 games the previous three seasons combined. Which, they did.

Last Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans had a similar feel.

Whoa, whoa, whoa…..Nobody is suggesting the 2024 Patriots capable of running the rest of the schedule then losing in the wild card round to their future head coach. In fact, if this team plays anywhere close to .500 by the end of this season, they should sell t-shirts. And the emotion established following a 20-point loss isn’t exactly reminiscent of the one following a 20-point comeback win. Noted.

But with Drake Maye making his first NFL start in what would be a 41-21 loss to Super Bowl darling Houston, the 1-5 Patriots looked like something they really haven’t for the better part of the last half-decade; an actual professional football team.

A really, really bad one, but one, perhaps, worth your time.

I never hopped on either bandwagon arguing whether the rookie Maye was ready to play or not. (Unless there was one that ridiculed the delirium on both sides. I’ll send you my address.) It’s easy to Bryce Young (petitioning Merriam-Webster to utilize this as a verb) a quarterback. There’s no magic spell that dictates you have the next Patrick Mahomes if you sit a kid for full year. Can we stop making that stupid comparison?

Was it a public relations maneuver for a team getting hammered for its coaching and offseason decisions, which mainly consisted of not spending money anywhere? Or was Maye really ready to see game action?

Why not both?

Obviously, the quarterback wasn’t perfect. He threw two interceptions and was sacked three times, courtesy Will Anderson Jr. But he also threw for three touchdowns. Jacoby Brissett threw for two over the previous five games.

Patriot fans can be satisfied with the loss if they had that ‘aha’ moment, the sort of turning point in a franchise history not involving Mo Lewis that comes around only every once in a great while. It never showed up with Mac Jones. It damn near ran away when it discovered what it would have to deal with in Cam Newton.

Patriots owner Bob Kraft called the ’94 win in Minnesota a “watershed moment” for his family during its first year of ownership. Sunday’s game against the Texans wasn’t exactly that, but Robert has to be thrilled with the outcome. He’ll let you know it was his insistence to start Maye in the next Apple series.

I know the Patriots are kings, even in a town where the NBA champs play, but being bad can have a toll on even the most ingrained. The Patriots weren’t just terrible with Brissett, they were boring. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt can now put the bath book-sized playbook away and can reach for the bigger menu with Maye. There were moments against the Texans — the drop-in to Kayshon Boutte, the immediate chemistry with Demario Douglas — that have stuck as more than highlights from a midseason loss. I remember being at the final game of the 1993 season at Foxboro Stadium, which many presumed might be the “final” game at Foxboro with owner James Orthwein ready to sell and move the team to St. Louis. Bledose-to-Timpson is burned into a generation’s memories not because of the overtime win over the Dolphins itself, but because it was a step; a sign that a winning culture was a possibility in New England. The Patriots were 5-11 that season, but after winning nine combined games since 1990, that squad should have been in contention for naming rights of the Ted Williams Tunnel. 

Tom Brady had already won three Super Bowls before he truly developed into the Hall of Fame quarterback he became, so you have to go back to Bledsoe to remember another time that a young quarterback elicited such excitement on a team left for dead. Maye was patient in the pocket, scrambling when he needed to, and it looks like it might take until 2027 for him to match the amount of times his predecessor threw the ball away, many times, seemingly, as his first option. Perhaps the most impressive factor about Maye’s outing was his ability to make in-game adjustments and to understand the vaunted Texans defense a little better. If he can do that over the course of a three-hour window, it might be intriguing to see how he adjusts over the course of a week, against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a different country for some reason.

Unless you’re manufacturing some argument about how Patriot fans should be unhappy because a loss is a loss (afternoons on the Sports Hub have boiled down to Felger thirsting for irritation like Raymond Babbitt craved Jeopardy), Sunday was a great development for a team widely thought to be bad enough to land the first pick in the 2025 draft. Even those on the “Maye is going to get killed by this offensive line” party line had a moment or two to recognize something special might have happened on Sunday.

If Maye continues to shine like he did for the majority of his debut, the Patriots might only be top-five pick bad. There is such a thing as fun losing, though it only lasts so long until you feel like a yokel for being happy with losses.

This team is still terrible, led by a coaching staff that would make Rudy Giuliani one of the best decision-makers in the room and a defense that has recessed thanks to injuries and the realization that it is playing for a 1-5 team. But it might finally be fun again. In 30 years, maybe our kids will point to this game the same way some of us memorably recall that Sunday afternoon against the Vikings. Maybe in five years Maye will be playing for the Jets. We’ve seen enough teams Bryce Young (see?) themselves into obscurity.

This felt different. This felt good.

Professional-caliber football, not drawn up by some Army playbook from the 50’s, has finally returned to Foxboro. For a day, we’ll take it.

But what the loss hinted at meant so much more than a win anyway. Or, we could all be Mac Jonesing ([email protected]) ourselves into believing the Patriots got the right guy.

Step One was fun. More importantly, it was hopeful.