Game recap
Patriots @ Jaguars
2026 Wk 3 · JAX 35, NE 6
Jacksonville scored on all five red-zone trips while Drake Maye threw two picks and was benched.
The worst loss by a returning Super Bowl team in the first three weeks of the next season since 1999.
RarePrior-season Super Bowl teams beaten by 20 or more in Weeks 1 to 3 of the following season (1999 to 2026)
| Season | Week | Team | Result | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3 | NE | JAX 35, NE 6 | -29 |
| 2011 | 1 | PIT | BAL 35, PIT 7 | -28 |
| 2013 | 2 | SF | SEA 29, SF 3 | -26 |
| 2008 | 3 | NE | MIA 38, NE 13 | -25 |
| 2007 | 3 | CHI | DAL 34, CHI 10 | -24 |
| 2013 | 1 | BAL | DEN 49, BAL 27 | -22 |
| 2003 | 3 | LV | DEN 31, LV 10 | -21 |
| 2009 | 3 | ARI | IND 31, ARI 10 | -21 |
| 2022 | 1 | LA | BUF 31, LA 10 | -21 |
| 2013 | 3 | SF | IND 27, SF 7 | -20 |
Ten such games in 28 seasons, and this one sits on top. New England did not lose a regular-season road game in 2025, going 8-0 away from home on the way to the Super Bowl. Its first road trip of Week 3 ended 29 points down. It is also the second-worst loss of Mike Vrabel's 128 games as a head coach, behind only a 41-7 defeat at Buffalo with Tennessee in 2022.
Why it matters. A Super Bowl roster usually carries its floor into September, which is why early blowouts of returning finalists are so scarce. This one is not a fluke of a backup quarterback or a short week: New England started its regular lineup and was outgained by only two yards. The margin came from three turnovers and four empty red-zone trips, which is a more worrying pattern than a bad matchup.
The NFL's most efficient offense of 2025 produced minus 0.253 EPA per play, on a day it outgained Jacksonville.
AnomalyOffensive EPA per play, 2025 regular season, league top 6
| Rank | Team | EPA/play |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NE | 0.159 |
| 2 | LA | 0.145 |
| 3 | BUF | 0.136 |
| 4 | GB | 0.115 |
| 5 | DAL | 0.098 |
| 6 | SF | 0.088 |
This game, both offenses
| Team | Plays | Yards | EPA/play | Success% | First downs | 3rd down | Turnovers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAX | 59 | 315 | 0.233 | 50.8% | 20 | 8 of 12 | 1 |
| NE | 60 | 317 | -0.253 | 36.7% | 14 | 4 of 12 | 3 |
New England led the league at plus 0.159 EPA per play across the 2025 regular season and finished this game at minus 0.253, a swing of about 0.41 per play. It ran one more play than Jacksonville and gained two more yards, 317 to 315, yet scored 29 fewer points. The gap lives in the other columns: three turnovers to one, 4 of 12 on third down against 8 of 12, and 14 first downs to 20. Jacksonville's defense finished 2025 third in the league at minus 0.105 EPA per play allowed, behind only Houston and Seattle.
Why it matters. Yardage parity with a 29-point margin means the game was decided by where drives ended rather than how far they went. Turnovers and third-down failures drop EPA far faster than yards gained can raise it, which is why an offense can average 5.3 yards a play and still post one of its worst efficiency days. Jacksonville's defense was already a top-three unit by this measure in 2025, so the matchup, not just New England's execution, explains part of the swing.
Jacksonville went five for five in the red zone. New England went zero for four, with a pick from the 2-yard line.
