8 takeaways from the Patriots’ turnover-filled loss to the Steelers – 98.5 The Sports Hub

On Sunday the New England Patriots out-gained the Pittsburgh Steelers by 166 total yards, ran 22 more plays, went 6-of-13 on third downs and 4-of-5 on fourth downs, and punted just once.

The main culprit? Turnovers. The Patriots gave the ball away five times, their most in a game since Week 13 of the 2008 season (also a home loss to the Steelers).

Of the Patriots’ five turnovers, three four occurred in Pittsburgh territory. Two happened with the offense right on the goal line.

“We don’t need to lose a football game to know that turnovers are very hard to overcome,” head coach Mike Vrabel said after the game. “They erase all the good things that you do. They take away momentum. They take away points, give them field position. We didn’t need to turn it over as many times as we did to learn a lesson. I think we knew that before. It was very unfortunate.”

What happened to the Patriots’ ball security? What else bit them in this game? Let’s take a look in this week’s takeaways…

Last season Rhamondre Stevenson led the NFL in fumbles by a non-quarterback with seven. Through two games that issues hadn’t come up in 2025, especially during his big performance last week.

That changed this week, as Stevenson put the ball on the ground twice. As far as turnovers go these were especially bad, given the spot they happened.

The first one came on the first drive of the game. After the Patriots converted a first down to start things off, Stevenson was given the ball up the middle. He burst through the line, but linebacker Cole Holcomb caught him from behind which caused the ball to come out. The Steelers recovered.

His second came in the third quarter, as the Patriots were looking to punch the ball in off of a turnover. In similar fashion, Stevenson got through the line clean but contact from behind forced the ball to come out, less than a yard short of the goal line.

Stevenson is now up to nine fumbles since the start of the 2024 NFL season, the most by any non-quarterback. No other qualifying player has more than six (Jets RB Breece Hall).

Complicating things is the fact that Stevenson has been a sparkplug for the offense around his turnovers. He was a driving force last week, and in this game helped pick up two key third-and-longs on the drive before his second fumble.

If he’s going to be putting the ball on the ground, that won’t matter. However, then the Patriots would need to step up at the running back position to provide a similar burst. Of the Patriots’ eight plays to go for 20-plus yards this year, he’s been responsible for three of them, tied with Kayshon Boutte (who had another one on Sunday) for the most on the team.

“We need him. We absolutely need him,” Vrabel said after the game. “You see what he was able to do for us last week, his ability to make some plays. Again, we’ll just have to look at the technique and we’ll have to look at the ball security, but we’re going to need him. We need his ability, but we also need to take care of the football.”

However, Stevenson said after the game “if I can’t hold onto the ball then they don’t need me.”

Stevenson wasn’t the only Patriots running back to fumble. Antonio Gibson also put the ball on the ground, marking his first fumble of the 2025 season. He had two fumbles last year in his first season with the Patriots, but hadn’t had a fumble lost since 2023.

Gibson’s fumble was frustrating because it came right after the Stevenson fumble, after the Patriots’ defense recovered with a three-and-out. After a punt and picking up a first-down on two plays, Gibson fumbled just over midfield.

What made that one sting just a little more is that it was both forced and recovered by former Patriot Jabrill Peppers, who was released by the team in a surprise cut following training camp. It was a good play by Peppers getting lower than Gibson to punch the ball out. Peppers was given a game ball by the Steelers after the game.

It wasn’t just the running backs, Drake Maye’s turnover issues returned as well. After turning the ball over just once over the first two games (and having no turnover-worthy plays last week), Maye had two giveaways on Sunday with an interception and a fumble.

Maye’s interception came as the Patriots seemingly were about to take momentum back at the end of the first half. We’ll get into that full drive in a bit, but they had the ball on the two-yard line, with a chance to tie the game at 14 in the final seconds before halftime.

After two incompletions, Maye tried to hit Boutte on a quick release. Veteran defensive tackle Cameron Heyward was able to get his hand into the passing lane though, and the fluttering ball was picked by Brandin Echols in the end zone.

“I had Boutte. I fired in there and I think 97 got a hand on it, and just kind of took it a different route,” Maye recalled after the game. “It was a good play by him, but yeah, I think I could have gave him a different ball flight, I think in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown. Like I said, just one of those things that stings. I was thinking about it all halftime. Just got to move on.”

To Maye’s credit, he did ‘move on’ much better than he did after his interception in the Raiders game, leading a 15-play, 88-yard game-tying touchdown drive that spanned the third and fourth quarters (the Patriots’ only drive of the second half that didn’t result in a giveaway).

On Maye’s fumble, it looked like a case of him trying to do too much as the Patriots were trying to take the lead midway through the fourth quarter. He navigated the pocket for over six seconds, not rolling out or throwing the ball away. Eventually the ball was punched out as he tried to flip the ball to running back TreVeyon Henderson.

“Just saw TreVeyon late and tried to do something stupid,” May explained after the game. “They’re a good front. I thought those guys up front blocked their butts off, but just be decisive, and if I have to take a sack, just take care of the football. That’s the number one thing.”

