The New England Patriots were defeated by the Washington Commanders on Sunday night at FedEx Field, dropping their record to 1-2 in their first preseason under head coach Jerod Mayo.
New England has struggled in all three exhibition games and will need to improve quickly ahead of their Week 1 battle against the Cincinnati Bengals if they are to have any chance of having a somewhat successful season.
After this preseason finale, let’s take a look at who had the best performance and who had the worst performance for the Patriots:
WINNER: QB Drake Maye
Maye entered the field for New England’s second offensive series and led his unit down the field for a touchdown, which was a pass from rookie quarterback to running back Kevin Harris.
The third overall pick finished the day (five drives) with 126 yards and that lone touchdown, while completing 65 percent of his passes. It would have been nice to see more sustained drives from the offense under his command, but he looked better than the other two quarterbacks (Jacoby Brissett and Joe Milton III) who threw passes.
LOSER: Entire offensive line
It’s hard to imagine a worse effort from a position group in a game than what this offensive line put up Sunday.
The unit was penalized 11 times, repeatedly failed in pass protection attempts and failed to safely put the ball in the quarterback’s hands twice.
Yes, New England was without David Andrews, who probably would have been better with his snaps, but that’s no excuse for the rest of the problems. The most annoying problem was the illegal formation penalties, as the group was warned repeatedly and continued to do so anyway. Mayo called them “undisciplined” in his postgame press conference.
WINNER: LB Christian Elliss
Elliss was all over the field in that game. He led the team in tackles (11) and was one of four players to record a tackle for loss. That performance alone could be enough to earn him a spot on the practice squad.
Unfortunately, Elliss left that game with a head injury after hitting a teammate’s leg against the helmet.
LOSERS: Young defensive backs
Marcellas Dial and Azizi Hearn were targeted early and often by Trace McSorley late in the game. They were beaten repeatedly and each received two defensive pass interference penalties, allowing Washington to score 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
New England’s backcourt suffered a number of injuries last season, so younger players could be called upon to play.
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