FOXBOROUGH - Mike Vrabel wasn’t in the mood to spend his Sunday afternoon picking apart the Patriots’ offense.
New England had just snapped into the win column for the first time in 2026, rolling past the Steelers 20-3, and Vrabel made it clear he wasn’t going to let a postgame question about the state of the offense spoil the mood.
“Just trying to win the game. … You’re not going to ruin my Sunday,” Vrabel said. “I’ll come back to you [Monday].”
The victory was a clean rebound after the Patriots’ Week 1 collapse against the Seahawks, but it didn’t erase the same uneasy feeling hanging over the offense. Drake Maye’s operation still looks uneven, and Sunday did little to quiet the questions.
New England leaned on its defense to control the game, with the unit forcing two turnovers and turning one into points when Elijah Ponder scooped and scored. Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers had a miserable afternoon. The Patriots’ offense, though, never really took over.
Maye went 14-of-22 for 208 yards, while New England did most of its damage on the ground, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. That doesn’t exactly point to a passing game ready to carry the load, and with A.J. Brown on the mend for more than a month with a high ankle sprain, a heavy aerial surge from Maye in the near future doesn’t look likely.
The bigger issue is the way Maye has handled the football. After tossing three interceptions in the fourth quarter against Seattle, he was back at the center of a costly mistake Sunday when he underthrew a pass to Hunter Henry, and Patrick Queen picked it off in the third quarter.
That gives Maye four interceptions already this season, along with just one touchdown, after he threw only eight picks all of last year.
Vrabel said he’ll dig into the tape Monday, but he also made it clear the Patriots aren’t backing away from their quarterback. They want him to lead, even if that comes with some bumps along the way.
“He’s going to be the one that’s going to orchestrate and conduct everything we do, and make sure that everyone believes that the play that we’re running is going to be successful,” Vrabel said of Maye. “And not every time it is. But he has to be able to take that demeanor and spread it to the football team, throw to the guy that’s open, and make great decisions.
“I’m going to trust his decision; I’m going to trust every player’s decision that has the football, and we’ll continue to keep working. I thought there were some really great throws down the field and some opportunities, and then, I mean, if he doesn’t feel it, he doesn’t feel it.”
The defense helped cover for the offense early, too. New England shook off Maye’s interception and Rhamondre Stevenson’s fumble on the first drive of the day, and a battered defensive group made sure the Patriots didn’t pay for both mistakes.
Maye, for his part, didn’t sugarcoat what he saw.
“Definitely not where we want to be,” Maye noted. “Just a point of making some plays, picking up some first downs, and end up just stalling out. It starts with me making good decisions and being in good plays and just finishing the drives.
“I think we need to finish the drives, got down there past the 50 multiple times and penalties, a delay of game on my end, just little things that are hurting ourselves, and it’s going to end up coming back to bite us. It already bit us once last week.
Our defense is playing great, shout out to them. It’s fun watching them play.
We’ve got to match it and have some more urgency and it starts in practice.”
For now, the Patriots can enjoy the win. But there’s no hiding the reality that this offense is living on borrowed time if it keeps asking the defense to do all the heavy lifting.
The schedule isn’t offering much relief. A road trip to face a dangerous Jaguars defense is next, and Buffalo looms in Week 4, where it’s hard to imagine New England’s defense completely shutting down Josh Allen and the Bills.
If the Patriots are going to survive this opening stretch, they’ll need the same thing that powered much of last season: Maye taking the wheel and driving an offense that’s explosive, efficient and far more consistent than what has shown up through two weeks.
“We’ve got to hit some plays, and you’ve got to go out and play. Compete.
Have fun. But make great decisions.”
Vrabel said.
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The timing is not ideal for a defense trying to settle in early at home, especially since the Patriots did not make any practice squad elevations after Davis was downgraded. That leaves the depth chart a little thinner and the margin for error a little smaller, with a division of labor now shifting to players who will have to hold up in a real early-season stress test. [Read more 🡒]