The New England Patriots started strong, and then got their doors blown off in London by the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. There really is not much more to say about what happened on Sunday.

With that in mind, here are our takeaways from the Patriots’ 32-16 loss.

1. Drake Maye looks like the real deal: Regardless of what happens with the rest of the team this year, the most important thing is that the Patriots develop Drake Maye to the best of their ability and set him up for success as much as they can. So far, so good: in only his second start, the rookie looked poised and made a bunch of solid throws.

In total, Maye completed 26 of 37 pass attempts for 276 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He wasn’t perfect, but he made some very good throws — including arguably his best pass of the day, an impressive 33-yard completion to Kayshon Boutte in the fourth quarter.

“I thought he did a good job, especially starting the game off fast,” said head coach Jerod Mayo after the game. “He made some good throws, made some good plays with his legs.”

In addition to his success as a passer, Maye also led the Patriots in rushing for a second straight week. He gained 18 yards on three scramble plays.

“I’ve been extremely impressed and proud of Drake ever since he came in,” added wide receiver K.J. Osborn. “When he first got drafted, how he came in there, dealing with the pressure of being a third round pick, learning a pro offense, to where he is now. I’m definitely proud of him. Excited to continue to see him getting better.”

The offensive line remains a mess, and the receivers haven’t been great either, but Maye is showing a lot of promise. Patriots fans should feel good about him being the quarterback of the future for this franchise.

2. Ja’Lynn Polk needs to sit: Speaking of the passing game, rookie receiver Ja’Lynn Polk is having a season to forget so far. He dropped multiple passes again on Sunday, and just looks lost out there right now. At this point, there are serious questions about whether the Patriots can keep putting him out there.

He has some real talent, but for whatever reason just can’t put it into practice right now. The Patriots might be better off activating Javon Baker, and rolling with a group consisting of him, DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, Kendrick Bourne and K.J. Osborn until Polk can figure it out.

Continuing to play the second-round rookie through these struggles sure doesn’t seem to be helping.

3. Coaching staff growing pains keep hurting Patriots: The Patriots let the greatest coach of all time go at the end of last season. To replace Bill Belichick, they brought in a head coach who had never been a head coach, an offensive coordinator who had never been an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator who had never been a defensive coordinator, and a special teams coordinator who had never been — you get the idea.

There was going to be a learning curve for Jerod Mayo’s entire staff, but the coaching has been suspect at best at times. Sunday was a prime example of the growing pains the group will have to work its way through.

The offense looked really good at the beginning of the game, and then could never recover after the Jags seemed to figure out what they were doing. After scoring 10 points on their first two drives, they didn’t score again until garbage time in the fourth quarter.

Play calling played a part in that. Between their second and third scores — i .e. from the early second to the mid fourth quarter — New England had four possessions. Alex Van Pelt started all of them with first down run plays, gaining a total of -1 yards on those. These plays put the Patriots in a disadvantageous position right from the start of each series.

“Third and long is hard in this league,” said Drake Maye after the game.

On defense, they couldn’t stop a nosebleed yet again. You have to question why so many of coordinator DeMarcus Covington’s players continue to find themselves out-positioned and attempt arm tackles instead of actually wrapping up.

This coaching staff might be new, but they need to get more out of their players if the Patriots are going to be any good at all.

4. Run defense is offensive: The Patriots have struggled with injuries on defense, but they cannot possibly be this bad against the run. It’s tough to know whether it’s the players or the coaches, but the job isn’t getting done right now.

The Patriots are not a good team, but they have to at least show some fight and be able to stop the run. On Sunday, the Jaguars just shoved the ball down the Patriots’ throat in embarrassing fashion.

Jerod Mayo called the Patriots a soft team after the game, and it sure seems like he’s right.

5. Patriots losing in the special teams margins: Last week, the Patriots’ kick return game was the problem. This week, it was the punt coverage.

Bryce Baringer boomed a punt all the way to the Jaguars’ 4-yard line, and the coverage unit went on to lose control of its lanes. You have to make the simple plays, and that was a simple play just not being made.

