The New England Patriots lost to the New York Jets 24-3 on Thursday Night Football, dropping to 1-2 on the year.

Here’s who caught our eye while watching live, both good and bad.

Loser: Offensive line. New England’s pass defense is still their biggest problem after three games. That was no different on Thursday night, when Jacoby Brissett was sacked five times and faced a pressure rate of 56.5 percent (!). Drake Maye was then sacked twice in his only attack.

Every starter on forward defense has been tasked with at least two pressures as the Jets defense under Robert Saleh reached its highest blitz rate since 2021. The offense will continue to get stuck in the mud if pass protection can’t improve.

Winner: P Bryce Baringer. The biggest bright spot of the night for New England was Baringer, who continued his brilliant start to his second NFL season. Of Baringer’s five punts, he completed three inside the 20-yard line with no touchbacks – a total net gain of 43.6 yards.

Losers: LB Raekwon McMillan and LB Jahlani Tavai. Filling in for the injured Ja’Whaun Bentley, both McMillan and Tavai had a rough outing. New England’s tackling was a disaster all night, missing 13 tackles in total, 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 also extending plays outside the pocket due to his poor defense.

“That’s one of the things that I’m very disappointed in as a defensive-minded coach, especially at the second level. We had trouble tackling all day,” Jerod Mayo said. “Once again, even when we met them in the backfield, clearly the lack of fundamentals, the lack of discipline and the lack of fair execution continued to show.”

Loser: RB Rhamondre Stevenson. New England’s game plan was puzzling from the start, as they only ran twice on their first two drives. Stevenson, however, couldn’t get much done, gaining just 23 yards on just six carries. His biggest run of the night was even taken back for a facemask penalty while Stevenson then had a fumble for the third consecutive game – this time losing the run.

Winner: WR DeMario Douglas. After only three faceoffs in the first two weeks, New England made it a point to get Douglas more involved with several targeted touches on Thursday night. Douglas also caught one of the offense’s few successful play-action passes for 22 yards, making him the team’s best player with seven catches on nine faceoffs for 69 yards.

Loser: CB Alex Austin. With Marco Wilson out for health reasons, Alex Austin made his first appearance of the season on defense. His first snap resulted in a touchdown as he missed a tackle on Allen Lazard on a quick screen. New England’s hunt for a reliable third-bound cornerback continues as the entire pass defense needs to improve.

Honorable Mentions:

• You can’t blame Brissett too much for handling that pressure, but he did miss a shot from Austin Hooper up the middle. There still seem to be a few plays per game that he leaves on the field.
• Mayes’ limited playing time didn’t produce much action, but he did make an impressive pass for the fourth try against Douglas.
• Another big day for Keion White, who had the most pressure situations on his team with four. Rodgers seemed to evade White several times with a quick throw.
• Two defenders who finished with sacks were Deatrich Wise Jr. and Joshua Uche. They were New England’s best secondary rushers behind Keion White, with Uche looking back to his old self after an injury-plagued 2023.
• Christian Gonzalez lined up ahead of Garrett Wilson on 30 of his 34 routes and allowed only four catches for 25 yards and one touchdown after a perfectly placed ball from Rodgers.
• On Thursday evening, the injuries piled up as Michael Jordan (knee), Caedan Wallace (knee) and Alex Austin (ankle) were out.