It seems Drake Maye wasn’t fully healthy ahead of the New England Patriots matchup against the New York Jets, which makes his performance even more impressive.
During his weekly appearance on WEEI, Maye admitted that he was a little under the weather during the game.
“Just a little bit of runny nose, little bit of cough,” the quarterback said on Monday. “But shoot, we battled the elements and came out with the win. That’s what mattered.”
That, of course, brought up comparisons to Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game” during Game 5 of the 1997 Finals, but Maye wasn’t having any of that.
“Nothing like that, just another day,” he responded.
Maye finished the game going 19-of-21 for 256 yards with five touchdowns and a passer rating of 157.0 as well as a 90.5 completion percentage.
Drake Maye Finally Got A Game Ball
In a video posted by the Patriots, Vrabel was seen addressing the team in the locker room after Sunday’s win, and with that, he handed out game balls to the players he felt deserved them the most. In his speech, he talked about “unfinished business,” speaking about the team’s ability to finish undefeated on the road.
“It was a great team win and a lot of great efforts and everybody helped us, but I’m glad we got No. 10 pulling trigger,” Vrabel stated before throwing the ball to Maye.
And on Monday, Vrabel was asked why he picked this game to reward Maye with this honor.
“Oh, it was just a pretty special performance,” he began. “It’s no secret how I feel about Drake. Again, that was a special game ball. That was one that I had constructed that had a lot of tape and paper, and I did arts and crafts on it. That was all our road wins on the ball that I had taped on there. So, he better bring it in here, and he better put it in the quarterback room because I put a lot of time and effort into that thing.
“Yeah, when we won three games in a row on the road, those three weeks, Stick had done a nice game ball that had those three games on there, and so then I went back and kind of added on all the other ones. I printed them off and put them on there. So, I’d said the night before, whoever was the player to gain, they got this special game ball. So, it’s kind of fitting that Drake had the performance that he had.
“There were a lot of other really good performances and a lot of guys that helped us contribute, but certainly the day that he had and what he’s done so far for us. So, we’ll need a lot of those efforts from him to continue. You guys know that, and I anticipate that to happen.”
Drake Maye Takes Over As MVP Favorite
GettyMatthew Stafford #9 of the Los Angeles Rams reacts against the Atlanta Falcons.
Following the Los Angeles Rams loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night in which veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford threw a season-high three interceptions, which included a pick six, there was a big change in the MVP odds.
It was Stafford who was the favorite, but after his performance, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye took over with the best odds to win.
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