SplitEvery possession that reached the opponent's 20, in game order
| Team | Qtr | Clock | Deepest snap | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAX | 2 | 13:30 | NE 12 | TD, Lawrence to Cameron, 12 yds |
| NE | 2 | 9:12 | JAX 17 | FG, Borregales 35 yds |
| JAX | 2 | 4:28 | NE 10 | TD, Lawrence to Meyers, 10 yds |
| NE | 2 | 1:02 | JAX 2 | INT, Maye picked in the end zone |
| NE | 3 | 9:54 | JAX 20 | FG missed, Borregales 38 yds |
| JAX | 3 | 1:13 | NE 2 | TD, Lawrence to Washington, 17 yds |
| JAX | 3 | 0:54 | NE 5 | TD, Rodriguez run, 5 yds |
| NE | 4 | 13:21 | JAX 16 | FG, Borregales 40 yds |
| JAX | 4 | 8:06 | NE 1 | TD, Tuten run, 1 yd |
Jacksonville turned every red-zone possession into a touchdown, including one that reached first and goal at the 2 and needed a 17-yard throw after two penalties pushed it back. New England reached the 20 four times and came away with two field goals, a missed 38-yarder, and a third-and-2 interception from the JAX 2 with 1:02 left in the half. That single play was a swing from a possible 10-7 game to the 14-3 halftime score that stood.
Why it matters. Red-zone conversion is the most direct explanation of how a game with even yardage ends 35-6. Five touchdowns from five trips is 35 points; two field goals from four trips is 6, and the entire final margin is inside that split. The end-zone interception before halftime is the pivot: it erased New England's best drive of the day and kept Jacksonville two scores ahead going into a third quarter it then won 14-0.
Drake Maye is the ninth passer since 1999 with six or more interceptions and one or fewer touchdowns through Week 3.
RarePassers with 6+ INT and 1 or fewer TD passes in Weeks 1 to 3, all seasons since 1999
| Passer | Season | INT | TD | Att |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drake Maye | 2026 | 6 | 1 | 80 |
| Drew Brees | 2007 | 7 | 1 | 130 |
| Rex Grossman | 2007 | 6 | 1 | 89 |
| Kerry Collins | 2006 | 6 | 1 | 90 |
| Chris Simms | 2006 | 7 | 1 | 106 |
| Kyle Orton | 2005 | 6 | 1 | 88 |
| Kurt Warner | 2002 | 7 | 1 | 125 |
| Ty Detmer | 2001 | 7 | 1 | 42 |
| Jake Plummer | 1999 | 9 | 1 | 106 |
Maye, 2025 regular season versus 2026 so far
| Span | Games | Att | Yds | TD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 regular season | 17 | 492 | 4,394 | 31 | 8 |
| 2026, Weeks 1 to 3 | 3 | 80 | 585 | 1 | 6 |
Nobody had joined this list in 19 seasons. Maye threw 31 touchdowns against 8 interceptions across all of 2025, third in the league in touchdown passes behind Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff. Three games into 2026 he has 1 and 6. This was the first game of his career with no touchdown pass and at least two interceptions: 14 of 25 for 199 yards, with his last snap at 13:32 of the fourth quarter. Tommy DeVito finished the game, 3 of 5 for 30 yards.
Why it matters. Six interceptions on 80 attempts is a 7.5 percent rate from a passer who threw 8 on 492 attempts a season ago, so the change is far outside normal week-to-week noise. The company on this list is mostly passers who lost their jobs or their seasons, with Brees and Warner the exceptions that recovered. The benching with the game decided is a small signal on its own; the interception trend across three different opponents is the larger one.
Scoreless after one quarter, then 14 Jacksonville points inside 19 seconds of game clock broke it open.
TrendScore at the end of each quarter
| Quarter | JAX | NE | Plays |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 2 | 14 | 3 | 56 |
| 3 | 28 | 3 | 40 |
| 4 | 35 | 6 | 37 |
Late third quarter, three plays
| Clock | Team | Play | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:13 | JAX | Lawrence to Washington, 17-yard TD | JAX 21, NE 3 |
| 1:03 | NE | Maye intercepted by Jarrian Jones, returned 31 yards to the NE 5 | JAX 21, NE 3 |
| 0:54 | JAX | Rodriguez 5-yard TD run | JAX 28, NE 3 |
Offensive efficiency by half
| Team | Half | Plays | EPA/play | Success% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAX | 1st | 32 | 0.074 | 53.1% |
| JAX | 2nd | 27 | 0.421 | 48.1% |
| NE | 1st | 30 | -0.308 | 33.3% |
| NE | 2nd | 30 | -0.197 | 40.0% |
The first quarter had 35 plays and no points. Jacksonville led 14-3 at the half, then scored twice 19 seconds of game clock apart late in the third: a 17-yard touchdown to Parker Washington, a Maye interception on the next snap returned to the 5, and a 5-yard Chris Rodriguez run. An 11-point game became a 25-point game before the quarter ended. Jacksonville's second-half EPA per play, 0.421, was nearly six times its first-half figure.
