Stop piling on Drake Maye. A deep dive look at his struggles, what's failing around him and why Patriots should believe he'll bounce back

As with everything in football, everyone has a portion of the blame pie for the Patriots' lackluster start on offense. Just like everyone has their portion of the credit pie when things are going right.

Who is to blame for this putrid start for the Patriots? Well, not to spoil the hundreds, nay thousands, of words below, but just about everyone in New England has a nice slice on their plates as we enter October.

Let's start with Maye, who is one of the youngest starting quarterbacks in the NFL. He blistered his way through his second season and capped it off with a second-team All-Pro selection and MVP runner-up. His underwhelming playoff performances have been scrutinized and the "soft" regular-season schedule is often brought up as a reason to not anoint him quite yet as the league's next star quarterback. The schedule discussion took on a life of its own despite the passing defenses Maye faced falling more around league average. It's not like he was facing a MAC schedule (plus the lack of firepower around him, but don't worry, we'll get to that).