When it rains for the New England Patriots, it pours.

And you wonder if it was actually pouring out just how many fans would have been in the stands on Sunday for the Patriots’ 15-10 loss to the equally inept Miami Dolphins.

The Patriots are bringing up the rear in the AFC East, which isn’t surprising of course from the preseason prognostications. Their offense stinks, but you know what, so does the rest of the division. Miami had more holes besides the injury loss of Tua Tagaovailoa, and the the Jets – they

re at Gillette the end of the month – are not what we thought they’d be as Aaron Rodgers looks old and disconnected.

But the Patriots take the cake. Not only did they suffer an emotional, gut-wrenching loss on a replay reversal, but one of their captains, safety Jabrill Peppers, got himself arrested on a bevvy of assault and drug-related charges.

Not a good look. And it will be interesting to see what the Patriots do, the more they find out, and what the NFL will do.

Even with Peppers, who had been out most of the week with a shoulder injury and likely may not have played Sunday anyway. The players, fans and media will be waiting how the team decides to handle this. Or should we say the owner, Robert Kraft.

Kraft has to know unless Maye gets out there soon, then the fans will really have not much of a reason to show up. Sunday was bad football. The Patriots can run the ball, that much is evident, and should have run it more, especially when it had first and goal at the 12 on their next to last drive.

Injuries and fatigue are also adding up. And offense and defense are connected; if a defense is bad and allows a ton of points, the offense has to change its game plan. But in the Patriots case, the offense is on the field for such short times, the team’s defense is on the field the opposite. That leads to a gassed unit as we saw in a lot of the fourth quarter Sunday.

So what to do? A Maye move to face a Texans defense that is vulnerable in some ways but forced Buffalo’s Josh Allen into a 9-for-31 day? Tough call.

“When I meet with the coaches today, it’s about we’re in a solution-driven business, and we aren’t playing good football,” Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said. “We have to look at every single unit and every single player and figure out how we use this roster to go out there and win games.”

When Mayo was asked Monday about Brissett’s performance , he responded very matter-of-factly:

“It just wasn’t good enough,” he said. “I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game. Look, as the quarterback, and he understands this, he touches the ball on every single play and we didn’t win the game, or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo that same sentiment that it wasn’t good enough.”

The ESPN report that we may see Maye sooner than later, to paraphrase, didn’t come out of thin air. Plus the pressure increases with the other top QB draft picks seeing regular time.

“I watch those guys on film,” Mayo said. ” I would say each situation is unique, and so is our situation. I think you hit it on the head.

“Those guys, it was a little bumpy at first, Jayden Daniels aside, but those guys are playing at a high level. It’s natural for fans and for the media to say, ‘well, we have a good quarterback waiting in the wings as well.’ At the same time, our mentality is how do we develop him? How do we get the guys on the field around him to develop, and move forward from there. …”

And then he later added, when asked about the other positions around the QB, such as receivers and offensive line, impacting any decision.

“I mean, we need to get some consistency across the board,” Mayo said, “for whoever’s at quarterback.”

Those empty seats point more an more to Maye getting in there soon. It’s as much a business decision as it is a football one.

POWER RANKINGS WEEK 5

AFC

1.Chiefs (4-0). 2. Baltimore (3-2). 3. Houston (4-1). 4. Buffalo (3-2). 5.Denver (3-2).

NFC

1.Minnesota (5-0). 2 Washington (4-1). 3. Detroit (3-1). 4.Atlanta (3-2). 5. San Francisco (2-3).