Why it matters. The arc of this game is a slow first half followed by one 19-second sequence that removed any path back for New England. Two offensive touchdowns by the same team within 20 seconds of game clock has happened 68 times since 1999, roughly twice a season league-wide, so the sequence itself is uncommon rather than rare; what made it decisive is that it came from a turnover on the first snap after a score. Jacksonville's second-half efficiency shows the lead was extended by the offense, not just protected.
Three straight over New England, the first such run in the series, by the largest margin Jacksonville has ever posted against the Patriots.
MilestoneEvery Patriots versus Jaguars meeting in the database (1999 to 2026)
| Season | Week | Type | Result | JAX margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 15 | REG | NE 27, JAX 13 | -14 |
| 2005 | Wild Card | POST | NE 28, JAX 3 | -25 |
| 2006 | 16 | REG | NE 24, JAX 21 | -3 |
| 2007 | Divisional | POST | NE 31, JAX 20 | -11 |
| 2009 | 16 | REG | NE 35, JAX 7 | -28 |
| 2012 | 16 | REG | NE 23, JAX 16 | -7 |
| 2015 | 3 | REG | NE 51, JAX 17 | -34 |
| 2017 | AFC Championship | POST | NE 24, JAX 20 | -4 |
| 2018 | 2 | REG | JAX 31, NE 20 | 11 |
| 2021 | 17 | REG | NE 50, JAX 10 | -40 |
| 2024 | 7 | REG | JAX 32, NE 16 | 16 |
| 2026 | 3 | REG | JAX 35, NE 6 | 29 |
New England won the first eight meetings, three of them in the playoffs, before Jacksonville's first win in 2018. The Jaguars have now won three in a row, in 2018, 2024 and 2026, and each has been by a bigger margin than the last: 11, then 16, then 29. The previous Jacksonville high was 16. New England's largest win in the series remains the 50-10 game in 2021.
Why it matters. Series history matters here because of how one-sided it had been: eight straight New England wins including an AFC Championship game. Three consecutive Jacksonville wins with an escalating margin reads as a changed matchup rather than a single upset. Trevor Lawrence's three touchdown passes were also his best day against New England in three tries, after a three-interception game in 2021 and a one-touchdown game in 2024.
Seven NFL games since 1999 have ended 35-6. Jacksonville won the last two, ten months apart.
RareEvery game with a 35-6 final score, 1999 to 2026
| Season | Week | Winner | Loser | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 12 | LA | ATL | Away |
| 2007 | 12 | CIN | TEN | Home |
| 2008 | 8 | HOU | CIN | Home |
| 2014 | 16 | SEA | ARI | Away |
| 2015 | 14 | SEA | BAL | Away |
| 2025 | 11 | JAX | LAC | Home |
| 2026 | 3 | JAX | NE | Home |
Trevor Lawrence, this game
| Comp | Att | Yds | TD | INT | TD receivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 29 | 182 | 3 | 1 | Cameron 12, Meyers 10, Washington 17 |
That is the complete list. Jacksonville beat the Chargers 35-6 at home in Week 11 of 2025 and repeated the exact score against New England, again at home, in Week 3 of 2026. Seattle is the only other team to win one of these twice. Lawrence needed just 182 passing yards for three touchdowns, each to a different receiver and none longer than 17 yards; Jakobi Meyers led the team with 7 catches for 64 yards.
Why it matters. A 35-6 final is uncommon because it needs five touchdowns on one side and two field goals with nothing else on the other, and it has surfaced only seven times in 28 seasons. The repeat matters less as trivia than as a description of how Jacksonville is winning at home: short-field touchdowns off turnovers and a defense that holds the opponent to kicks. Lawrence's low yardage total with three scores fits that pattern; the passing game finished drives rather than building them.
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