FOXBOROUGH – What a difference a week makes.

After Pats fans were underwhelmed with the sample size they saw from Drake Maye in the first preseason game, Thursday night was a much different story.

New England may have lost its preseason game to Philadelphia 14-13 on Thursday night, but the defense and more importantly Maye flashed and provided some much needed hope for the future.

Maye had his first NFL TD – a four yard rush – and went 6-11 with 47 yards passing. It was a small sample size, but there were a few different plays that truly made you say ‘oh, so there’s that.’

Defensively, the team had five sacks and got consistent pressure throughout the night.

“He had great composure,” said Jerod Mayo of the young QB. “I thought he went out there and did a lot of good things. Hopefully he can build on that and we’ll see how this week goes…the problem is from college to here is just the language. Once you can start to link the language that you learned in college to the language you’re learning right now, the game becomes a little bit easier from an Xs and Os perspective. I look forward to see how he builds off of today. But he did a lot of good things.”

The first three drives – led by Jacoby Brissett – left quite a bit to be desired once again, with two punts and an interception in the end zone on a forced ball to Austin Hooper. Then, on the opening possession of the second quarter, the fans in attendance finally got to see what they didn’t see a week ago.

Maye came out and played behind the top offensive line unit (except for David Andrews) and quickly had a great third down throw for 12 yards over the middle to Javon Baker. Ultimately, he was able to put the team in position for a 51 yard field goal from Joey Slye to make it 3-3 at the time.

After a fourth down sack from Deatrich Wise turned the ball over on downs and set the offense up at the Philly 49, that’s when the fan base truly got a glimpse into the future that could be with No. 10 under center.

Maye led an eight-play drive that included a big third down conversion on a screen to JaMycal Hasty and eventually ended with the rookie scoring his first NFL touchdown on the four yard run, sending the crowd in Foxborough into a bit of a frenzy and making it 10-3 as he calmly crossed the goal line and flipped the ball like he was in a layup line.

“Definitely a lot of things to learn from,” said Maye. “Good to get out there and get some tape to learn from. Other than that, guys fought hard…I think every time you get out there you get more and more confident…I think with more reps, it’s only going to help me.”

“We were all excited for him,” said Brissett. “His first one, I’m sure it won’t be his last.”

The Pats’ defense forced another turnover on downs to open the third quarter when Philly fumbled the snap on a ‘Tush Push’ attempt at the New England 37. Maye came back out for his third drive of the game, but immediately fumbled an exchange with Nick Leverett. After a short scramble on second down, Maye dropped a dime deep to Baker, who dove and caught the ball, but lost it going to the ground. Still, the throw alone should have given fans a little tingle.

Maye came out for his fourth and final drive with 5:02 left in the third at the New England 32. Aside from a DPI call on a throw down the right sideline to Baker that extended the drive a bit, Maye’s night ended in rough fashion as he took a blindside sack on third down.

Still, what a difference a week makes. The Pats and Maye provided fans with just a little bit of hope, which at this point, is all you can ask for.

As for the defense, one of the most important things to see was Josh Uche and Keion White getting in on the sack action, two guys the team will desperately need to step up in place of Matthew Judon.

“I’ve got to ramp it up. I’ve got to do everything I can to help my team win,” added Uche.

Overall, given how bad things seemed following the joint practice with the Eagles on Tuesday and how down the fan base was following the game against Carolina, what fans saw on Thursday night should provide fans with the ability to exhale a little bit.

Baby steps right now folks, baby steps.