New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel didn’t hide from quarterback Drake Maye’s struggles on Thursday afternoon after a red-eye, cross-country flight back from Seattle following his team’s season-opening loss to the Seahawks.“Drake will learn from it, and hopefully we’ll be better for it in the end,” Vrabel said.The head coach lauded improvements from the offensive line, said the running game got better in the second half and refused to throw receiver Romeo Doubs under the bus, noting that drops sometimes happen.But there was plenty more to glean from the Patriots’ first game. Here are 10 thoughts on where the team stands and what’s to come.Seahawks beat Patriots to kick off 2026 NFL season1. There were plenty of concerning takeaways from the Patriots’ season-opening dud, but none have the long-term ramifications of A.J. Brown’s reported high-ankle sprain that could keep him out of several games.The Patriots felt all offseason that wide receiver was one position where they had plenty of depth. But that feels very different after Brown’s injury and Doubs’ struggles in his debut.Kayshon Boutte was obviously frustrated by his situation, and it was understandable that the Patriots traded him. But we’re one game into the season, and the offense could already use someone like Boutte.This is going to put a lot on the plate of Kyle Williams. Even though his only preseason success came on straight go balls that didn’t test his route running, coaches have professed faith in the 2025 third-round pick. Well, now we’re going to see how ready Williams is for a bigger role.2. In the Super Bowl, it felt like the Patriots lost for a ton of reasons — but not because of Drake Maye. What could he have possibly done in that game as the Pats were outmanned in every area?But after this opener, it feels like they lost because of Maye.The first two interceptions weren’t great, but the third one was truly incomprehensible.As a 22-year-old rookie, Maye showed great maturity in handling a brutal situation. Last season, Maye showed great poise in making spectacular plays behind a struggling O-line. The Pats felt he’d keep growing this season and become a master of game situations.And then on Wednesday night, he made perhaps the worst play of his young career in the biggest moment.The play design was supposed to lead to a quick throw to Hunter Henry. If it wasn’t there, he should have thrown the ball away and moved on. At the very least, overtime seemed secured with a very makeable field goal. Instead, he threw a horrible pass off his back foot that was intercepted in the end zone.It was a shocking way for Maye to start a season with MVP hopes.3. It was a brutal way for the Patriots to start the season, despite being underdogs. That’s because they failed to do the one thing Vrabel harped on during his first year with the franchise. They didn’t take advantage of bad football.Between the injury to Sam Darnold and a myriad of bad penalties, it was like the Seahawks were trying to give that game away. An illegal shift wiped off a go-ahead touchdown for them late in the third quarter. An offside penalty wiped away a drive-extending tush push. The Seahawks had 10 total penalties.The Patriots have to win games like that.4. What did we learn about the Patriots defense? It looks like it’s going to lean on the blitz again.Last season, Zak Kuhr turned to the blitz to try to make up for a struggling pass rush. The hope this season was that he wouldn’t have to lean on it as much.But that wasn’t the case against the Seahawks. The Patriots blitzed on a third of their snaps, a figure that would’ve been the second-highest blitz rate in the NFL last season (behind only Brian Flores’ unit in Minnesota).5. It’s hard to know how much stock to put into that defensive performance considering it was mostly against backup quarterback Drew Lock.The good: Christian Gonzalez is still a stud, the secondary was good with the exception of a Craig Woodson missed tackle on Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 44-yard touchdown and rookie Gabe Jacas notched a sack and looked the part.The bad: The pass rush didn’t get home without blitzing, the run defense struggled and the linebackers didn’t have a great night.What went wrong for the Patriots in their opener?Chad Graff6. One positive from the defense was the play of Dre’Mont Jones, who recorded a team-high six pressures. He’ll have to play well while Jacas develops and with Harold Landry out, and he did his part Wednesday.On the flip side, the Patriots are going to need more from Elijah Ponder opposite Jones.7. One positive from the offense was the play of Will Campbell. All offseason, he heard about his playoff struggles after his knee injuries. But coaches expressed confidence in him and he backed it up against a talented Seahawks D-line. He allowed only two pressures and looked ready to take a step forward in Year 2.8. The New England running game has to be better. On 25 designed rushing plays against the Seahawks, the Pats gained just 65 yards, an average of 2.6 yards per carry.Maybe it’s fair to give them a slight pass against a Seattle defense that stopped the run better than anyone last season. But it has to get better next week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who ranked 24th in rushing EPA per play allowed last season.The Patriots averaged 0.07 rushing yards before contact, which would’ve been easily the worst mark in the league last season. So it was more of a run-blocking thing against the Seahawks than a case of backs missing open lanes.9. The other frustrating part about the New England run game was the way it was called so conservatively by offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.Even against an elite run defense, McDaniels called 17 percent more running plays on first down than league average. Predictably, those rushes rarely gained meaningful yards.The Patriots had an early-down success rate of just 24 percent (again, a figure that would’ve been the lowest in the league last season), often putting them in second-and-long and third-and-long situations.And yet, they kept going back to first-down runs that didn’t work.10. Jacas showed strides as he tried to make up for lost time, having missed all of spring practices plus the start of training camp. He notched a sack Wednesday night and drew a compliment from his head coach.“Continues to improve,” Vrabel said Thursday. “He was active, set some good edges in the run game. … I thought it was an improvement.”