A short trip to the blue medical tent following a scramble in Tennessee led to the buzzword around Patriots quarterback Drake Maye being “sliding” last week.
While New England certainly needs their MVP
candidate and franchise quarterback healthy, the dual-threat nature of Maye’s game is going to result in him taking hits at times. The issue here, however, was that Maye was passing up open receivers to instead scramble leading to unnecessary hits — something he admitted post game and we broke down in last week’s Maye’s Plays.
Returning to Gillette Stadium in Week 8, Maye looked back at home. The 23-year-old continued to stay a step ahead of defensive coverages and worked through full progressions instead of taking off running. Even when he did use his legs to his advantage, Maye ended a 16-yard run by getting out of bounds and a 28-yard explosive gain with an (awkward) slide.
“We’ve got to send him to Spring Training and figure out when to slide, and continue to talk about that,” chirped Mike Vrabel post-game.
The play led to another highly efficient and productive game from Maye against a highly-ranked Browns defense. That included a perfect second-half where Maye finished with a perfect passer rating of 158.3 behind eight completions on eight attempts for 114 yards, three touchdowns, and 34 yards on the ground.
Here’s how Maye got there and continues to climb the early MVP ladder.
Drive 1
3-5-CLV 19 (10:54) D. Maye pass short middle to R. Stevenson to CLV 4 for 15 yards. Josh McDaniels got the Patriots ground game going out of the gate with a pair of scripted 10-plus yard carries for TreVeyon Henderson, as New England uses the offset-I formation to break an inside run (12 yards) before coming back to the same look three plays later just to flip a ball out to the rookie (18 yards).
Eventually in the red zone, Maye shows his progress from last week in Tennessee by working through a full-field progression — starting his read with Stefon Diggs to his left before working to his right where he finds his back Rhamondre Stevenson split out wide for a 15-yard gain.
3-8-CLV 8 (9:30) D. Maye sacked at CLV 18 for -10 yards (M. Garrett). On the following third-down, Maye takes the first of five sacks from future Hall of Famer Myles Garrett, who works through chip help and left tackle Will Campbell to bring down the QB. But, Maye seems to get hung up on his read to his right with Kayshon Boutte and Stevenson on an option route — missing Hunter Henry uncovering over the middle of the field. New England has to settle for a field goal.
Drive 3
1-10-NE 15 (:53) D. Maye pass short right to K. Boutte ran ob at NE 30 for 15 yards. After a three-and-out on New England’s second possession, Maye starts strong on the Patriots third drive of the game. Off a play-action bootleg, Boutte runs a fantastic “squirrel” route — putting Denzel Ward to the ground in the process — and Maye finds him on the move for a 15-yard gain.
3-9-NE 41 (13:12) D. Maye pass short middle intended for S. Diggs INTERCEPTED by C. Schwesinger at NE 34. Despite a promising start to the drive, it ends just plays later as Maye threw his first interception since Week 3. With Cleveland in a well-time man-to-man call, Maye avoids pressure off his blindside but forces a pass to Diggs over the middle with nobody open. However, he misses the rookie Carson Schwesinger dropping as a spy right in the passing lane to pick off the pass.
“I was looking downfield and forgot the guy in front of me could jump, so he picked it. Nice play by him,” Maye said. “But just bouncing back from adversity. This is that league.”
Drive 4
2-10-NE 37 (11:14) D. Maye pass deep middle to A. Hooper to CLV 32 for 31 yards. Bouncing back is exactly what Maye did. On his second play back with the ball, the QB sniffs out Cleveland’s inverted cover-two look and holds the safety to his left with his eyes post snap before quickly coming back to his right and firing the seam to Austin Hooper for an explosive gain.
1-10-CLV 32 (10:31) D. Maye pass deep right to M. Hollins push ob at CLV 11 for 21 yards. The very next play, Maye strikes again. With Mack Hollins selling a run-action with a crackdown before breaking on a corner route, Maye drops a perfect pass between the flat defender and overtop safety for another explosive gain — helping set up New England’s second field goal of the afternoon as Garrett ended another drive in the red zone.
Drive 6
2-8-NE 19 (2:00) D. Maye pass short left to S. Diggs to NE 24 for 5 yards. In an end-of-half situation still trailing by a point, Maye again goes through a full field read — starting to his right where he perhaps passes on DeMario Douglas before working all the way to his left to find Diggs. The modest gain sets up a third-and-short to stay ahead of the chains.
