Maye managed the Patriots Week 1 game against the Seahawks fairly well, then the pressure for him to be the hero of the day set in.
Now that the dust has settled on the 13-10 Week 1 loss, and the aggressive opinions against the New England Patriots, specifically Drake Maye, have flooded the comments section, let's take an honest look at what really happened on the field on Wednesday night.
For the first two quarters of the NFL's season-opening matchup, the New England Patriots took the field and did something unexpected against the Seattle Seahawks. Rather than go out and punch the defending champs in the face, they just needed to manage the game, squeeze out a road win in a tough environment, and catch their flight back to Foxborough.
Even from the booth, Chris Collinsworth noticed in his color commentary that the Patriots weren't playing a perfect game, but they were playing like they had studied film on Super Bowl LX every day for the last seven months.
Will Campbell had been playing a pretty tight game in terms of his blocking for Maye. And as a third-year quarterback out of UNC, he didn't need to be perfect; he just needed to manage the game. The Patriots were also quick to pick up the secondary pass rush early on, something they missed in the Super Bowl.
Then we got to the fourth quarter, and the Seahawks came to life.
When all was said and done, Maye's stats reveal a performance that, quite frankly, made him look like a quarterback who could've won a low-scoring game, despite the three interceptions in the fourth quarter, of course. Nothing flashy, but what did you expect given the circumstances of what this game looked like on paper?
Maye went 23 of 33 for 178 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions against the Seahawks Wednesday night. He took off and ran the ball when needed seven times for 47 yards. A few of which were to keep drives alive.
He was without A.J. Brown for most of the game, who left with an ankle injury that has now been reported to have him miss 3-6 weeks. It was projected that WR2 Romeo Doubs would have a breakout night but did not have a single catch in the game. One of Doubs' drops was a pivotal play where the ball got in his palms, and he looked upfield only to drop it.
It was late in the game when Maye started to feel the ground shake. In the fourth quarter alone, he would go 6 of 11 for 44 yards.
Before we get lost in 36-hour-old stats, let's get back to the key point here. When the pressure got turned on, Maye wanted to be the hero of the night. Judging by how the Patriots moved all game, that should never have been the game plan.
Despite the Patriots trying to manage things for two and a half quarters, let's not call Maye a "game manager." He's far from that. You don't become a Super Bowl MVP runner-up off of that style of play.
Maye's a dynamic quarterback, but a young one. As Colin Cowherd puts it, he's the second quarterback to get the Super Bowl with a bad offensive line (first being Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals). Most great, versatile QBs know when throws are necessary and when to avoid them. That comes with the maturity of the job, and Wednesday night many saw a mistake that is forcing an uproar that's not necessarily deserved yet.
Great quarterbacks sometimes are not the aggressors who attack a tight situation on the field. Some, if not all, avoid putting on the Superman cape and let the game take shape around them, then handle the nuts and bolts of how to get a win. Meaning some nights, you can’t just chuck it downfield and hope for the best. Even if that move is calculated.
Maye reverted back to the young, overwhelmed quarterback we saw in the Super Bowl, which is tough to see. Teams are going to play two-high/split safety structures that are going to force Maye to throw five-yard completions rather than sling it for the win. He’ll see it again all season. If he can adapt to that style of play when he needs to, then this loss will become a thing of the past sooner rather than later.
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