The New England Patriots entered the visiting locker room inside Hard Rock Stadium at halftime trailing 13-3 to the one-win Miami Dolphins.
It was a sluggish start offensively for a group that was down multiple offensive lineman and three of their top pass catchers before losing tight end Hunter Henry early in the second quarter.
It was a sluggish start offensively for a group missing multiple offensive linemen and three of its top pass catchers, before they then lost tight end Hunter Henry early in the second
quarter.
But the group still had Drake Maye, and that proved to be enough to mount a comeback.
“You want to be a great quarterback in the National Football League, there’s not a whole lot of excuses,” head coach Mike Vrabel said post-game. “You go out there and you find ways to win for your football team. And I know that that’s one who he is and that’s what he wants to continue to be. So, he just throws to the open guy and controls our offense and gets guys in the right spot. That’s being one of the best quarterbacks in the league, that’s what the job description requires.”
After scoring just three first half points in a rainy Miami, Maye went on to lead three consecutive touchdown drives in the second half to put the Patriots in front.
The turnaround began with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Williams on a deep post, as Maye and the offense began pushing the ball downfield more aggressively.
“The touchdown, yeah, I think it was huge. We kind of needed to open it up a little bit and kind of break the barrier of getting in the end zone. I think we did that,” Maye said. “I think Coach was just kind of on us a little bit to stop hurting ourselves, Coach Vrabes and Coach McDaniels. So we were just kind of hurting ourselves and killing drives.”
Maye continued to deliver in the second half, capping off the comeback with a two-yard rushing touchdown and a 48-yard touchdown pass to DeMario Douglas. He finished the final two quarters 9-of-10 for 146 yards, with three total touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
As Vrabel noted, it was the kind of performance expected from an elite quarterback. With key contributors sidelined and the offense struggling to find its rhythm early, Maye gave the Patriots the spark they needed to leave Miami with a 24-19 victory.
“Go be the answer,” Maye said. “Don’t wait around for anybody else, go make it. And I think that was kind of the message everybody took in, and we just felt like we did that. It was good to see from those guys.”
