The numbers on Patriots quarterback Drake Maye in Sunday’s 26-20 win over the Bengals were certainly respectable. He threw for 294 yards on the day, with 22 completions on 35 attempts. He had some important runs, too, and finished with 22 yards on five attempts. Still, Maye got off to a rough start, including a pick-6 he threw to Geno Stone early in the second quarter that staked Cincinnati to a 10-0 lead.
Before the pick, Maye was just 2-for-5 passing on New England’s first two drives, both of which ended in punts. He rallied for the win, of course, but with the Patriots flopping in the red zone all afternoon, including twice in the shadow of the goal line, it just was not the kind of game that one will find on a Maye-for-MVP resume.
And far from the postgame lovefest we saw 10 days ago in Foxboro when the Patriots beat the Jets on Thursday night, coach Mike Vrabel was pretty blunt when it came to sizing up Maye’s performance.
Drake Maye’s Patriots Showing Was ‘Not His Best Performance’
Here’s how Vrabel described the play of the Patriots’ second-year quarterback: “Limiting. Probably middling, not his best performance. But give them credit. He came up big with some good throws and I am sure there’s a couple he would like to have back.”
To Vrabel’s credit, one of his strengths as a coach is the way his players view him as a truth-teller. Maye did not exactly disagree with his coach’s review of the day’s work. The Patriots had a first-and-goal at the 5 in the third quarter and a first-and-goal at the 4 in the fourth quarter, and came away with just three total points.
Drake Maye: ‘I’ve Got to Be Better’
Those Patriots failures, Maye took on his own shoulders.
“I think they had some good stuff that I didn’t do the right thing, I didn’t get us into the right looks. I’ve got to be better, I have got to be better at the line of scrimmage,” Maye said. “I’ve got to be better. Credit to them for catching us some. But like I said, I have got to do my part. Help us play cleaner football. Punch it in there down in the red zone. I take that to heart.”
Vrabel did give the Patriots credit for pulling it together after their early mistakes. The team responded to the pick-6 by Maye with a touchdown drive that put them right back into the game, at 10-7.
“We settled down,” Vrabel said. “It wasn’t perfect by any means. But it was just enough.”
Patriots Managed to Hold on For the Win
The overriding theme of the afternoon for the Patriots was, indeed, just enough. This was a game they survived more than one that they won. The headline for the Pats is that the entire left side of the line–guard Jared Wilson and tackle Will Campbell, both rookies–left the game on carts.
Campbell suffered a knee injury that has the potential to end his season, while Wilson injured his ankle. The Patriots’ depth, which was never great, is now being challenged.
“It will be a good learning opportunity for us in a lot of phases,” Vrabel said. “Just how important and how critical the week of practice is and getting ready to go. You never know when your opportunity is going to come, and just making sure everyone is on the same page. A lot of moving parts today.”
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