Travis Hunter’s first career interception came off Drake Maye, and the Patriots spent the rest of the afternoon finding out what a 35-6 final score feels like when a rookie is better at two positions than your starting quarterback is at one.
That interception wiped out New England’s best drive of the half. Maye rolled right under pressure near the goal line on third down and threw for a receiver breaking toward the back of the end zone, and Hunter jumped the route to come down with his first career pick, sending Jacksonville into the break up 14-3. A No. 2 overall pick who plays cornerback and wide receiver sounds like a gimmick right up until it shows up on a nationally televised scoreboard.
Most teams spend a couple years coaching a two-way college star into one normal position, but Jacksonville just let this one cash out on national television instead. It’s the kind of asset advantage most front offices only dream about on draft night.
The play doesn’t need much narration. Watch it back and you’ll see exactly why Jacksonville was smiling walking into the locker room.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/2104276491483926601
Drake Maye’s turnover problem didn’t start and end with the pick either. He fumbled in the first quarter, recovered by Jacksonville’s DaVon Hamilton, and then turned it over again before the fourth quarter even started. Add a missed 38-yard field goal from Andy Borregales right out of halftime and New England never found its footing the rest of the way.
Trevor Lawrence did his part too, throwing two second-quarter touchdown passes and finishing the half 13 of 19 for 111 yards, but the story here is that the Jaguars blew out the Patriots 35-6 because of a rookie doing something he had never done before in his career. Hunter came into Jacksonville as the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft out of Colorado, and last season, before a non-contact practice injury ended it early, he was already playing real snaps on both sides of the ball.
It’s just the latest chapter in the Patriots’ collapse this season.
Twenty-eight catches, 298 yards and a touchdown on one side of the ball. Fifteen tackles and three passes defensed on the other.
Zero interceptions, until now.
None of this is fully proven yet, either. Jacksonville has said it wants to keep using Hunter on both sides of the ball, but some of the recent reporting points toward heavier cornerback reps as the season goes on, and a two-way workload tends to catch up with a player eventually. Dial him back to a near-full-time corner and this interception turns into a nice moment instead of the start of something.
My dad already texted me twice about this, and for once I actually read them. I’ve hated this franchise on principle since before I could drive, and watching a rookie who’s better at two jobs than Maye is at one bury them 35-6 on national television is exactly the kind of afternoon I signed up for.
