The New England Patriots steamrolled through the New York Giants on Monday night, in both a figurative and literal sense (see Christian Elliss highlights). A 33-15 win heading into the bye week was made even sweeter by yet another fantastic Drake “Drake Maye” Maye performance on the field.
Maye was 24-of-31 in the air for 282 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He leapt out ahead of Matthew Stafford in the MVP race amidst his spectacular sophomore season as an NFL QB.
Following the performance, he was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week by the NFL. This is the first time Maye has earned this honor in his career.
Maye’s game was highlighted by a beautiful deep ball touchdown pass to rookie Kyle Williams, his second receiving touchdown of the year.
Humble as always, Maye praised Williams on the catch when asked about the pass during his weekly appearance on Boston’s WEEI radio station.
“I probably think it’s one of the best catches I’ve seen,” Maye said. “I think the catch is better than the throw. I probably made it tougher on him than it needed to be. He beat him off the line. I think the catch is better than the throw there.”
Maye Continues to Exceed Expectations in Second Season
Drake Maye has been the catalyst for the NFL leading 11-2 Patriots this season, finding himself as the betting favorite to win NFL MVP after week 13.
Maye leads the league in completion percentage (71.5 percent), passing yards (3,412), and passer rating (111.9). He has 23 touchdown passes and 319 rushing yards to add onto his stellar stats this season.
Maybe the most shocking stat comes in the passing yards category. Maye leads the NFL in passing yards, but hasn’t thrown for over 300 yards in a single game this season, though he’s been over 200 yards in every contest. He’s thrown for over 250 in 10-of-13 games this season.
This stat also comes as a shock considering how good he’s been at throwing the deep ball. Every game it seems like he throws a 40+ yard dime that one would assume would help him eclipse the 300 yard mark at least a couple of times.
Patriots Reclaim No. 1 Seed In AFC With Win Over Giants
Absolutely no one predicted New England would be atop the AFC in the first week of December this season; they were supposed to be a fringe playoff team at best, according to most major NFL analysts.
Call it the Drake Maye effect, the Mike Vrabel effect, the Josh McDaniels effect, call it whatever you want. The Patriots have proven that they are not a fluke, despite their favorable schedule. If they came out and only moderately improved from last season, the schedule wouldn’t matter, they’d be somewhere around .500 right now.
New England is atop the AFC after week 13, though the Broncos are nipping at their heels at 10-2. Heading into their bye week, the Patriots have a 59 percent chance to finish the season with the No. 1 seed, according to The Athletic’s playoff simulator. With a win over Buffalo coming out of the bye week, that number would increase to 74 percent.
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