BSJ Game Report: Titans 20, Patriots 17 (OT) - Despite Maye's heroics, NE can't deliver against 1-win Tennessee

Everything you need to know from the Patriots’ loss to the Titans in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

HEADLINES

Patriots come up short: In a horribly played mistake-prone game with two teams obviously headed by rookie head coaches, the Patriots led 10-7 early in the third quarter but trailed 17-10 with 4:27 left. The Patriots drove down deep to the Titans' 5 with 4 seconds left before Drake Maye did this to tie the game.

The Titans shot themselves in the foot for about the 100th time when they fumbled a snap on third down in overtime to leave themselves with just a field goal.

The Patriots had a first down at the Titans' 41 with 2:17 left in overtime when Maye tried for a home run to Kayshon Boutte and was intercepted for the second and final time in the game.

"We got to be better. I have to be better. Coaches have to be better," Jerod Mayo said. "We go back to the drawing board.

"We never want to lose games. I feel like crap right now, so it's hard to really pull out positives out of this one. For me, at least."

Maye did a lot good, but three turnovers hurt the cause as well: Maye was the entirety of the Patriots' offense since the backs only had 15 yards on 12 carries. Maye ran eight times for 95 yards. He completed 29 of 41 passes for 206 yards, was sacked four times. Maye's first interception didn't lead to points because the Titans played like idiots and Mason Rudolph was picked off in the end zone. His strip sack, which happened when he held the ball and tried to scramble, led to the go-ahead touchdown. His final interception came when the Patriots were just a couple of first downs from field-goal range.

"Made some bad decisions, especially that one at the end," Maye said. "There one at the end there, we got a chance to go down there, at least tie it up. We're on our own 40, and it was first down. So just got to be better. I think some decisions that I made throughout the game that would have impacted the outcome, and take that upon myself. ... I was just glad to find a way, then the end of the fourth, and this came up short, so maybe I go back and learn from it, and especially me, and I gotta take these and take advantage of these reps that I'm getting and, you know, in the game, and I gotta play better."

"Look, he's a guy out there trying to make a play. He's trying to make a play," Mayo said. "And I think sometimes, you know as well as he has played, sometimes we forget how young he is, and he's going to continue to develop, and he'll be a good quarterback in this league. And look, we'll all learn from this, myself included. ... I think the obvious thing is just his mental toughness and ability to really change the page and being a resilient player, that's a great quality to have as a quarterback, and he's a good competitor.

"Never want to go out there and turn the ball over. I mean, we came into the game saying we need to get turnovers and not turn the ball over. That's the recipe for us to win football games, and we just didn't do that today. He'll learn from his mistakes. That's one thing you want to go back to a characteristic. He learns from his mistakes, and he'll be better for it."

Defense has another rough day: By the end of the game, the Patriots allowed the Mason Rudolph-led Titans to gain 400 yards, control the ball for 39 minutes (Patriots were at 29), convert 7 of 17 third downs and rush for 167 yards (4.3 average). Just needing a stop in overtime with Maye having momentum, the Titans had 13 plays for 72 yards and they converted two third downs. The Titans had rushes of 7, 5, 5, 4, 3, 9, 3 and 5 yards.

"It was very tough," a disappointed Mayo said of the overtime drive. "You know, though we'll watch the film and see what happened, but it was tough. Those long drives have hurt us at times this year."

TURNING POINT

On third and 5 at the New England 45 in overtime, the Patriots brought an all-out blitz but Rudolph was able to complete a 14-yard pass to Calvin Ridley between Christian Gonzalez and Jaylin Hawkins, who walloped him. That put the Titans in field-goal range.

SECOND GUESS

Some people will say not going for two and the win after Maye's play as time expired. I don't know, he had just run around. Maybe I guess. Mayo didn't really want to discuss it.

"I thought that was the right thing to do at the time," Mayo said.

"I don't want to get into that. It's a good question. I just don't want to get into it."

The worst sequence was before halftime. Patriots needed 1 yard with 1:38 after Maye completed passes for 23 yards to Kendrick Bourne on the first two plays. Ja'Mychal Hasty and Rhamondre Stevenson went for no gain, forcing a punt back to the Titans. Lucky for New England, the Titans might be worse situationally than they are, which is saying something.

Oh, and trying a 56-yard field goal into the wind was dumb too.

FOUR UP

QB Drake Maye: He was the entirety of the offense and they wouldn't have been in the game without his heroics. I'm going to excuse the turnovers this time.

DE Deatrich Wise: Had a sack and three total pressures.

PR Marcus Jones: Averaged 34.5 yards on two huge punt returns.

TE Hunter Henry: Caught 7 of 8 passes (he almost caught the other one) for team-high 56 yards.

THREE DOWN

Run defense: The two backs ran 33 times for 150 yards, including a long of 32 yards.

Run blocking: You can't play NFL football running 12 times for 15 yards. That's embarrassing.

S Marte Mapu: He seemed to whiff on more than few tackles.

INJURIES

DE Deatrich Wise (left foot): Returned to the game.

DT Jaquelin Roy (left shoulder): Returned to the game.

TWO TAKES BEDARD WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

Another winnable game goes by the wayside: Lump this in with the Dolphins and Jaguars game. Like both those games, the Titans tried everything they could to hand you the game. I mean, they had 10 penalties for 67 yards, made egregious mistakes punting to Marcus Jones, turned it over in the end zone, didn't keep Maye in the pocket ... and you still lost the game thanks to your three turnovers, kicking a 56-yard field, 8 of your own penalties, not being able to make Rudolph beat you. Mayo got (slightly) outcoached by Brian Callahan. 

Well, at least you got the QB it appears: Yeah, this is a weird game. I don't blame you if you're excited just from the perspective of what Maye did in this game. Loved seeing him being put in that position at the end of the game, and he was cool as a cucumber. That's great and extremely important. You just have to wonder if he has the coaches around him to help him tread water as the personnel gets built up.