“You should feel like shit”

Where the defense fell short on Sunday, rookie quarterback Drake Maye stepped up. In his first NFL start, Maye threw for 243 yards with three touchdown passes, leading the Patriots to their best offensive performance of the season.

“I thought Drake made some good decisions out there,” Mayo said after the game. “I thought he had some good reads. I thought he was trying to get the ball out of his hands. I thought he did a good job of extending plays with his legs and gaining first downs. Things just have to get better.”

But Mayo has no doubt it can happen.

“We fully expect or anticipate that he will get better in the future,” he said. “It was his first start, obviously there were a lot of expectations of him here at home. I thought he handled it well.”

The Patriots scripted the first few drives to get Maye acclimated. Mayo said that although a few things went wrong – as would be expected with a rookie quarterback – he was happy with the game plan and his young QB was under pressure, which Mayo praised.

“I thought he went out and controlled the huddle, got the guys out of the huddle and made some more plays,” Mayo said. “From a team-wide perspective, it’s definitely encouraging right now.”

The coaching staff, Mayo said, must take responsibility for the loss.

“We let him (Maye) down,” Mayo said. “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.”

More highlights from Mayo's press conference…

To involve the recipients: “Firstly, there were some good pockets up front to start with. The offensive line definitely had some good pockets at times that allowed the quarterback to make those throws. But once again it’s a team sport and we don’t feel particularly comfortable about anything at the moment.”

On the rotation of the offensive line: “It's very hard. Every single week is a different combination of players. It's difficult for these guys to really build camaraderie and communication. But here too, the replacement players have to prepare every week as if they were regular players.”

On the penalty shootout (the Patriots were dismissed for nine and 50 yards): “We talk about it all the time, and at Saturday night meetings we talk about what crew is going to be out there and what they call a lot, and we knew that crew was a crew that took a lot of penalties. We cleaned up a bit in the second half, but there were just way too many penalties.”

On his comment about letting Maye down: “We feel like crap at the moment. For our rookie quarterback to go out there and do some good things, I felt like we could have supported him better.”

On Maye's decision-making: “His readings were good all day. I liked his readings. Of course I will watch the film, but I thought he did a good job.”

Among the early difficulties of the defense: “It's very disappointing. Now, at this point, we're up and down as far as getting off to a quick start. We have to start quickly, whether in defense or attack, and we just couldn't do that today. I thought they had calmed down, but the point is that every single play is important. You could stop them, stop them, stop them, and all of a sudden a 50-yard run, and we can’t allow them to do that.”

On physicality and Maye's reaction to it: “He took a few hard hits and was slow to get up after a few times, but he's a tough guy and that encouraged me.”

Emma can be reached at [email protected] or at @_EmmaHealy_.