On the second day of New England Patriots training camp, Drake Maye hardly threw the football past 10 yards. The focus that particular practice was staying ahead of the chains with positive plays on first down. The team’s young quarterback delivered, completing his first 14 passes before his final throw was batted down at the line of scrimmage.
That version of Maye was missing in Sunday’s season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders. Instead, the 23-year old began his sophomore campaign with accuracy
issues.
That began on Maye’s first attempt of the game. Facing a 3rd-and-8, wide receiver DeMario Douglas (3) ran a simple out route from an attached alignment in the right-side slot, creating sufficient space versus Las Vegas’ quarters coverage. However, poor footwork led to an overthrow of the open target right at the sticks.
From there, the misses piled up with at least four passes sailing high past their intended target. That included a drive-starting overthrow to Hunter Henry in the early third quarter, just after Maye had thrown an interception that allowed Las Vegas to take a 14-10 lead.
This miss, which ultimately forced the team to waste its good starting field position at the 40-yard line, kick-started the first of four straight drives that ended with a punt.
“I missed ‘Hunt’ over the middle on the first down, and then on the second down I had a chance,” Maye said during his post-game press conference. “Just plays like that, you don’t realize that those are going to be the ones you look back on and feel like, ‘Man, if we hit those, it’s a different ballgame.’ So, it’s a bummer looking back at that now, but I think just adjusting to what they do, that’s part of the chess match of playing in the National Football League.
Against a Raiders defense that majored in zone coverage looks, the misses in the underneath areas of the field led to New England’s offense failing to find a rhythm.
But, the problem wasn’t just Maye’s accuracy. The ground game provided little help, producing just 60 rushing yards on 18 attempts with a 35 percent success rate. That led to Maye dropping back a career-high 53 times.
“We’ve got to help [Maye] out. We have to be more balanced,” head coach Mike Vrabel said after the 20-13 loss. “We have to use our run actions and be able to run the football. It’s hard to turn it into a drop-back passing game in this league. That’s just the facts. When they’re up two scores and they’re in their 3rd down package, we just don’t want to ever live in that world.”
There were flashes of what the Patriots are hoping to build on offense, however. Coordinator Josh McDaniels sprinkled in a first dose of the QB run game, with Maye keeping the ball on an RPO-zone read. More importantly, the former No. 3 overall pick still delivered some high-level throws: a seam strike to Henry, a touchdown to Douglas, and a backside dig to Kayshon Boutte that was placed behind the receiver to avoid a zone defender.
That is the version of Maye New England will take moving forward; it is the one the team needs to succeed. Pairing this with an improved run game should lead to better results for the offensive unit.
