Drake Maye’s first career start under center certainly had ups and downs. The rookie quarterback threw three touchdown passes but also committed three turnovers in the Patriots’ 41-21 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 6.
Maye completed 20 passes for 243 yards and rushed for 38. Despite the loss, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo thought Maye handled his first start well and is encouraged about the offense moving forward.
“We fully anticipate or expect him to be better going forward. It was his first start. Obviously, here at home, there was a lot of expectations on him. I thought he handled it well. Got to build on it,” Mayo told reporters, per team-provided transcript. “I thought he showed a lot of poise. I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle, and once again, made some plays. It’s definitely encouraging.”
The first-year coach highlighted the offensive line at times held the pocket to give Maye time, but felt as a whole, the team let their quarterback down in the game.
“There were some good pockets to start with upfront. I thought the offensive line at times definitely had some good pockets to allow the quarterback to make those throws,” Mayo said. “… 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. We’ve just got to be better.
“Not really the coaching staff. Look, we feel like crap right now, and 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.”
Mayo added that he’ll watch the film to further break down Maye’s performance, but thought the rookie did well overall.
“His reads were good all day. I thought his reads were good,” Mayo said. “I’ll watch the film, obviously, but I thought he did a good job.”
