The positivity surrounding the New England Patriots after their win over the New York Jets in Week 8 only lasted seven days. Ultimately, first-year head coach Jerod Mayo's team failed to maintain the momentum, and did so in rather disappointing fashion.

The Patriots faced a Tennessee Titans team that had only one win in Week 9 and were unsuccessful. Their offense struggled to move the ball consistently while the defense ran out of steam late. The result was a 20-17 overtime loss, dropping New England to 2-7 on the year.

It is not possible to pinpoint a specific reason for the defeat; The Patriots' loss was multifaceted between offense, defense, special teams and, once again, coaching. The latter in particular is coming under criticism again after some strange decisions.

More changes along the offensive line

The Patriots seemed to have found an offensive line grouping worth building last week, but they decided to shake things up again. While the left side of the line, consisting of tackle Vederian Lowe, guard Michael Jordan and center Ben Brown, remained intact, the Patriots used rookie Layden Robinson at right guard and kicked Michael Onwenu back out to right tackle.

Whatever the team's intentions were with this group, they didn't perform as desired right out of the gate. Robinson in particular once again proved to be a weak link – a continuation from earlier in his rookie season. As a result, a change occurred toward the end of the second quarter: Onwenu moved back inside and Demontrey Jacobs moved back to the right tackle position.

“In the end, Mike took over the defense,” explained Jerod Mayo after the game. “We felt we had to take on one of their best players. If you watch the film, you'll notice again that the inside of the bag was soft at times. We thought it would be best for the team to use our best player.”

The new group did not prove to be a particular improvement, but the original decision to start a Robinson-Onwenu pair instead of Onwenu-Jacobs must be questioned. The Patriots knew the Titans' defensive line, led by Jeffery Simmons, would be a problem. So why make the switch at all?

Management at the end of the half year

The Patriots' young coaching staff's on-the-fly learning is nothing new, but there are definitely areas where there is room for improvement. One of them is managing the end of the first half and that was also a problem on Sunday.

Trailing 7-3 with 1:48 left in the second quarter, they prevailed on a Tennessee punt at their own 15-yard line. The Patriots came out swinging, scoring their own 38 points with two straight Drake-Maye passes with 1:38 left and three timeouts left. The team could have played all of its cards at this point, but it chose to rely on its running game on consecutive plays.

New England ran the ball on 2nd-and-1 and gained no yards. On 3rd-and-1, Rhamondre Stevenson lost a yard, forcing the Patriots to throw the ball to the Titans with a chance to extend their lead.

They didn't do that, but questions still remain. Why Alex Van Pelt decided that two runs in a row was the way to go after the Patriots a) looked solid throwing the ball and b) had gained a total of 8 yards on five runs without a scramble to that point remains unclear.

In the end it's not about 2

The Patriots came within one extra point of the Titans on the final play of regulation time, a spectacular scramble-drill touchdown from Drake Maye to Rhamondre Stevenson. At that point, the team seemingly had its opponent on the ropes — to the point where a two-point conversion attempt to end the game right there seemed to make sense.

Ultimately, Jerod Mayo decided against this step. Of course, hindsight is 20/20; Had the Patriots won in overtime, there would be little debate about going for the extra point after the late touchdown.

Still, it might not have been the worst idea for a 2-6 team to rely on its best offensive player again. Of course, Drake Maye himself may not have been as prepared as he hoped either.

“Shoot, I was just trying to catch my breath,” he said during his postgame press conference. “I couldn't even think about it. I think in retrospect it's easy to say, “We've been out there for so long, on such an intense ride, that I think it's hard to choose two.” I think it's easy now to look back and to say that. Our defense is fresh and tries to stop the ball in extra time. They ran the football well today.”

Ultimately, the decision not to remodel may not be aggressive, but it is certainly justified under the circumstances. The same cannot be said for the events in overtime.

Riding against the wind

When Drake Maye talked about his game-winning interception after the game, he dropped an interesting note: The Patriots were going against the wind in overtime.

“I think we're throwing to the wind, I need to up the ante,” he said. “Just a stupid decision; Something you would like to have back.”

Why does the part about the wind stand out? Because it's something the Patriots had control over.

At the coin toss at the start of overtime, the victorious Titans decided they wanted the football first; This makes sense considering they would have won the game with a touchdown on the first drive. In turn, Patriots captain Joe Cardona had to decide which direction each team would go.

In this scenario, it seems to make sense to play with the wind instead of against it: this could increase a kicker's reach and prevent even long pass attempts from hitting the wall, as Maye mentioned. However, for reasons unknown, the Patriots apparently didn't believe the wind was a factor early in overtime.