MUNICH – The Patriots struggles in international games continued in a 35-10 loss to the Lions at Allianz Arena in Germany on Sunday.
Over the last few years, I've been lucky enough to cover Patriots games in three different European cities, something you don't take for granted. Pats fans in Frankfurt, London, and now Munich have been terrific. There's real interest in the team over here, and genuine kid-like excitement about seeing their favorite team up close for folks who stay awake at all hours of the day to take in Patriots games typically thousands of miles away.
Unfortunately, the Patriots haven't held up their end of the bargain. In 2023, we witnessed the final days of the Bill Belichick and Mac Jones eras when the Pats fell 10-6 to the Colts in nearby Frankfurt. In the following season, the Patriots fell to the Jaguars 32-16 during QB Drake Maye's rookie season in London. For a juiced-up fanbase, those were two disappointing results that didn't reflect the support of the Patriots overseas.
On Sunday, the Patriots struggles across the pond continued. Maye (ankle) was knocked out just 10 plays into the game, with backup QB Tommy DeVito replacing him, as New England's season of injuries and defensive regression continued. Without Maye, the Patriots offense was ineffective; he was the one player the Pats simply couldn't afford to lose to injury. Like most teams, the Patriots offense struggled without its starting quarterback.
After losing their starting quarterback 10 plays into the game, the Patriots offense produced just 81 total yards on 45 plays (1.8 yards per play). On one drive with Maye, New England went on a 70-yard field-goal drive. Obviously, it's not fair to put that all on DeVito, but it puts in perspective how Maye-centric New England's offense has become.
Although the air comes out of the balloon for any team that loses its starting quarterback, the Patriots defense is a real issue. In back-to-back weeks vs. the Packers and Lions, the Pats opponents have generated 24 explosive plays, with Detroit's stars showing out with a 56-yard touchdown by Amon-Ra St. Brown and a huge day for Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs (252 scrimmage yards, 2 TDs). For a defense that led the Patriots to Super Bowl LX in 2025, the tenets of a Vrabel-Kuhr led unit have mostly gone by the wayside.
"When you play tough teams in this league, and you don't play well, you have no chance," head coach Mike Vrabel said post-game. "We're 0-0. We're heading into the bye and we've got to get some things fixed and changed and corrected."
With the Patriots now losing three of their last four games to the NFC North, and their starting quarterback injured, New England needs to decide whether to fight to regain control of its season during the bye, with its next game in LA against the Chargers in Week 12, or let this season slip through their fingers.
Here are eight takeaways as the Patriots drop to 5-5 after a Week 10 loss to the Lions.
1. QB Drake Maye (Ankle) Injured 10 Plays into Sunday's Game, Doesn't Return vs. Lions
The Patriots poor injury luck hit rock bottom 10 plays into Sunday's loss to the Lions, when star QB Drake Maye left the game with an ankle injury. Maye moved the Patriots offense into the red zone with three successful pass plays and an 11-yard scramble, adding +0.44 EPA per drop-back. However, he injured his ankle when Lions pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson sacked him, stalling the Patriots opening drive (Hutchinson was also hurt on the play).
New England is heading into a Week 11 bye, giving Maye two weeks to rest before the Patriots next game. Still, things went from bad to worse on the injury front. Speaking after the game, head coach Mike Vrabel offered a brief update on Maye's status after he didn't return to the game due to his ankle injury.
"I know it was a lower leg injury. I don't know the exact details of it, but I know he couldn't go back in," Vrabel said.
2. Struggles Continue for Patriots WR A.J. Brown in Injury-Plagued Season
After missing the last two games with a knee injury, Brown had two catches for 27 yards on six targets in his return on Sunday, but it was cut short by another hamstring injury. Brown added a hamstring injury on his best play of the day: a 22-yard slant catch in the second half. Besides his first 30 snaps of the season in Seattle, Brown hasn't looked like himself, with a high-ankle sprain and a lingering knee issue flaring up in the opening 10 weeks.
When he is out there, Brown has struggled to play through contact on his downfield targets. At this stage of his career, Brown isn't a great separator, so he has to win by out-muscling corners at the catch point. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to do so consistently, as shown on a stop-route target where he couldn't create vertical push to separate underneath and come back to the ball, and the pass went through his hands on a contested catch.
At this point in the season, Brown isn't giving the Patriots offense much, so it may be time for New England to chalk it up to a lost season for the star receiver.
3. CB Christian Gonzalez Up-and-Down in Matchup vs. Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown
After his worst game as a pro vs. the Packers in Week 9, there were discussions all week about Gonzalez's dip in performance, with the Patriots star cornerback needing a bounce-back game.
On Sunday, it was a mixed bag for Gonzalez, who shadowed Lions star WR Amon-Ra St. Brown on 16 routes, even traveling into the slot with St. Brown, which we don't see often. Gonzalez allowed a 56-yard touchdown to St. Brown on the Lions opening drive and was the primary coverage defender on St. Brown's 28-yard screen touchdown. On the positive side, Gonzalez recorded his first interception of the season covering St. Brown.
At first, the Patriots star corner's struggles continued as he allowed St. Brown to get loose for a 56-yard touchdown on the Lions opening drive. The Pats play the down in man coverage, with the Lions stressing their man-to-man schemes by running St. Brown out of a three-receiver bunch. Bunch formations have been successful vs. the Pats man coverage because they prevent New England's corners from pressing the receivers. St. Brown gets open off the line into the flat, and hits Gonzalez with a nasty juke to force a missed tackle, and the Patriots can't get the Lions wideout down in the open field.