Despite all of that, the Patriots were still driving late with a chance to tie the game. At one point the drive came to a pivotal moment, 4th & 1 on the Steelers’ 28-yard line. Prior to that play, the Patriots had gone 4-for-4 on fourth downs in the game, and were 6-of-6 on the season.

Facing a blitz, Maye quickly got the ball out to DeMario Douglas in the flat. While Douglas caught the ball short, it looked like he had a chance to fall forward and pick up the first down. Instead he attempted to back-juke, and was tackled short of the yard to gain, ending the drive and the game. Douglas said after the game he knew he was short when he caught the ball, but was trying to make a play.

“I would say that the decision that Pop made wasn’t the right one there just because we didn’t get it,” Vrabel said after the game.”

Failed 4th down conversions don’t officially count as turnovers, but in recent years there have been some that have started to consider them as such. In that context the Patriots had six turnovers, five of which occurred on the plus side of the 50.

The Patriots were left pressing in the second half, in large part because of how they ended the first half. It was a roller-coaster of a drive that will go down as the most pivotal non-turnover moment of the game.

Starting at their own six-yard line with 7:20 on the clock, the Patriots got backed up facing a 3rd & 12. A checkdown to Stevenson went for 11 yards, and then Vrabel made the gutsy call to go for the 4th & 1 from inside his own 20. The Patriots converted after Stevenson made a defender miss on a toss play.

That was followed by two near-turnovers from the Patriots. An apparent Maye interception on an overthrow was overturned via replay, and then what could have been a Hunter Henry fumble was called an incomplete pass. 

The Patriots stabilized themselves from there, converting three more first downs including a 3rd & 10 and 3rd & 13. Eventually, they found themselves with a 1st & goal at the two-yard line just inside of the two-minute warning. 

Despite having all three timeouts, the Patriots threw the ball three times. The first two fell incomplete including a throwaway after Will Campbell allowed a pressure from Nick Herbig. Then on third down Maye tried a quick-hitter to Kayshon Boutte, but the ball was tipped at the line by Heyward and intercepted by Echols. 

“Just loaded up and really just gapping you out, going with bigger personnel,” Vrabel said after the game when asked about the Patriots not running the ball there. “Again, we liked some of them. “We liked some of the plays. When they don’t work and we don’t execute them, there’s certainly always room for second-guessing. Whether we run it in or throw it in, we have to execute and make great decisions, and we didn’t. But that was something that we felt good about those plays.” He added the Patriots may have run the ball had they gotten to fourth down.

That could have been a game-defying drive for the Patriots. Instead they left important points on the board.

On top of all of that from the Patriots’ offense, they didn’t get much help from their top rookies. Multiple members of the 2025 draft class struggled or made a minimal impact at all.

This was the worst game so far for Campbell. The Patriots’ first-round pick allowed a team-high seven pressures according to PFF’s initial charting. He and rookie left guard Jared Wilson also got beat on a stunt that led to a sack. Wilson allowed four pressures.

As for the skill position players, Henderson looked to be in a less-involved role initially after a down game last week. He got on the field more after the two veteran backs both fumbled, but managed just 47 yards on a team-high 14 touches with 11 carries for 28 yards and three catches for 19 yards.

Meanwhile, wide receiver Kyle Williams has yet to crack the wide receiver rotation on a regular basis. He played a total of nine snaps on Sunday, recording one catch for eight yards. With Douglas off to a slow start, it will be interesting to see if his role grows next week.

All of those turnovers left the Patriots’ defense in a bad spot time and time again. However, after a rough start they more than bounced back.

It didn’t start pretty. In the first quarter the Steelers had a 54-yard touchdown drive followed by a 90-yard touchdown drive.

That was it for the Steelers’ offense for a while though. That second drive overlapped into early of the second quarter, which included the Steelers getting a first down on the first play of the quarter. It was the last first down they’d get until 13:25 to go in the game.

After their initial struggles the Patriots forced a punt on four of the next five full drives, with the other ending on an interception. Pittsburgh picked up just one first down during that time, and gained one net yard of offense in the entire third quarter.

In the end the Steelers put together a nine-play, 62-yard drive late in the fourth quarter that led to what would be the go-ahead score. Ultimately they came up one stop short, but big-picture it was the kind of effort that should win a game more often than not. In the end though, the offense’s turnovers were just too much to overcome.

While most of the defensive free agent signings had strong showings over the first two weeks, linebacker Robert Spillane struggled. He missed a team-high eight tackles over the first two games, one more than the number of tackles he’d made.

This week though he bounced back and looked more like the tackling machine he was billed as coming into the season. He made a team-high 12 tackles, and didn’t miss one according to PFF’s initial charting. That includes four that were labeled as ‘stops’ holding the defense short of what would be considered a successful play. He also grabbed an interception early in the third quarter.

The Patriots will need this version of Spillane moving forward. This game was a great example of how the defense changes when he’s playing well.