With two games down, the Patriots’ offense is a far cry from the high-scoring unit that blazed a path to 14 wins last season.
This group has a lot to figure out, and they’ve averaged just 11.5 points and a single touchdown per game in the process.
New England got its first win of the season at home, a 20-3, rain-ridden clash that could have easily sent Aaron Rodgers into early retirement. It’s important to get the goose egg off their backs, but New England sustained a slew of injuries along the way, including what appeared to be a serious ankle injury for right guard Michael Onwenu. He wasn't spotted in the locker room postgame.
First, some positives: Romeo Doubs redeemed himself from a stinker of a debut against the Seahawks. He had three catches for 96 yards, including one of the few truly explosive plays that broke through the monotony of Sunday’s slog. Quarterback Drake Maye hit him with a 63-yard bomb down the right side of the field in the third quarter, which he hauled in. Doubs punched the air, stomped, and screamed into triumph afterwards. This guy would barely string five words together in the locker room earlier this week, so it’s a big positive to see the player who showed out in training camp, and see him express so much joy in front of the Foxborough faithful.
Running back TreVeyon Henderson’s return from injury provided the offense’s other major opportunity for chunk plays. He scored the team’s only offensive touchdown on a 39-yard drive, aided heavily by a clinic in blocking from his teammates DeMario Douglas and Morgan Moses.
That’s it for the pleasantries. Defense won this game for the Patriots. The offense moved the ball effectively on the ground and through the air, but not without falling into familiar bad habits.
Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen picked off Maye on a blunder of an underthrown ball to Hunter Henry in double coverage. Henry put the onus on himself postgame by admitting he didn't go back to the ball, (as did head coach Mike Vrabel), but it was still another head-scratching decision from Maye that resulted in an interception. He’s now thrown four picks through two games. He threw a total of eight through 17 games in 2025, and there were other risky moments. Maye waited too long with the ball palmed on one hand and took a coverage sack when he basically ran into T.J. Watt. He was lucky to get away with just the sack, one of three he took on the day.
Rhamondre Stevenson actually had an overall positive day, but he silenced a raucous Gillette Stadium crowd with a lost fumble on the opening drive of the game. To be fair, Doubs also technically fumbled on a catch early in the game, but it was out of bounds and thus harmless. Stevenson’s turnover was the moment the ushered in comparisons to the five-giveaway disaster the Patriots showed against the Steelers in 2025.
Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels set the bar high last year. His offense was second in points per game and third in yards. But their red zone offense was actually ranked 20th, and the Patriots made just one trip to the red zone all day Sunday, (they didn’t convert).
Can the Patriots find their offensive firepower while star receiver A.J. Brown recovers from a high ankle sprain? McDaniels gave plenty of the roster a look in Week 2. Even Efton Chism got a shot with Maye, albeit with a bizarre play to the flat that got him steamrolled by Pittsburgh’s defense.
There’s room to grow, and there’s also the context of who’s on the other side. Seattle may be running back a historically talented defense, and Maye had to survive the triple-headed monster of T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, and Alex Highsmith. But the combination of leftover warts on this offensive group and the injuries that continue to pile up, (tight end Eli Raridon also never returned to Sunday’s game) makes this work in progress a little trickier than one would hope for a team trying to get back to the Super Bowl. Frankly, they’re lucky both their opponents fielded below-average offenses, (taking into account Sam Darnold’s injury in Week 1).
When asked whether he's confident the Patriots will be able to score like last year, Douglas was typically optimistic.
"We know it's going to come," he said. "We growing. We finding ourselves. It's going come."
The next two games are about surviving a grinding stretch of schedule. To come out of the first four matchups 2-2 would keep New England in a solid spot, but they’re going to need more than one touchdown from their offense a game.
