AP Photo/John Amis

12 seconds.

That’s how long Drake Maye scrambled and extended the final play in regulation against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday afternoon with his team down seven.

After buying as much time as he could, Maye lofted a ball up for Rhamondre Stevenson and the tailback came down with it with no time left on the clock for a five-yard touchdown, sending the teams to overtime tied at 17-17. The final toss and 11-play, 50-yard drive that lasted 1:45 were Maye’s true signature moments so far in his young career.

But, the Titans embarrassed the New England defense on the first drive of the extra frame, marching 72 yards in 13 plays, taking 7:28 off the clock, with Tony Pollard doing most of the work with eight rushes. If not for a Mason Rudolph fumbled snap on third down, Tennessee would probably have won the game on a TD, but settled for a chip shot Nick Folk field goal instead to make it 20-17.

Maye (29-41, 206 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT) had 2:32 to try and pull off some more heroics, but three plays into the drive, he forced a deep ball deep into double coverage intended for Kayshon Boutte and was picked off, sealing another loss and a 2-7 record for the now ‘official’ worst team in the NFL (currently hold the No. 1 pick in the draft).

“We gotta be better. I have to be better. Coaches have to be better,” Jerod Mayo said postgame. “We’ll go back to the drawing board. We have to be able to run the football. Obviously, that was disappointing…their defensive line did a good job. They were hard to handle inside…defensively, again, leaky run defense. There were times where it goes back to fundamentals. We spend a lot of time talking about the X’s and O’s, but I thought the tackling still needs to improve.”

“I’ve got to take advantage of these reps I’m getting in the game and I’ve got to play better,” said Maye. “Just trying to keep the play alive and make a play. Rhamondre did a good job as a running back out there to kind of be a recover and make a play. But, we ended up coming up short. That play, it really doesn’t matter at this point.”

There was also a very real possibility New England could (and probably should) have gone for the win and a two-point conversion after the touchdown. Mayo was asked if Maye’s exhaustion after scrambling for so long had anything to do with not going for it and instead taking the game to OT.

“I don’t want to get into that,” Mayo said. “It’s a good question, I just don’t want to get into it now.”

“Shoot, I was trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t even think about it,” Maye said when asked if he lobbied Mayo or Alex Van Pelt to go for two.

In another ugly display of football (it’s becoming a chore to watch the Patriots on Sundays), there were 18 total penalties (8/58 yards for New England) and the first half was a putrid display of football by both teams. The Pats had just 124 yards, went 1-6 on third down and had five first downs. Luckily, the Titans are on the same ‘we suck’ level as the Patriots right now and only mustered a 7-3 halftime lead.

An weird, penalty-filled, 12-play, 70-yard drive that lasted 7:21 in the third quarter eventually ended with a one-yard Stevenson touchdown run to put the Pats up 10-7. A Folk field goal with 34 seconds left in the frame made it 10-10 heading to the fourth.

After trading punts, Maye was strip sacked from behind and the Titans recovered at the New England 26. Five plays later, Tennessee went back up 17-10 on a six-yard touchdown pass by Rudolph. The teams traded punts once again until Maye pulled off his last-second heroics, only to be disappointed about 10 minutes later.

While the run defense and third down defense is still a huge issue, Maye also threw two interceptions and had the fumble. Joey Slye also missed a field goal early in the game as well. These losses are full team efforts right now.

It’s never a good thing when your quarterback is the team’s leading rusher too. Maye had 95 yards on the ground (he’s legitimately the entire offense right now), while the rest of the backs combined for 15 yards.

This was just another performance that shows us how the rest of the NFL fan bases were living during the incredible 20-year dynasty. It’s not pleasant.

The 2024 Patriots have a long, long way to go before even competing for playoff spots at this point.

The only good thing to come out of Sunday’s loss and this slog of a season is further proof that the Pats do in fact have the next face of the franchise at QB.

“We never want to lose games and I feel like crap right now,” Mayo added. “It’s hard to really pull any positives out of this one, for me at least.”