I, like most people in the country, watched the New England Patriots vs. New York Jets game last night on the couch. I was comfortable and safe, and the most I had to do was run to the bathroom during the commercial break so I didn’t miss anything.

And I feel like I got hit by a truck this morning. I can’t even imagine how Jacoby Brissett is feeling today.

1. Before I get serious about these Fan Notes, I think it would be helpful for all of us to make a few hard confessions. It’s okay, we’re all friends here. This is a place of healing.

2. First, we all have to admit that, despite ourselves, that Week 1 Bengals game set some unrealistic expectations for the 2024 Patriots. We said all the right things, like “they’ll probably only win 4 or 5 games this season” and “Week 1 really doesn’t mean anything,” but deep down we all thought New England might surprise a few people this year. A narrow OT loss the following week didn’t do much to dampen those thoughts, either, because that was a very winnable game and they were essentially one blocked field goal away from going 2-0. So that’s on us.

3. Second, we all have to admit that we were way more disappointed with Drake Maye’s 2024 debut than any of us have any right to be. We thought the final score would be 24-10 after Maye put together a beautiful scoring drive that gave us hope and put to rest any debate about who would start at QB the rest of the year. But Maye performed exactly as could be expected when he entered this current offense as a rookie, and regardless of who’s under center — as we’ve all been saying since April but chose to semi-stop about earlier this month — we’re in for a long season.

Okay, are you feeling better?

Yeah, me neither.

4. This was a game where the youth and inexperience of this team, at every level from coaching down, was on full display for the world to see, Thursday Night Football required an immediate turnaround without rest, with a new game plan and new schemes and a short memory of the week before. And the New England Patriots looked utterly unprepared to play a football game last night, in every way imaginable. From being outplayed at the line to an inability to make adjustments to getting exhausted early to poor tackling to dumb mental mistakes and penalties to poor playcalling, there was simply nothing that made me think this final week of preparation was handled well.

5. And that’s okay, honestly; new head coach, new staff, new approach… there’s going to be growing pains. It’s what you do going forward that matters.

6. And “moving forward” is something I hope the offensive line remembers how to do, because if they won one snap at the line of scrimmage, I missed it. I just bullied them and beat them from whistle to whistle.

7. And you want to tell yourself that injuries played a big part. And they did; they did. The entire left side of the line is a mess. But it’s also lack of experience, lack of talent, lack of depth.

8. In other words, how dare this offensive line play as poorly as we all thought during the offseason?

9. What really worries me about this line? I’m starting to think that Michael Onwenu just isn’t cut out for life at right tackle. Tackling requires a certain level of quickness and lateral agility that Onwenu just isn’t displaying right now. I’m going to put myself through the season week day by telling myself that Onwenu needs to be so focused on backing up Layden Robinson that his own duties (heh. Duty) suffer. Because if he isn’t, the Patriots have zero tackles on either side of the line and too many serviceable guards.

10. We also have to accept that David Andrews is past his prime. He is still a good center, but his best days are behind him, and that is no one’s fault but Father Time.

11. Why the Jets didn’t blitz on every down is beyond me. I don’t think there was a single blitz all night. But hey, when you get that much pressure rushing three or four at a time, I guess you don’t need to blitz all the time.

12. I want to say that we all saw the low point of this O-line for the season at the end of the half of Hail Mary, where the Jets only had three, the Patriots had five linemen protecting them, and they were still able to hit Brissett throwing. I want to say that’s the low point. I want to say that so badly.

13. If I were Jacoby Brissett this morning, I’d be reading every footnote in my contract to see what it says about hazard pay.

14. It’s not all on the line; Brissett missed a few gimmes. A mid-range crosser to Austin Hooper comes to mind, as does an out route to Polk that he threw in the dirt. But this team simply has no real weapons, and there’s no reason for any defense to worry about a single Patriot whose primary job is to catch passes. I think a few receivers on this team have bright futures ahead of them, but limited receiving skills + terrible offensive line + veteran QB with a limited ceiling = whatever we get now.

15. The bottom line is this: The 2024 Patriots are a very limited team. If they get into a scenario where they can control the game and play perfect football and their opponent makes a few mistakes, they can win the game (see Bengals). If they can control the game and play near-perfect football and their opponent makes no mistakes, they have a chance to win the game (see Seahawks). If they can’t control the game and have to deviate from the plan in any way, it’s going to be a tough night.

