Drake Maye ended an MVP caliber 2025 season with a brutal drop-off in the postseason. It culminated with a disastrous performance against the Seattle Seahawks in an uncompetitive 29-13 loss in Super Bowl 60.
The 2026 season offered a shot at redemption. Maye handled Seattle's pressure well early on. Sam Darnoldleft an ugly game with a hip injury and his New England Patriots took a 10-0 deal and were driving into Seattle territory in the second half when the wheels fell off. Maye threw three interceptions after halftime. None were as damaging as the one he threw on third down, trailing by three points with 26 seconds left at the Seahawks' 16-yard line.
Pressure crashed down on him. Maye escaped and looked like he was going to throw the ball away.
Instead, he lobbed an underthrown pass into the hands of Josh Jobe, sealing an 0-1 start to the season and leading bars across the northeast to collectively shout "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
To his credit, Maye emerged from the locker room soon after the final whistle and took full accountability at his postgame press conference.
Drake Maye arrives for his post-game press conference, and said a loss of patience led the game to slip away. He used the word “unacceptable” when speaking of his performance.
— Mike Reiss (@mikereiss.bsky.social) 2026-09-10T03:49:44.934Z
"We had the game under control," Maye began after being asked about the sequence of event that locked in the Seahawks victory. "I thought we had a good plan to start chipping away and be patient.
"Those decisions that cost us the game on my part. I vowed to myself to be better. It's a long season, but at the same time, we can't have those. Can't have those. It's unacceptable."
"Unacceptable" sums it up. Without an injured A.J. Brown on the field, Maye played impatient football and threw ill-advised passes into bad spots. His final mistake cost his team a chance to send the game into overtime. But he's been here before -- last year's New England team began the year with a home loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, who went on to record the worst record in the league. Losing to the defending champions is a bit more optimistic, even if Maye's performance certainly wasn't.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Drake Maye had 1 word to describe his game-losing interception vs. Seahawks
