Breaking down Drake Maye’s performance against the Bears in Week 10.
After a few weeks of playing Superman, the New England Patriots came to the side of their rookie quarterback in Chicago on Sunday.
In a 19-3 victory, Drake Maye only needed to drop back 29 times against the Bears (down from over 45 per game in his first full three starts), largely due to the Patriots getting their run game going against a vulnerable Bears’ run defense.
New England’s backs totaled 31 carries for 120 yards on Sunday, taking some of the pressure off their rookie quarterback. Much of that success additionally came on first-down where they averaged over 4.0 yards per carry for just the second time this season.
“Anytime you’re able to run the football on first down, I think that was the big thing today. Credit to those guys up front. Our guys, they played their butts off, in run blocking and pass pro,” Maye said. “I think being able to run the football, seeing some first downs and some big yardage on first downs kind of helped us throughout the way.”
In total, Maye’s passing line was rather pedestrian against a top five ranked Bears’ pass defense. The quarterback finished 15-of-25 for 184 yards with a touchdown and interception, then adding 24 yards on four scrambles. Maye faced some early struggles but settled down as the game went on, although it still may have been the worst start of his impressive young career.
However, as Maye said post game, he and the offense did “just enough” while the Patriots’ defense — that got to Caleb Williams nine times and allowed just one third-down conversion — won them the football game. An encouraging sign that his supporting cast picked him up rather than vice versa.
Maye will play better moving forward, but for now let’s get into some of his most notable moments from Sunday in this week’s Maye’s Plays.
Mistakes
After turning the football over three times last week in Tennessee, protecting the football was a key area of improvement for Maye moving forward.
Against a Bears defense that entered the week with the fourth most turnovers forced (15) in the league, Maye threw just one interception — a poor decision and ugly outcome along the sideline where he stated he tried to throw the ball away in Austin Hooper’s direction.
“I think there’s some throws that I’d like to have back, and that first interception, just a bad decision. Tried to throw it away and got to throw it away farther,” Maye said.
While the one interception was down from the two he tossed last week, Maye finished the game with three turnover worthy plays. One of those included a late, third-down misfire to Hunter Henry in the red area when New England was still up just 10 points.
On the play, Maye works the second window to his tight end working across the field from left to right. He seems to arrive there a tad late as he looks off No. 53 to his right. The ball is then late and behind Henry and ends up going through the hands of a Bears’ defender.
The good news for Maye was how he bounced back from the early interception and some other miscues. On the drive following the pick, Maye went 5-of-5 for 54 yards and a touchdown — the lone touchdown drive of the afternoon. His next drive ended with a field goal to conclude the first half.
“I think just being a competitor and having confidence in myself. I know that’s not my style of football, turning the football over like that,” Maye said. “I think more and more at times not everything is going to go right, not everything is going to go perfect, and I think you saw that from the offense today. Being able to bounce back and do what we needed to do with a defensive performance like that.”
Big time throws
One of those two bounce-back scoring drives came at the end of the first half, an area the offense has routinely struggled in this season. Getting the ball back with 35 seconds left and two timeouts just shy of midfield, New England had an opportunity to steal points.
After picking up the initial first-down on three plays, New England needed one chunk play to work into field goal range.
With Pop Douglas clearing things out with a vertical from the slot, K.J. Osborn runs the in route off of it while Kayshon Boutte runs the dig from the backside (likely Maye’s first read). Boutte runs a nice route and Maye hits him with perfect ball placement with the cornerback trailing for a 23-yard gain.
The throw was likely Maye’s best of the day, and Boutte and the rest of the offense then do a strong job of getting the ball to the official and getting a spike down with one second on the clock to get three points before half.
“We practice those [end of half situations] like nobody’s business. We practice them every week, big plays and a chunk play and getting up there and spiking it” Maye said post game. “I think we even practiced that in our walk-through yesterday morning, almost that same exact thing where we have no time-outs, it’s either thrust the field goal team out — I don’t know if we could have had time for that.
“No time-outs, we had to clock it, and it ended up working. I think we looked at that same play on film, kind of a backside dig, and it shows what contributes to just coaches getting me prepared and just making the throw.”
Another big time throw came on his first completion of the day. New England runs a popular West Coast play with a vertical paired with a sail route to Maye’s left. With the cornerback running with the vertical, Hooper is left one-on-one working toward the boundary.
Despite tight coverage, Maye again has perfect ball placement to allow Hooper to go up and get it — where he makes a great catch — for a big 28-yard completion.
“You got a guy like Drake, he’s gonna throw you open,” Hooper said. “I wasn’t even open, Drake just threw me a ball to get me open.”
Takin’ off
Similar to New England’s defensive strategy against Caleb Williams, the Bears did a strong job of limiting Maye’s ability to play out of structure. The rookie only scrambled four times for 24 yards, but that did include a late 19-yard run against man coverage to help set up New England’s second-to-last field goal.
Maye’s final pass of the day to help led to the final field goal then came on the move. He does a strong job to work through three reads right to left and then work up the pocket to avoid pressure. He may climb the pocket a bit too much, but has the athleticism needed to flip it out to a wide-open Hunter Henry off mesh for a chunk gain on third-down.
There were, however, two instances of Maye seemingly taking off too early and leaving plays on the field.
On a 3rd-and-5 from just outside the red area, New England runs three vertical routes to Maye’s left. The safety overtop commits to run with Douglas which leaves Henry one-on-one with inside leverage against Kyler Gordon up the seam.
Henry is open for a touchdown (while Rhamondre Stevenson is also open on the backside at the sticks) but Maye sees the seas part in front of him and tries to get the first down yardage himself. He comes up a yard short and takes a hit while doing so.
As Maye said last week, he wants to be a passer first in this league. Failing to do so there may have taken six points off the board.