16. Not to take anything away from the Jets. Aaron Rodgers looked better last night than he has in maybe 2021. The guy was just on a roll and incredibly accurate. I counted six times he rolled to his right, the Patriots had to get out of their clutch, and he hit a receiver full speed for a big gain. You could tell last night meant something to him and you have to tip your hat to a future Hall of Famer.

17. That’s why I don’t want to criticize the defense too much, because they were in an impossible situation. After a tough overtime game three days ago, they were on the field for over 40 minutes. No Patriots offense lasted longer than four minutes and 36 seconds. They were facing a quarterback who could diagnose the coverage before the snap and make the right play every time (which goes back to my first point about not being prepared). And the fact that they only gave up three touchdowns is actually pretty impressive.

18. That said… this game could legitimately have been a 10-3 loss if the plays where a Patriot made contact with a Jet behind the line of scrimmage had been turned into a tackle for loss instead of a whiffed hit and a seven-yard gain. Or if players hadn’t taken three steps and shouldered the quarterback. Or if guys had chosen not to body slam the runner.

19. One glaring hole in the defense, however, is the complete lack of a true coverage safety. I like Kyle Dugger and Jabrill Peppers, but their play styles are somewhat similar and we no longer have Devin McCourty in the backfield to patrol the deep third of the field. It forces the Patriots to be a bit more conservative with their positional groupings.

20. I will also say that, of possibly any other quarterback that would ever play the game, that Garrett Wilson TD was a 97-yard pick-six by Christian Gonzalez. He read the play perfectly and jumped the route with excellent timing. Aaron Rodgers is simply an all-time great and, in my opinion, the best ball-placing quarterback that ever did it.

21. To be clear, there is a LOT more to being the GOAT than just being able to throw a football anywhere you want. You have to take other things into account. Things like, among many other things, not being a complete and utter dick.

22. I think a Drake Maye appearance in Week 5 is more than possible. I see no reason why his first game ever as a pro should be away against one of the best teams in the NFC, but in Week 5 they play at home against the Tua-less Dolphins, which suddenly looks like a much better matchup.

23. I will also say, if you are so worried about a rookie getting shocked or having his confidence damaged by being ruined by a good defense, you shouldn’t have drafted him third. Mental toughness was an issue for Mac Jones, so we don’t need more of that in this system.

24. I honestly think they want to keep Maye safe. Jacoby Brissett looked like a defeated man, by any measure of the term, as he limped into the locker room last night with a towel over his head.

25. There were definitely some positives in this one. The play of the game, from the Patriots’ perspective, was a 15-yard completion from Maye to Douglas on 4th-and-10, with Maye deflecting the safeties and firing an absolute bullet over the middle to set up 1st-and-goal at the 7. So what if Maye got sacked again on the exact same play? That was a great read and throw. You get a few of those from the rookie every game, and you build on them.

26. We saw a deep shot to Tyquan Thornton. Who cares if it was his only attempt and it was incomplete? He drew the DPI call.

27. Bryce Baringer Makes New Case for Back-to-Back Patriots MVP. Who Cares if He’s the Punter?

28. But here’s the real positive from this game: This loss is a great opportunity to test the mental toughness of this team and its coaching staff. In years past, the Patriots have taken a loss like this and used it as fuel to go inward, do some soul-searching, come together as a team, and come out much stronger. You think about games like that 31-0 loss to the Bills in Week 1 of the 2003 season or that awful MNF loss to Kansas City in 2014 or those back-to-back December losses in 2018 and how they galvanized the team, and you hope that at least some of that happens in the next few days. They have a mini-bye now, which is a great opportunity to take a deep dive into the strength of the team.

29. Not that I expect a win on Sunday. But I would like to see them hang in there for a while before it all goes wrong.

30. And on a personal note, I’m glad I don’t have to watch Thursday Night Football for the rest of the year. We also just watched our last Patriots primetime game of 2024, which is a win for me.

31. I suppose the NFL could move the Week 17 or 18 game against the Chargers and Bills to primetime… but for some reason I just don’t see that happening.

All the way to the other side of the country for a game against the best team in the NFC. That’s going to be a blast.