The Patriots have done a solid job on special teams for most of the season, but they’ve also had some real issues. They’ve had a field goal blocked, had troubles with their return game, and now gave up a 96-yard punt return touchdown. First-year coordinator Jeremy Springer needs to iron out the issues and have his team stay disciplined every play to continue to give the Patriots a chance to win.

When your team isn’t good, after all, you need advantages wherever you can get them. Special teams is an area where you can get those advantages, but, right now, it’s hurting the Patriots more than it’s helping them.

6. The O-line rotation is not going to stop, innit? The Patriots have now started seven different offensive line combinations in seven games, and just can’t seem to keep anyone healthy. Yes, they have been bad, and haven’t been able to run the ball at all the last two weeks, but you also have to look at who is out there.

Only one of Demontrey Jacobs, Michael Jordan, Ben Brown, Layden Robinson and Michael Onwenu — the latter — was penciled in as a Day 1 starter throughout training camp. In fact, Jacobs and Brown weren’t even with the team this summer.

Drake Maye has done a better job avoiding the pass rush, but the line just hasn’t been cutting it lately. The hope is that they can get some guys healthy this week, and start putting something together as this increasingly lost season rolls along. If they can get guys to play together a few weeks in a row, then maybe they can build some continuity and actually play a game where they can protect the quarterback and open some holes for the running backs as well.

Until then, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

7. JaMycal Hasty looks good as a receiver: The Patriots haven’t been able to get anything going on the ground the last two games, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t get any production out of their running backs. JaMycal Hasty in particular deserves a special mention.

Hasty did a nice job catching the ball out of the backfield, including the first touchdown of the game. That play, in particular, was a great individual play by Hasty to make multiple guys miss and get into the end zone.

“We’re hot to the back,” Drake Maye explained after the game. “They ended up bringing in a safety, dropped out the defensive end on the opposite side. Find a completion. 3rd-and 10, we’re in field goal range.”

It was nice to see Hasty make an impact on offense, and maybe give the Patriots another option from the backfield. They need it.

8. Hunter Henry is the best target the Patriots have: Speaking of need: the Patriots are in dire need of some talented receivers to help out their rookie quarterback. They do have a very good weapon in Hunter Henry who is, by far, the most reliable target for Drake Maye right now.

Not only is he a solid player and team captain, but he consistently makes big plays: of the Patriots’ 10 longest gains on Sunday, four went to Henry. In total, he caught eight passes for 92 yards — most on the day for either team.

The Patriots are still in need of more playmakers, but having a reliable one in the middle of the field is going to be big for Drake Maye moving forward.

9. Two point conversion math: With the Patriots down 15 points in the fourth quarter, they scored a touchdown on a 22-yard hookup between Drake Maye and K.J. Osborn. They then had a decision to make because they needed a two-point conversion at some point if they wanted to tie the contest.

The question is: should they go for the two right then, with 8 minutes left, or should they just kick the extra point and save the two-point attempt until their next touchdown? Personally, I think the math is pretty simple: you go for the two early because now you know what you need the rest of the way — a perspective shared by Jerod Mayo after the game as well.

“At some point in time you have to go for two,” he said. “I just wanted to at least know what situation we were going to be in with more time on the clock. We went for two on the first one. I’m sure other people see it a different way. It’s just a philosophical thing.”

As noted above, the Patriots knew that they would have to get a two-point conversion at some point since there wasn’t a lot of time left. The question was then whether they would going to have one possession or two to get it. Whether or not you get the two points is irrelevant at that moment, because you have the same chance with 8 minutes left that you do with, say, 30 seconds left.

People may like the idea of only being down by one possession, but the whole point is that you know what’s necessary and can script accordingly. What has to happen is that you have to take the result out of the equation. The simple fact is that you want to have as much information as possible for the rest of the game, which is exactly what you got and what Mayo did.

10. Patriots have become the ‘get right’ game: The Patriots are quickly becoming the worst team in the NFL, and the “get right” game for every other team in the league. It’s never a good feeling when other teams look your way as the team that they can start to feel good about themselves after playing.

The Patriots were bad last year, but at least their defense provided some resistance when the offense could not get out of its own way time and again. So far in 2024, it’s been an embarrassing start to the season for them in all three phases.