Patriots QB Drake Maye is sacked by Jacksonville's Devon Hamilton during Sunday's debacle vs. the Jaguars. (AP photo)

Three weeks after the New England Patriots season began, the concern of the fandom remains the same:

The quarterback named Drake Maye.

And that’s not good.

But there are also other things wrong, as injuries also start to take their toll. However, many teams in the league are dealing with it. The mental part of the game is now the focus, as both Maye and head coach Mike Vrabel say the QB is healthy. To be sure, a bad shoulder — Maye was on Wednesday’s injury report even though he and Vrabel deny he’s hurt — doesn’t explain Maye dropping the football and making bad decisions that lead to critical turnovers.

“I think that’s for everybody, and not just Drake Maye,” Vrabel said. “I think that starts with me. I think you have to be able to say, ‘Where did things go wrong’?

“Look at what we did ultimately, our performance, what we did out there on Sunday, correct it, and look at the positives. There are always going to be positives, even in that game. But I think at some point in time we’re going to have to move on, and we’re going to have to be able to recognize what is in front of us, the challenge that is ahead, but not dismiss any of the actions that happened (at Jacksonville).”

And a lot bad happened. A lot that wasn’t just Maye, but that a decent performance from the QB could have minimized. But that didn’t happen. The Patriots couldn’t run. They couldn’t get to Jags QB Trevor Lawrence, who so belittled the Patriots by taking a knee instead of crossing the goal line with over eight minutes to play. If that doesn’t ignite a fire under the Patriots, nothing will.

But either way, they have to get their own house in order, and again, the mental wing of Patriots Place more than physical.

“Confidence comes from your preparation, and it comes from going out there,” Vrabel said. “I can’t manufacture confidence. I can’t just say, ‘Hey, be confident.’

“You have to practice. You have to hit those plays in practice, and you have to feel good about it. Taking the meeting to practice and being able to hit those things, or a pass rush move, or a game, or route, or any protection -anything that you would need in the football game. Sometimes you want to do something so badly. It’s like the tighter you hold the golf club, the more crooked it goes when you hit it. We just have to be able to make sure that we’re on the same page, that everybody knows what is expected of them, have a few details and then go play football.”

Now to the other wing in the back of Patriots Place – the physical. The Patriots this past weekend were soft defensively; Jacksonville was 5 for 5 in the red zone. So as they head to Buffalo, a team that can put up points but also gives them up, the Patriots have to focus on their other woes away from the quarterback.

“When you have games like that throughout the entire team – how do you fix some things? You get back to the basics,” Vrabel said. “Again, we want to continue to impress upon the importance of what our identity is. We still have to build it. You have to put it out there. “Before you can protect something, you have to build it. And we have to get back to the basics. So, some of that is, do you do less and try to do it better? Or do you go and you try to scheme up a bunch of stuff and hope you hit it? I think at the end of the day, there’s a great balance.”

Run the ball. Start with setting the tone and tempo of the game. That takes the pressure off the quarterback, who is playing as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Time to remove that weight. Keep the ball away from Josh Allen. Remember, the Bills turned the ball over five times in their win over the Chargers. They will make more. Force them. Put your QB in a good place, and perhaps the rhythm will begin to flow.

Winning cures all. But if the Patriots leave Buffalo with the same questions they had when leaving Jacksonville, the natives will be more than restless.

“We want guys that are prepared to come to work with a great attitude, that do not rely on somebody else’s positivity or me trying to get guys going,” Vrabel said, noting that 24 on the roster – more than a third – are first-year Patriots. Vrabel wants a tough, positive approach.

“I have to remind myself that I have to continue to coach that and explain to them the identity that we want to build,” he said.

He shouldn’t have to remind the quarterback. It all starts there.