Pats Pulpit
Fresh off their first victory of the season, the New England Patriots returned home with a chance to win back-to-back games for the first time since 2022. They did not do that, and instead delivered a lackluster performance that saw the offense turn the ball over five teams en route to a 21-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Week 3 contest saw several noteworthy performances, for better or worse. A look at our weekly grading chart, however, shows that consistency across positions is a problem.
Quarterback: Coming off the best game of his career, Drake Maye paired some very promising moments with some questionable plays. His two turnovers stand out in that latter category, and were two of the biggest moments of the day. In fact, his fourth quarter fumble on a broken play he should not have tried to salvage produced the biggest win probability swing of the day (from NE 64% to NE 38%). Maye did look good as a ball carrier and made positive contributions on scramble plays, but it was an uneven overall showing from the young QB. | Grade: C
Running back: Three fumbles on 22 runs for the group is simply unacceptable. While there were some positive moments — both Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson had runs of 10-plus yards, for example, with the former also being an active part of the passing game mix again — they were undone by the ball security issues. It wasn’t just the fumbles themselves, but the situations in which they occurred: Stevenson’s at the 1-yard line in the early third quarter was just a back-breaker, with Gibson’s on the next drive the cherry on top. Add the fact that TreVeyon Henderson was mostly ineffective as well, and you get a bad overall day for the unit. | Grade: F
Wide receiver: DeMario Douglas failing to reach the sticks on the final fourth down of the day stands out as the most noteworthy wide receiver play of the day, but it was not the only time the group failed to perform to expectation. Otherwise, it would not have finished with just 12 combined catches for 93 yards. It wasn’t all bad, but the group as a whole continues to be fairly quiet with no individual player asserting himself as a go-to guy or safety blanket in key situations. Obviously, the team picked Douglas to be just that with the game on the line, but he was unable to deliver. | Grade: C-
Tight end: Three weeks into the season, Hunter Henry remains the Patriots’ most reliable skill position player. Against Pittsburgh, he added eight catches for 90 yards and a pair of touchdown to his season totals and now leads the team in all three categories on the year. Fellow TE Austin Hooper also had a solid day, gaining 28 yards on two receptions. | Grade: A-
Offensive line: Going up against a blitz-heavy Steelers team, Drake Maye was pressured...
