Ups & Downs: Patriots defense gets called out after loss to Texans

FOXBORO -- There is some promise in the New England air after Drake Maye made his first career start for the Patriots. He looked like a rookie quarterback, but one that is going to make life a lot more interesting for Patriots fans.

But the fact is the Patriots lost their fifth straight game, 41-21, to the Texans on Sunday, and are now 1-5 on the season. It's the first time the Patriots have started a season at 1-5 since 1995.

While the Patriots had much more life on offense in Week 6, the defense struggled mightily against the Houston offense. And even though the offense looked like an actual offense for large stretches, the Patriots also turned the ball over four times. 

For good measure, New England also had more issues with penalties though thankfully it wasn't as bad as last week's 12-penalty showing in a loss to the lowly Dolphins

At least this week's Ups and Downs column actually contain real "Ups." But we're starting with the biggest down, which had the defense hearing some harsh words from head coach Jerod Mayo after the loss. 

Down: The New England defense was pretty dreadful against Houston

Mayo did not hold back when he took the podium following Sunday's loss. He had the New England defense in his crosshairs, specifically over two big plays by the Houston offense: A 59-yard run by Joe Mixon and a 54-yard touchdown run by Dameon Pierce. Mixon also had a 20-yard touchdown run for the Texans. 

When a defense gives up that many chunk plays on the ground, the team is going to hear about it from the head coach.

"Defensively I would say just the fundamentals of just tackling, our run fits have to improve. They have to improve. I told all those guys, I said, 'you should feel like crap today. You should feel like crap,'" Mayo relayed. "That's just not winning football."

Ouch. The Texans also had three passing plays that went for at least 20 yards. 

UP: Drake Maye's first touchdown pass

The Patriots have lost five straight. If that has you feeling down in the dumps, just watch this over and over again and you'll feel better about everything.

That deep ball is a threat that opposing defenses now have to worry about from the Patriots. Maye also made a great throw to lead DeMario Douglas on his 35-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter. 

Maye had an up and down day himself, but he showed several flashes throughout the afternoon. Throws like his first touchdown will make the future seem pretty bright with Maye at quarterback.

Maye threw three touchdowns on Sunday, which is already more than Jacoby Brissett threw over the first five weeks.

DOWN: Too many turnovers

Four New England turnovers turned into 17 points for the Texans. Maye's first pick came off a bad overthrow to DeMario Douglas over the middle, and his second interception came off a wild and crazy deflected ball.

You can excuse Maye a little bit on that second interception. But not his first.

"Can't miss high over the middle in this league," Maye said after the loss. "And tipped balls turn into interceptions."

Two important lessons learned for the rookie. He also lost a fumble when he was strip-sacked on the second play of the second half, and Austin Hooper fumbled midway through the third quarter. Those two fumbles led to 10 points for the Texans, and killed most of the momentum New England had built heading into halftime off Maye's touchdown to Boutte.

"We just hurt ourselves today," said Maye. "I think that's the biggest thing. I think we put the defense in bad spots."

Down: Too may penalties -- again

This one got off to an ominous start penalty-wise, as the Patriots were hit with an illegal formation penalty on the opening kickoff. Not the best way to start a game after they were flagged 12 times in Week 5.

Though some of the penalties were of the extremely questionable variety from a flag-happy crew, the Patriots were hit with nine penalties for 50 yards on Sunday. For a team with such a small margin for error, the amount of laundry they're causing to hit the field is getting ridiculous. (The zebras also missed a blatant facemask on an Antonio Gibson carry, which came right before Maye's fumble.)

New England's third possession was derailed by two penalties on the offensive line: An illegal man downfield infraction on Vederian Lowe and a false start on Demontrey Jacobs. 

The team's fourth drive could have started at the New England 49 after a great punt return by Marcus Jones ... but a Marcellas Dial holding brought the ball all the way back to the New England 11.

The most costly penalties came from the New England defense though. The Texans scored their first touchdown when Marte Mapu was hit with a DPI (a very questionable DPI) in the end zone on a third-and-goal stop by the Patriots. CJ Stroud hit Tank Dell for a touchdown two plays later. Then on Houston's next possession, the Patriots got another third-down stop in the red zone, only for the Texans to get a fresh set of down off a Marcus Jones DPI. Stroud hit Mixon for a touchdown on the next play, and Houston had an early 14-0 lead.

Mayo was incredibly frustrated with all the penalties after the loss.

"We talk about it all the time, and Saturday night meetings we talk about what crew is going to be out there, what do they call frequently, and we knew that this was a high penalty calling crew. I thought the second half kind of cleaned it up a little bit, but just way too many penalties in the game," said Mayo.

DOWN: More offensive line struggles for Patriots

Maye wasn't the only member of the Patriots making his first career NFL start, as Ben Brown (who signed with the team off the Raiders practice squad earlier this week) started at center. That gave the Patriots their sixth different starting offensive line in six games. 

To make matters worse, left tackle Vederian Lowe departed with an ankle injury, leaving Zach Thomas to protect Maye's blindside.  It was Thomas who got beat by Houston defensive end Danielle Hunter which led to the stip-sack on Maye. 

Maye was sacked four times and hit eight times overall by the Houston defense. And we'll get to the line's struggles with run-blocking in just a bit.

UP: Marcus Jones' hustle on his end-zone interception

Jones raced over from the other side of the field to provide help on Dalton Schultz and came down with an INT when the ball deflected into his hands. Had Jones not been there, the ball would have fallen incomplete and the Texans would have had another crack at taking a 21-0 or 17-0 lead.

DOWN: The Patriots' run game was non-existent on Sunday

The Patriots didn't have Rhamondre Stevenson, who missed Sunday's game with a foot injury. Gibson couldn't get much of anything going on the ground, rushing for just 19 yards on his 13 caries -- an average of 1.5 yards per carry. 

Overall, the Patriots ran for just 82 yards on their 26 carries, averaging a woeful 3.2 yards per attempt. Maye was the team's leading rusher, going for 38 yards on his five scrambles.

UP: The Jaguars are next

Up next for the Patriots is a trip to London against another 1-5 team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacksonville is an absolute mess with Trevor Lawrence struggling, and we could potentially be treated to a Maye-Mac Jones showdown in Week 7 if the Jags get real desperate. 

We're not going to call it an easy win -- because such a thing doesn't exist with these Patriots -- but New England has a very winnable game next Sunday in London.

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