3-3-NE 24 (1:16) D. Maye pass deep right to D. Douglas to CLV 32 for 44 yards. On that third-down, Maye strikes by finding Douglas, who creates separation at the top of the route with a physical move on Grant Delpit before breaking wide open downfield as the safety takes a tumble. Maye continues to impress in the pocket by keeping two hands on the football and working to his right which allows him to find Douglas downfield for a big gain at the end of the half.
3-23-CLV 45 (:29) D. Maye pass deep middle to K. Boutte to CLV 24 for 21 yards. Following a strip sack (that Jared Wilson recovered) off Maye’s blindside, the Patriots found themselves outside of field goal range on third-and-long. Dialing up a dagger concept (vertical plus dig route), Douglas clears out the deep safety to clear the middle of the field for Boutte filling in on the dig. While a pass is slightly behind Boutte, Maye has the arm talent to drive the ball to the receiver for a 21-yard gain to get back in field goal range and take the lead heading into halftime.
Drive 7
The Patriots opened the second half with one of their best drives of the season. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who called an excellent game Sunday, used his personnel groups and play-sequencing to give the Browns defense hell coming out of halftime.
1-10-NE 35 (11:56) T. Henderson right tackle to CLV 38 for 27 yards. McDaniels and the Patriots coaching staff did a better job of getting TreVeyon Henderson into space Sunday which resulted in a season-high 75 rushing yards for the rookie. On this first-down run, Henderson finds a lane on crack toss — with strong downfield blocks by Jared Wilson and Mike Onwenu — for an explosive.
1-10-CLV 38 (11:11) D. Maye pass short left to M. Hollins pushed ob at CLV 19 for 19 yards. The very next play, Maye tosses one again to his right to Stevenson this time in a similar action. Instead of the same run, however, Stevenson passes back to Maye, who stands in against a defender to deliver a pass to a wide open Mack Hollins for 19 yards off a double-pass.
2-6-CLV 15 (9:54) D. Douglas left end to CLV 7 for 8 yards. After a speed option pitch for four yards, McDaniels sets the Cleveland defense up again. It begins with a jet sweep to Pop Douglas, who is able to turn the corner and move the chains to set up a goal-to-go situation.
1-7-CLV 7 (9:15) D. Maye pass short right to H. Henry for 7 yards, TOUCHDOWN. And on the next play, Diggs goes on the same jet motion which forces Cleveland’s defense to react in that direction, only for Maye to pull the ball on a bootleg and find a wide open Hunter Henry in the flat for a walk-in score.
“His demeanor at halftime was he could tell that he was calming us down. He knew that we were good. Just classic Coach McDaniels drive,” Maye said about the possession. “He’s just dialing it up multiple times, getting guys open and really making it easy for me. He’s done it his whole life, and I feel like he was put on this earth to be an offensive coordinator. It was fun to be in the headset with him.”
Drive 9
1-10-NE 33 (1:45) D. Maye scrambles up the middle to CLV 39 for 28 yards. After another short scoring drive set up by a Robert Spillane interception, Maye caps off his third quarter surge with a two-play sequence that generated “MVP” chants inside Gillette Stadium. It begins with the Browns in man coverage and Carson Schwesigner adding to the rusher as his man (Stevenson) stays into block. With the defenders’ backs to Maye and the seas parting in front of him, the quarterback uses his athleticism and takes it himself for 28 yards.
1-10-CLV 39 (:59) D. Maye pass deep left to K. Boutte for 39 yards, TOUCHDOWN. On the next snap, the Maye-to-Boutte deep connection continues to shine for New England. With the safety to Boutte’s side of the field occupied by Hollins, Boutte runs a great dig-go concept (where he fakes the dig route he ran earlier in the game; Drive 6) and beats the corner downfield. Maye then continues his streak of being the best deep ball thrower in football as he hand delivers one in the bucket to Boutte for a 39-yard score.
“We worked into the boundary, and Kayshon liked it on that side. We worked on that side during the week, so we just kept it to that side,” Maye explained. “He made a great move on him, just trying to give him a chance. Thought I overthrew it again, but he made a nice adjustment to it and a great catch.”
