Drake Maye had his first profession matchup towards the quarterback he’s gained comparisons to all through his rookie season in Buffalo Payments star Josh Allen. The New England Patriots quarterback confirmed related qualities and stepped up within the coldest climate he’s performed in.
Maye’s environment friendly first half allowed the Patriots to leap out with momentum towards the AFC East Champions on Sunday afternoon. Sadly for New England, the group didn’t end with that momentum in a 24-21 loss at Highmark Stadium.
Maye went 22-for-36 by means of the air for 260 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Right here’s the complete report card for Maye’s Week 16 efficiency with the Patriots.
POSITIVES
Shot play conversion
Maye obtained the Patriots rolling on the opening drive when he hit wideout Kayson Boutte for a 28-yard landing.
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The throw was on a rope down the suitable sideline on an ideal ball that Maye dropped proper over Buffalo defender Kaiir Elam. The throw regarded eerily just like Maye’s first profession landing cross, which coincidentally went to Boutte towards the Houston Texans in Week 6 at Gillette Stadium.
First-half effectivity
The Patriots significantly made a significant influence on third all the way down to closely maintain possession within the first half. Per week after not tallying a single third-down conversion in a disastrous loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Maye introduced the Patriots offense to 5-for-8 within the first half. New England even transformed a fourth-down strive with a pretend punt with Dell Pettus on the run.
Clock administration
The Patriots knew that maintaining the ball out of Allen’s palms could be an early key to victory and an total aggressive effort on Sunday. Maye saved the offense on schedule by holding the ball for many of the afternoon.
New England tallied 17 first downs within the first half with 20 minutes of possession.
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Blitz administration
Buffalo dialed up the stress in a number of sequence hoping to shake Maye off his recreation. As an alternative. The rookie remained as cool as the sport time air in Western New York. He beat a five-man rush for the Boutte landing and located the second-year wideout once more for a 32-yard achieve on a vital third-quarter drive.
The Payments did blitz closely within the fourth quarter, which pressured a couple of throwaways from Maye whereas the Patriots chased a double-digit deficit.
NEGATIVES
Turnovers
For the seventh consecutive recreation, the rookie passer threw in an interception in a irritating development. There’s actually only some constant areas to critique Maye, however that is absolutely essentially the most outstanding one.
After the aforementioned huge achieve for Boutte, Maye left a ball shallow ultimately zone meant for Austin Hooper by means of some site visitors. Buffalo defensive again Cam Lewis got here off the route for a sliding interception to take the ball away with the Payments main by a discipline objective late within the third quarter.
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Drake’s seven-game run with an interception is the longest lively streak within the NFL, per the CBS broadcast.
Maye additionally had a backward cross to Rhamondre Stevenson roll into the top zone that Buffalo recovered for a landing within the fourth quarter.
GRADE: B+
Maye had a powerful first half that fell right into a recreation plan value of beating the Payments. Sadly, the Patriots made a number of errors with turnovers within the second half whereas the protection did not cease the working recreation of James Cook dinner.
Maye was concerned in two of these turnovers, including to his uncommon main difficulty, which nonetheless wants loads of work.
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