Drake Maye delivered a performance in his NFL debut. Will the Patriots return the favor? –Boston Herald

FOXBORO — The Patriots' future was shrouded last Sunday, red and white from head to toe.

He dropped bombs. Dangers avoided. Inspired hope.

Drake Maye even made a little history along the way. His precise 40-yard touchdown pass before halftime?

This was the Patriots' longest home win since Christmas Eve two years ago.

A new era indeed.

But underneath his retro Pat Patriots uniform, Maye wore more and more shades of black and blue thanks to a piñata welcome to the NFL.

Maye absorbed four sacks and four more QB hits from the Texans, who also whipped his teammates by a 41-21 score. Patriots leadership believed Maye's mobility and confidence would protect him from the punishment they had exacted by dropping him behind the league's worst offensive line.

Instead, Maye's first few trips looked like Exhibit A in a lawsuit over unsafe working conditions.

Maye was blown away. He threw a pickaxe. He took a sack. He grimaced as his teammates dragged him off the pitch after another goal; Teammates like center Ben Brown, who signed Thursday and learned he was in the starting lineup just hours before kickoff, and practice squad running back Terrell Jennings and offensive linemen Zach Thomas and Demontrey Jacobs both came off the waiver wire freed.

Everything about the Patriots' offense felt like a slow-motion car crash that you can't watch but can't look away from. Then Maye suddenly turned back onto the road.

He found Kayshon Boutte for Boutte's first touchdown. He caught DeMario Douglas for a career-high 92 yards and his first touchdown. He finished the game with more yards than any Patriots quarterback has managed in almost an entire year.

He blossomed in spurts. (See, Mac Jones? It wasn't that hard.)

Maye will inevitably resemble his broken predecessor for a game or two in the coming weeks. He is a newbie. Rookies throw interceptions, take sacks and make stupid decisions and turn the ball over like Maye did three times on Sunday.

But hey, where were you at 22?

But if Sunday offered a legitimate glimpse into Maye's future — and by extension the Patriots' — it's even more important that the team supports and protects him. Maye is her ticket back to relevance, let alone competition.

Jerod Mayo and human resources manager Eliot Wolf cannot surrender to the circumstances or their own mistakes; namely poor construction of the offensive squad and bad luck with injuries. It's time to do more. Mayo wisely acknowledged his shortcomings and promised to do just that after the game.

“From a team-wide perspective, we let (Maye) down right now,” Mayo said. “It was his first game and I feel like I let him down. I'm sure all the coaches feel like we've let everyone down. We just have to get better.”

Offensively, the Patriots can start by using Douglas on every snap until this 5-foot-11 jitterbug begs for a breather. They can't afford to replace Douglas, their best receiver, with Austin Hooper, a veteran tight end who made a mistake on Sunday. In most cases, this was the compromise that offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt made when calling plays from personnel packages with two receivers.

Even Mayo said Douglas could be open against anyone…a description that unfortunately also seems to apply to any running back who attacks Mayo's defense long enough.

The Patriots have allowed more than 190 rushing yards in consecutive games for the first time in four years. Nose tackle Davon Godchaux rightly described the performance as embarrassing. Worse still, the Texans and Dolphins were both among the worst rushing teams in the league before visiting Foxboro. No longer.