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Drake Maye fumbled the game away and then almost pulled it out.
Maye continues to pick up new fans who see him as the youngest gun in the NFL. He started his fourth game for the Patriots Sunday after the concussion protocol kept him out for the second half of his third start.
Make no mistake that he is the future for his current franchise, which has let its championship mettle go down the drain after losing Tom Brady to free agency. Drake is playing with one of the worst supporting casts in the NFL and still shines throwing the ball and scrambling for key yardage for almost hapless New England.
On Sunday, he matched up with boyhood chum Mason Rudolph of the Tennessee Titans, who are also a shadow of their former teams. It was a great game that went into overtime, ending when Maye threw his second interception of the afternoon to send the relieved Titan fans home happy.
His receiving cast has one dependable target in tight end Hunter Henry, and the Pats need to trade for or draft better talent that can maximize Maye’s skills as a passer and runner when defenses will have to pay more attention to a diversified passing attack.
Drake was scrambling late in a tie game when stripped from the ball that resulted in the Titans going ahead by a touchdown in the last 90 seconds. But with no timeouts left and the clock running out, Maye found a receiver in the end zone to tie the game on fourth down as he was going down and time expired. Even the partisan Nashville crowd was cheering his heroics that could have won the game if the Patriots decided to go for a two-point conversion instead of kicking to tie the game. In OT, the Pats’ lack of defensive depth and stamina did them in.
He wound up with more than 300 yards of total offense, 50 more than veteran Rudolph in the Titans’ 20-17 victory that tied New England in the win column with a 2-7 record.
Neither team is going to the playoffs this season, but Drake Maye has created such a buzz around the NFL that people want to see him play no matter the outcome of his latest game.
As he did at UNC, Maye fires the ball with accuracy and touch and escapes the rush with abandon and speed that fools the opposition at first and eventually makes them adjust their defense to keep him in the pocket.
When he gets better receivers on his team, he will be able to set up and stay in the pocket and pick those defenses apart.
He has already begun to do it as the youngest player in the NFL with little help.
Featured image via Associated Press/George Walker IV
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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