Although the second half blunders led the New England Patriots to lose Sunday to the Washington Commanders, 20-10, there was a silver lining.

Drake Maye may have strengthen his case for the starting quarterback job after Sunday. He played in the first half in which he looked calm and poised in the pocket. He even threw the only touchdown for New England on a pass to Kevin Harris in the first half to cap off an impressive drive. Maye finished with 126 throwing yards, a TD and went 13-for-20. He also scrambled out the pocket and got a first down too. He’s shown that he can run when needed, and now has shown off his arm.

Though Maye looked better, he did have some cases where he looked inaccurate on some throws which could be credited to the receiver or lack of time due to the offensive line. Nonetheless, there’s still work to be done, but he’s shown improvement.

For Jerod Mayo, said Monday morning that Drake Maye has ‘outplayed’ Jacoby Brissett as of now:

“Now in saying that, we have to take in the full body of work, going all the way back to the spring and beginning of training camp. And we’ll see where we end up. But those are the conversations that will happen here over the next couple of days,” said Mayo on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”

It should be noted that though Brissett only went 2-for-4 with 19 yards through the air, he suffered a mild injury mid game and didn’t return.

“Jacoby may come in here today and say his shoulder is no good. So I’m not going to get too far down the road on if Jacoby could play or couldn’t play,” Mayo said on WEEI.

These comments from Mayo just further proved my point that Maye is definitely the favorite as of now. Joe Milton III, a guy who people were high on after the first preseason game, didn’t have a good showing Sunday. He threw an interception that was thankfully called back, failed to move the ball, and threw passes with so much velocity it was hard for receivers to catch it. He still has to work on his accuracy.

With all that said, it looks like Maye is the frontrunner in this quarterback race. The preseason is now over, and the Pats will have a bit over a week until their week 1 game against the Bengals on the road. A lot can happen until then, but at least fans know where the first-year head coach stands.