2024 Week 6: Texans 41, Patriots 21
The score was a perfect indicator of what happened in this game, the Texans whooped the Patriots, except it could have been even worse if Houston was fully on their A-game.
I see the Texans (5-1) as a luckier version of the Falcons. Four of their wins were by one possession, and their loss was being blown out by Minnesota.
The Patriots (1-5) are crumbling. The team was already weak but they keep getting hurt… the O-line in particular has been decimated. There’s not much to talk about since this game was mostly just an above-average team beating up on a bad team but Drake Maye did debut.
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Drake Maye Debut:
- Congratulations Drake (20/33 for 243 yards, 3TDs/2 INTs, 5 rushes for 38 yards), you get your very own section!
I thought Maye played exactly how I had scouted him. This was a boring, pre-season-y type of game plan. Maye didn’t really make any reads and was just throwing pre-designed passes to where receivers should have been, not where they actually were. If the first read wasn’t open he looked jumpy and that’s when the bad throws happened.
As always the main thing I look for in QBs coming out of college is, do they use the middle of the field? In-between the numbers Maye was (5/11 with 1TD and a dropped INT) which isn’t terrible on the stats… but a lot of these throws were either snap-throw with no read/decision making or in he threw into bad spots for the receiver. Maye left one hanging for Demario Douglas that he reeled in and was lucky it’s not 2009 because he would have been carted off the field in that era. Good ol’ fashion hospital ball.
[Two late notes: Half of Maye’s incompletions were over the middle of the field, and he had the most rushing yards on the team — 38 to Gibson’s 19.]
For a rookie debut, this wasn’t bad, it’s not unforgivable to be shaken in your first NFL start. He can run a playbook well which is what you want as a bare minimum from a rookie. What the Pats truly have in Maye will be revealed in 4-5-6+ weeks. The only flash I saw was his touchdown pass to Kayshon Boutte (3-59-1/3).
WR Report:
It’s too early to say right now who is in the best standing with Maye, the first look was usually Demario Douglas (6-92-1/9) who had 9 targets and nearly 100 yards. Douglas has been hot as of late and he’s the easiest throw for Maye right now. The Patriots don’t usually stay in games so Douglas gets a lot of work then against prevent defense.
As for Boutte, Kendrick Bourne (2-9-0/2), or Ja’Lynn Polk (1-4-0/4)... I’m not sure yet. They might all be random ‘let’s hope they score!’ guys behind Douglas, the RBs, and Hunter Henry (3-41-1/5).
- Tank Dell (7-57-1/9) had a good game, this will be the norm until Nico Collins returns, and then it’s back to The Island of Misfit Toys for Tank.
RB Report:
The Texans traded Cam Akers to the Vikings the same day the Adams and Amari trade went down so this was lost in the panic of that. I think Houston was going to cut Akers with Dameon Pierce (8-76-1) playing well again, and they wanted to get some value out of him.
D/ST Report:
- Will Anderson (3 sacks, 4 TFLs, 1 PD) took advantage of the broken Patriots O-line. They have had 6 different units to start the season. This game will help Anderson’s numbers at the end of the year but I still don’t believe in him. I think Houston wasted a lot of capital moving up to draft him. ¼ of his career sacks came in this game.
image source: (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)