The Drake Maye era has officially arrived in New England! The third overall pick from this year’s draft will be making his first career start as a Patriot on Sunday afternoon against the Houston Texans. But while there will be a lot of excitement, half of the NFL populace is worried as to whether or not he will succeed. Houston has a top-ten defense and a high-powered offense, while New England does not exactly have the best-supporting cast to help their quarterback succeed. Let’s take a look at the five biggest things to pay attention to on Sunday and see if Maye can thrive or not.
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1. Houston Has a Top-Ten Defense
The biggest reason why the Texans are 4-1 this year is surprisingly not mainly because of their offense, but it is their defense. DeMeco Ryans has always been an outstanding defensive mind, from his days as a player and middle linebacker to his time as the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers to now. Houston has given up the fourth fewest total yards, and third fewest passing yards, and they are top ten in sacks. There have been a couple of off-days where the Texans have allowed more than twenty-five points, but against the teams they are expected to beat, they show their dominance and prowess. Houston already has four guys with at least two sacks on their resume and three with more than twenty-five tackles. The one weakness that this defense has, at least right now, is their ability to stop the run. They are currently ranked seventeenth as they give up 120 yards per game in that category, but one key absence on the Patriots might flip this game completely upside down.
2. Rhamondre Stevenson Out
After not practicing the entire week, Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson will miss Sunday’s game because of a foot injury. On one hand, he has been their best player and is the only reason why this offense has had any sort of efficiency this year. On the other, he has had a lingering fumble issue that forced him to sit on the bench to start last week’s game against the Miami Dolphins. Antonio Gibson is more than likely going to get the bulk of the carries against the Texans, and while he has had a promising stretch as the number two back, his ability to convert that as a number one has yet to be proven this year. Replacing Jacoby Brissett with the rookie might open up this offense a little more, but there is also a high chance that the offense could still fail to get its feet off the ground. This Patriots offense has to deal with enough injuries for the rest of the year, so if they cannot figure out how to step up with Stevenson, then their depth is really more abysmal than anybody could have ever anticipated.
3. Texans’ Offense Has Stumbled
The Texans are winning football games, that cannot be denied. Their offense has shown up in the clutch whenever they have been asked to close the deal in the final seconds. However, they have been up and down all season. Since week one against the Indianapolis Colts, where their offense scored on three of their four drives in the second half, they have looked vulnerable. They scored less than twenty at home against the Chicago Bears, they got blown out by the Minnesota Vikings on the road, and then it took two last-second drives and their opposition’s self-destruction to barely beat the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills. Even though wins are all that matters in this business, this Texans offense has yet to really dominate and put the game away early. With Nico Collins on IR for four weeks, this group is going to face even more hardship as the season continues. This game against the Patriots might be the first time that happens. CJ Stroud is still one of the most prolific young quarterbacks in the league, and even without Collins, he still has Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs as his two favorite targets. If they can get Joe Mixon back from injury, then the Texans will have a better day of running the football. The New England defense has lost a lot of key players over the course of the year, and if both units are stumbling, then only one of them is going to pick itself up off the ground.
4. Can the Pats’ Offense Finally Open Up the Playbook?
With Drake Maye getting the reigns to this Patriots offense, there is a great mix of excitement and fear. Head coach Jerod Mayo wanted to get some type of spark out of this team to reignite the energy in the locker room and prevent a potential mutiny from taking place, so that is why Jacoby Brissett’s time as the starter is over for the time being. But this Patriots offense has too many flaws that are too much for any quarterback in the NFL to handle. Their offensive line cannot block and is incredibly undisciplined, the receivers are not utilized the way they are supposed to be, and the running game is the only thing that seems to work. Many are hoping that Maye can see the field the way that Brissett has not been able to in the first five games, but at the same time, you cannot expect somebody to be better if the outcome is the same.
5. One Historical Nugget Could Help the Patriots
There is only one thing that will truly help the Patriots pull off this upset against Houston, and it is from a historical perspective. New England has not lost a home game to this team since the Texans became a part of the NFL in 2002. There have been plenty of matchups where historical trends continue for years and years, but others where they finally come to an end after twenty-plus years. If this game was at Houston, then this would not even be a discussion, because the Patriots always struggle whenever they play there. It is not even just when they play against the Texans, but when they won two of their Super Bowl victories in 2004 and 2017. But in Gillette Stadium, as they put on the throwback uniforms with the vintage Pat Patriot on the helmet, there is at least a 5% chance that New England could pull off the improbable.
Main Image: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
