Earlier this season, the New England Patriots unveiled a statue in honor of Tom Brady. More than being a symbol of the history-making quarterbacking he provided for the Patriots over the years, the statue is also a welcome mat, a candle burning in the window so that Brady knows he’ll always be welcome at Gillette Stadium.
It’s just that Brady no longer hovers over the franchise, the mere mention of his name serving as a sobering reminder of all that’s gone wrong with the Patriots post-Brady. That’s because Drake Maye, New England’s second-year quarterback, has liberated the Patriots from the past. In leading New England to a stunning 23-20 victory over the previously undefeated Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium on Sunday night, Maye made it known he’s no longer the “next” quarterback of the Patriots. He is “the” quarterback of the Patriots, the field general of a once-great franchise that dares to be great again.
Talk about making an entrance. Patriots-Bills was ticketed for “Sunday Night Football,” thereby giving Football America an opportunity to see how Maye stacks up against the mighty Josh Allen. But on a night when the Patriots were clinging to a collection of slim leads, and everyone — everyone — kept waiting for Allen to do the kind of work that’s made the Bills a fearsome team in recent years, it was cool-as-a-cucumber Maye who put the Patriots in a position to post their biggest victory since the day Brady packed up for Tampa Bay.
Maye won this game not with 70-yard touchdown passes. In fact, he had no touchdown passes. And his overall passing yards were not what you’d routinely see next to Brady’s name on the scoresheet week after week, year after year … 350 … 368 … 388 … 399 … 511!
Maye was 22 for 30 for 273 yards. More importantly, he was 13 for 14 for 184 yards in the second half. He built on his relationship with receiver Stefon Diggs, the former Bills standout who couldn’t say enough nice things about his old team when he returned to Highmark Stadium and then couldn’t have done a better job ruining the night for Bills fans. Targeted 12 times, he had 10 receptions.
Touchdowns? Diggs never did make it into the end zone. The scoring was provided by two touchdowns by Rhamondre Stevenson (a nice comeback from an early fumble that surely had Pats fans back home screaming for a benching), and three field goals by rookie Andy Borregales, the last of them a clutch 52-yarder with 15 seconds remaining.
Maye’s finest moment may have been what he did to put the Patriots in position to kick that field goal. On the last play before the two-minute warning he was being pursued by the Bills’ 6-foot-4, 320-pound defensive end DaQuan Jones, who had his mitts wrapped around Maye’s left arm and was trying to pull him down. It looked almost comical, the little quarterback (by comparison) trying to get away from a much, much bigger opponent.
Somehow, Maye remained on his feet.
Somehow, he could see Diggs a little ways down field. The pass Maye threw wasn’t pretty, but Diggs caught it for a 12-yard completion and a first down. Two plays later Maye hit Kayshon Boutte for 19 yards, all this happening as Borregales was warming up for what would be the biggest kick of his brief NFL career.
To his credit, Maye made no attempt to portray what happened Sunday night as “just another game.” He’s smart enough to avoid making any comparisons with Brady — or Allen, for that matter. But as for what this was all about, big picture and so on, yep, you bet, he was all over that.
“It’s a division game, it was 8:20 (kickoff), Orchard Park, and a great environment playing the Buffalo Bills,” he said. He went on to note that when he was growing up, “My dad and my brothers always said, basketball, baseball, the last play, the last shot, I want the ball in my hands. So I’m not going to lose that mindset in my whole career.”
Brady was with the Patriots through 2019. His last game was a playoff loss to the Mike Vrabel-coached Tennessee Titans. Musical chairs then ensued, with Brady going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win another Super Bowl. Quarterbacks came and went for the Patriots, from Cam Newton to Mac Jones to Bailey Zappe, with cameos by Brian Hoyer, Jarrett Stidham and Malik Cunningham. While all this was going on, Bill Belichick’s long tenure as head coach came to an end, with Jerod Mayo stepping in for one season that didn’t go well. And Vrabel, whose Titans beat the Patriots in the game that closed out the Brady era, now coaches the Patriots. And Drake Maye.
With all the coachspeak he could muster, Vrabel said of Maye, “I’m going to continue to enjoy watching him grow and lead this football team.” But Vrabel spoke to something bigger than all that, and to a mindset not every quarterback has, when he added, “We’d love to win by two scores, but (we were) able to come back and execute in a critical situation and take the clock down and win it on our terms.”
Vrabel didn’t need to point out that victories along those lines were not uncommon in the Brady days.
Now just to be clear, Drake Maye won’t likely be the next Tom Brady. He doesn’t need to be. The Patriots want him to be the next Drake Maye. And that’s who beat the Buffalo Bills — and Josh Allen — in Orchard Park Sunday night.
(Photo: Kathryn Riley / Getty Images)
Source link
