The New England Patriots lost 24-3 to the New York Jets on Thursday night and are now 1-2 for the year.

Below you can read who caught our attention when we watched them live, positively or negatively.

Loser: Offensive line. New England’s pass protection remains their biggest problem through three games. That was no different on Thursday night, when Jacoby Brissett was sacked five times and had a pressure rate of 56.5 percent (!). Drake Maye was then sacked twice on his one drive.

Every starting player up front was pressured at least twice, while the Jets’ defense under Robert Saleh posted its highest percentage since 2021. The offense will continue to be stuck in the mud unless pass protection improves.

Winner: P Bryce Baringer. The brightest spot of the night for New England was Baringer, who continued his red-hot start to his sophomore NFL season. Of Baringer’s five punts, he finished with three inside the 20 with no touchbacks — for a total net of 43.6 yards.

Losers: LB Raekwon McMillan and LB Jahlani Tavai. Replacing the injured Ja’Whaun Bentley, it was a tough showing for both McMillan and Tavai. New England’s tackling was a disaster all night, missing a total of 13 tackles, according to NextGenStats, with the linebacker duo involved in several of those misses. Aaron Rodgers also had no trouble attacking the middle of the field, while poor containment also led to him extending plays outside the pocket.

“That’s one of the things that I’m really disappointed with as a defensive-minded coach, especially at the second level. We struggled with tackling all day,” Jerod Mayo said. “Again, even when we got them in the backfield, the lack of fundamentals, the lack of discipline, the lack of execution was still very apparent.”

Loser: RB Rhamondre Stevenson. New England’s game plan was confusing from the start, as they ran just twice on their first two drives. But Stevenson never really got going, finishing with 23 yards on just six carries. His biggest run of the night was even overturned due to a facemask penalty on the back, while Stevenson then fumbled for the third straight game — this time for a loss.

Winner: WR DeMario Douglas. After seeing just three targets through the first two weeks, New England made a point to get Douglas more involved Thursday night with several planned touches. Douglas also caught one of the offense’s few successful play-action passes downfield for 22 yards en route to leading the team with seven receptions on nine targets for 69 yards.

Loser: CB Alex Austin. With Marco Wilson as a healthy scratch, Alex Austin got his first defensive action of the season. His first snap resulted in a touchdown when he missed a tackle on Allen Lazard on a quick screen. New England’s hunt for a consistent third boundary cornerback continues as the entire pass defense needs to improve.

Honorable mentions:

• It’s hard to blame Brissett too much for dealing with so much pressure, but he did have a bad miss against an open Austin Hooper over the middle. He still seems to be leaving a few plays on the field each game.
• Maye played a limited amount of play and didn’t see much action as a result, but he did make an impressive completion on fourth down against Douglas.
• Another big day for Keion White, who had a team-high four pressures. Rodgers appeared to evade White several times with a quick release.
• Two defenders who finished with sacks were Deatrich Wise Jr. and Joshua Uche. They are New England’s best secondary rushers behind Keion White, with Uche looking like his old self again after an injury-plagued 2023.
• Christian Gonzalez ran 30 of his 34 routes in the starting lineup against Garrett Wilson and allowed just four catches for 25 yards and a touchdown on a perfectly placed pass from Rodgers.
• On Thursday evening, the injuries piled up: Michael Jordan (knee), Caedan Wallace (knee) and Alex Austin (ankle) were out.