Patriots' Drake Maye throws three TDs but turns sloppy in 45-27 loss to Packers

Drake Maye put up three touchdown passes on Sunday, but the New England Patriots still lost 45-27 to the Green Bay Packers in a Week 9 game where the quarterback's production and his ball security pointed in different directions. In its player update on the game, USA TODAY Sports called the performance mixed and described Maye as "sloppy" in the defeat, even with the scoring throws.

The loss drops New England to 5-4. It is also the most points the defense has allowed this season, well past the 35 Jacksonville scored in New England's 6-35 loss. Twenty-seven points would have been enough to win most of the Patriots' games this year. Against Green Bay it left them 18 short, and the scoreboard pressure that came with falling behind helps explain why the passing day looked better on the stat sheet than it did on film.

The numbers on the season show how much that one afternoon moved things. Going into Sunday, New England had scored 184 points and allowed 162, a margin of plus-22. After the Packers game the totals are 211 scored and 207 allowed, so the margin is down to plus-4 in a single week. The Patriots had also been 3-0 at home before Green Bay won in Foxborough. On the road this season they are 2-3.

What it means for Detroit

The Patriots play the Detroit Lions on Sunday, November 15, on Fox, and the recent results don't settle much. New England's last four games have alternated: a 26-19 win over the Jets, a 24-30 loss at Chicago, a 24-19 win at Miami and now the Packers loss. The last time this team won two in a row was the three-game run over Pittsburgh's successors on the schedule, Buffalo, Las Vegas and the Jets, in the middle of the season. Stopping the damage on defense matters more this week than repeating Maye's touchdown total, and limiting giveaways is the clearest fix on offense.

The market has Detroit favored. On this site's odds board, which tracks 11 venues, Novig has the Lions at -141 on the moneyline and the Patriots at +138. The best Detroit price anywhere is BetRivers at -137, so the venues sit close together on the winner. The spread is Lions -2.5. Novig prices that side at -113, and FanDuel has the best number at -110.

The total is where the board differs most. Novig lists 51.5, with the over at -100 and the under at -117, while FanDuel has the best over price at 50.5 (-115). Sportsbook hold runs from 2.8% to 5.0% across the three markets. A total in the low 50s reflects how much scoring the Patriots have been part of lately: 72 combined points against Green Bay and 54 at Chicago.

For New England, the Detroit game is a chance to show that the Green Bay result was a one-off, both for a defense that just gave up 45 and for a young quarterback who scored three times and still came away with a mixed review.