Although that was a big play against Gonzalez, the Pats corner answered back by logging his first interception of the season with a great rep in two-man. With the Patriots playing out of a two-high safety shell, Gonzalez is playing low and inside St. Brown on an in-breaking route. Goff tries to force a pass into St. Brown and Gonzalez undercuts it for an interception.
Given he had the third-highest target share among wide receivers, it's not overly surprising to see Gonzalez shadow St. Brown. But my fear was St. Brown's quickness and YAC ability. On his 56-yard score, we saw those fears realized, while Gonzalez's response with a vintage man-coverage interception was a glimmer of hope.
4. Lions QB Jared Goff Hunts Big Plays vs. Patriots Blitzes (6-9, 144 Yards, TD vs. Blitz)
The Patriots defense is in a slump, allowing 36.7 points in their last three losses to the Bears, Packers, and Lions – all NFC North opponents.
Vrabel harps on 'X' plays, being DTF (details, techniques, fundamentals), and creating turnovers every week. The Patriots intercepted Lions QB Jared Goff twice. But this Pats defense isn't DTF right now, with missed tackles (12) and shaky open-field pursuit becoming too commonplace (220 YAC). We can discuss whether that's due to personnel or scheme, but the truth is it's both – the front doesn't create enough disruption on its own and the backend isn't swarming to the football fast enough to cover all the green grass in the secondary.
The Lions exposed an ongoing issue with the Patriots zone coverages on a huge 50-yard explosive to Gibbs that set up a second-quarter TD. The Pats bring a popular four-weak pressure where backside CB Charles Woods blitzes. The scheme overloads the Lions protection, leading to pressure by DT Christian Barmore, but Goff is able to climb the pocket to avoid the rush. At the same time, because Woods blitzed, there's no defender in the weak flat underneath S Craig Woodson, so Goff dumps the ball off to a wide-open Gibbs.
The Patriots reliance on zone blitzes because their four-man rushes struggle to get home is the main reason their zone structures are ineffective. Quarterbacks are throwing successfully into their blitzes, with the Pats relying on six-man coverages, which is leaving underneath voids in their zone structures. From this perspective, it feels like a personnel issue: the Patriots don't have enough pass rush to win upfront with just four rushers.
5. Backup QB Tommy DeVito, Offense Struggles Without Star QB Drake Maye
We're not going to get on DeVito for his performance after he was thrust into the game following Maye's first-quarter injury. It's challenging for any backup quarterback to enter mid-game with very little prep. Most of the time, the starting quarterback gets nearly every rep during practice, so you can't expect much from DeVito in this spot. That said, DeVito finished 12-of-24 for 81 passing yards, a touchdown, and an interception. New England only had 81 total yards on 45 plays with one touchdown drive without Maye (1.8 yards per play, -0.52 EPA/play).
The one nitpick of DeVito was some issues reading the field, getting locked on his initial read on his second-quarter interception, and leaving some passes too far inside when he had opportunities to push the ball into the sideline. DeVito had chances to hit wideouts Efton Chism III (wheel) and Kyle Williams (Cover-2 shot), but DeVito's ball placement threw the receivers back into the safeties coming into the play. If DeVito has to start games moving forward, improving his downfield accuracy on throws outside the numbers will be a must.
6. Patriots Start Sixth Different O-Line Combination in Loss to the Lions
With the injuries continuing to pile up at guard, the Patriots had to start their sixth different offensive line combination through 10 games. After activating him from injured reserve, veteran Greg Van Roten started the game at left guard. New England's starting five along the offensive line was LT Will Campbell, LG Greg Van Roten, C Jared Wilson, RG Matt Pryor, and RT Morgan Moses, who also left the game briefly due to a knee injury.
On initial viewing, DeVito and Maye were pressured on 18-of-37 dropbacks (48.6%). Like last week, the pressure rates always skyrocket when teams get behind on the scoreboard. Still, Pats QBs have faced pressure on 50.6% of their dropbacks, which isn't sustainable. On Sunday, LT Will Campbell struggled as well, allowing two sacks in pass protection. Van Roten (sack) and Pryor (two hurries) weren't major problems based on pressure rates. We'll have full breakdowns of each lineman in After Further Review.
7. Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson Plays Through Knee Injury (24 Snaps)
As for the Patriots backfield rotation, top RB Rhamondre Stevenson was active despite reports that he could miss multiple weeks due to a knee injury. Stevenson played 24 snaps, second among Pats running backs, with Corey Kiner leading the Pats RBs in snaps (25). Although he deserves credit for toughing it out, Stevenson had just five scrimmage yards on seven touches. New England's running game struggled, with just four successful runs for Kiner and Stevenson compared to six run stuffs for the Lions defense (37% success rate, 48th percentile). Not much went well for the offense with Maye out of the game.
8. Special Teams Review: P Mitch Wishnowsky Booms 57-Yard Punt in loss to Lions
Since we are struggling to find positives, Wishnowsky's 57-yard punt, downed at the DET 3, was a positive for the Patriots on Sunday. Wishnowsky punted eight times with a solid 45.5 net average and downed two punts inside the 20-yard line. The Pats punter continues to be solid while K Andy Borregales made both his kicks (33-yard FG, extra point). However, penalties in the kicking game are another issue, with Borregales sending a kickoff out of bounds and FB Reggie Gilliam being called for two infractions in his return to the lineup.
Along with hopefully using the extra rest to get their starting quarterback healthy, the Patriots need a hard reset during the bye week before traveling to face the Chargers in Week 12.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
