The 2026 NFL season is only three weks old, but it might be getting late early for the New England Patriots. The defending AFC champions fell to 1-2 Sunday with a disheartening 35-6 road loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, who was the MVP runner-up last season, has already thrown six interceptions this season — he only had eight picks all of 2025.
Speaking of runners-up, New England’s slow start gives us an excuse to talk about the dreaded Super Bowl Runner-up Jinx.
A lot can happen with 14 games left to play, but the Patriots are in danger of becoming the third straight Super Bowl loser to have a losing record the following season. After losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII, the San Francisco 49ers went 6-11 in 2024; after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, the Chiefs went 6-11 last season. Only three of the last 27 Super Bowl losers have managed to reach the conference championship game a season later. One bit of encouraging news for the Patriots: They did it two of those three times.
Jinx or no jinx, the Patriots need to turn things around in a hurry. Sunday’s loss drops them to 1-2, facing a trip next week to face the undefeated Buffalo Bills.
That will be the Patriots’ fourth straight game against a 2025 playoff team to start the season. Much had been made of the fact that New England had an easy schedule last season when it advanced to Super Bowl LX, and the 2026 schedule is brutal. Patriots legend Julian Edelman recently told Athlon Sports that it’s an honor to have a tough schedule, because that means you are a good team.
The Pats get a slight reprieve after next week’s Bills game. Four of their next six opponents after that are teams that missed the playoffs last season. But those are must-win games, because the second half of the schedule includes road games against the Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers and home games against the Bills, Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos.
In the loss to Jacksonville, Maye completed 14 of 25 pass attempts for 199 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. For the season, Maye is 51 for 80 for 585 yards, one TD pass and six picks. He’s also been sacked nine times.
Maye’s turnovers have been a problem, but now the defense needs to answer some questions as well. The Patriots had only allowed one touchdown in their first two games — a 13-10 loss in the opener against the Seattle Seahawks and then a 20-3 win last week over the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence burned them for three touchdown passes.
The Jags were only up 7-3 midway through the second quarter, but that’s when New England’s defense got soft. Jacksonville capped an 11-play drive with a Lawrence TD pass to Jakobi Meyers with 4:28 left in the half. New England followed that score with its best offensive drive of the game, but on third-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Maye was intercepted in the back of the end zone by Travis Hunter.
Jacksonville took a 14-3 lead into halftime. On the Jags’ first possession of the second half, they had a 20-play drive resulting in a touchdown that made it 21-3.
Mike Vrabel’s team had only allowed more than 27 points in a game once all of last season — a 35-31 Week 15 loss to the Bills.
If they can’t right the ship next week, a Bills win would give them a three-game lead over the Patriots. You can chalk it up to a tough schedule, but don’t forget about the Super Bowl Runner-Up Jinx.
