It was a long and painful fall back to reality for the New England Patriots in Thursday’s 24-3 loss to the New York Jets. A few weeks ago, some fans wondered if the Patriots could even make the playoffs after their victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

That crowd imploded along with the Patriots’ offense on prime time television.

They were unable to do anything against the Jets and were limited to a field goal and 139 yards. The stench from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford could be smelled all the way to Foxborough.

However, the Patriots have also been battling many issues, including injuries and road play. Playing on a short week after going into overtime in last week’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks was not an ideal situation for the team. Now they get a little break to reflect on the current state of the team after three games.

Here are the five key takeaways from Thursday’s game:

The offensive is horrific and something must be done

Help isn’t in sight for the Patriots’ offensive line — or at least not the kind of help the unit desperately needs. They’ll have to wait until free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft before they can really roll up their sleeves and do more than duct tape a broken engine.

At the same time, executive personnel manager Eliot Wolf can’t just fold his arms and accept things as they are. Today, fans are arguing over who should start at quarterback between Jacoby Brissett and rookie Drake Maye (we’ll get to that in a minute).

But the offensive line was so bad that there will be no discussion when Brissett eventually gets hurt. That’s inevitable if the Patriots continue to play with the same lineup they’ve been putting out. According to NextGenStats by Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, the Patriots’ offensive line allowed 22 pressures on 35 dropbacks.

This is incredibly terrible even for the Patriots.

It’s not even Thanksgiving yet and the Jets have already feasted on the quarterbacks like a family dinner. They finished the game with seven sacks and 15 quarterback hits. It’s time to bring in experienced free agents and see if they can at least figure something out. David Bakhtiari, DJ Humphries and Donovan Smith should all be on the call list.

The defense eventually collapsed but was still competitive

Aaron Rodgers made it look easy.

The Jets established their running game early and Rodgers extended the attacks with his legs and precision. On defense, the Patriots looked exhausted and drained.

One reason was that the team was on a short week, and another was the injuries finally starting to make themselves known. Ja’Whaun Bentley is out for the rest of the season with a torn pectoral muscle, and Christian Barmore is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with blood clots. Meanwhile, Oshane Ximines was placed on the injured list before Thursday’s game.

Keep in mind that this is the same defensive unit that traded Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons in August.

Against the Jets, they looked like a shadow of their former self. Somehow, they still managed to hold Rodgers and the Jets offense to 24 points. In most other cases, the game would have been wide open and an even bigger loss.

Keion White continued to add pressure to the defense and Christian Gonzalez put on another impressive performance against the Jets’ star wideout Garrett Wilson.

Strange attack plan did not help

The Patriots played as if they wanted to reverse the notion that they couldn’t complete deep shots. They’ve moved away from their face-off game mentality of pounding the ball on the ground against the opposing defense.

It was a surprising departure considering the Jets weren’t particularly good at stopping the run and were also missing five-time Pro Bowl linebacker CJ Mosley. Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt admitted Friday morning that he regretted the game plan.

The Jets used the Patriots’ game plan against them in this matchup. They ran the ball effectively and Rodgers kept the chains moving in short third-down situations. The Patriots dug themselves a hole early and lacked the explosive offensive power to get out of it.

Drake Maye can’t save this team

The Patriots seem to have a better chance with Drake Maye playing quarterback. He won’t be as careful with the football as Brissett, and as a rookie he will make mistakes. But he gives the team a chance to make explosive plays and he can extend drives with his legs.

So why shouldn’t the Patriots use him from the start?

Maye was in the game for just one drive Thursday night and was sacked twice. The Patriots’ offensive line was a mess when healthy, and now they could lose several starters in Week 4 against All-Pro pass rusher Nick Bosa and the San Francisco 49ers.

There’s no point in throwing Maye into that fire to see if he can make a difference while getting trampled in the dirt. The Patriots have written a textbook example of how to ruin a young quarterback with Mac Jones, and they need to be careful not to repeat that with Maye.

Benching Maye this year doesn’t exactly make for a fun football season, but starting Maye does nothing for the team’s long-term future. The Patriots aren’t going to make the playoffs this season no matter who plays quarterback. Nothing good can come from putting a 22-year-old quarterback behind the worst offensive line in football against the 49ers.

The difference in ownership time was a big problem

The Jets offense had the ball in play more than twice as long as the Patriots. Frankly, they gave Aaron Rodgers way too many chances and he beat them up for it.

By the end of the game, the Jets had the ball for about 40 minutes while the Patriots had the ball for only 19 minutes. Such a statistic at the end of the game is a sure sign of disaster.

The Patriots have done some positive things offensively, especially with some plays to get wide receiver DeMario Douglas more involved in the game, but they can’t let their running attack get in the way.

Winning in the trenches, dominating on the ground, avoiding costly turnovers and playing great defense is the recipe for success in New England.

The team did not manage a single one of these moves against the Jets.

This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: 5 key takeaways from the Patriots’ Thursday night loss to the Jets