Breaking down Drake Maye’s performance against the Rams in Week 11.
Through his first handful of NFL starts, Drake Maye has been one of the league’s best scrambling quarterbacks. The playmaking quarterback knows he has that skill in his bag, but also knows that’s not where he wants to consistently win.
“I’m a passer first. I want to be a passer in this league and you got to be a passer in this league to be successful,” Maye said earlier this month.
Despite coming up on the wrong side of a 28-22 game versus the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, winning as a passer is exactly what Maye did en route to perhaps the best performance of his young New England Patriots career.
Against a Rams defense that entered the week as one of the top unit’s in the league, Maye set career-highs in completions (30), passing yards (282), adjusted completion percentage (86.5 percent), and EPA per drop-back (+0.27). With New England operating a quick-passing attack, Maye’s success mostly came with his quick decision making as he won in structure — an area that was supposedly a weakness coming out of college that required ample time on the bench in some opinions.
With the 22-year-old already flashing his high-level playmaking ability early in his career, watching him play on time with consistent accuracy and anticipation were extremely encouraging signs on Sunday. Pair those abilities with the physical skillset, the out of structure work, and hopefully a better supporting cast and New England could be cooking with gas.
There was, however, more turnover issues that reappeared again we’ll discuss as we get into some of his most notable moments from Sunday in this week’s Maye’s Plays.
Playing in the pocket
As mentioned above, Alex Van Pelt has focused his offense in the underneath area of the field to help fit his personnel. On Sunday, that led to Maye posting a season-low average depth of target (5.7 yards) and quickest average time to throw (2.55 seconds) as he primarily played in the rhythm of the offense.
Even when dealing with pressure — which Maye felt heat on nearly 40 percent of his drop backs against LA — the rookie stayed strong in the pocket and knew where his answers were.
On an early 28-yard completion to Pop Douglas, Maye beats a creeper pressure to his left to find his receiver in stride. Even with the rusher (No. 39) coming in virtually untouched, Maye drifts to his right to buy enough time for Douglas to clear No. 97 over the middle of the field and makes the throw back to his left while getting hit for a big gain.
Later on the drive, Maye again reads things out perfectly to find a touchdown. With two Rams players following Stevenson out in the flat, a passing window opens to Kendrick Bourne. Maye is on time and is starting his throwing motion before Bourne is even breaking out of his route. Perfect throw for six.
While the two plays on the first drive were highlights, Maye had many similar plays that were easy to over look throughout the day because they looked “easy”. One was this 15-yard completion to Hunter Henry, where Maye’s decision depends on a read of the linebacker to his right.
Maye quickly identifies No. 48 latching on to Hooper running across the field and works to find Henry over the ball — with ball placement away from the defender — for the completion and 15 yards.
In total, Maye was 27-of-33 for 240 yards and one touchdown while throwing under 10 yards against the Rams. He stood in against pressure while his decision-making and accuracy shined — all extreme positives for the 22-year old to build off of.
“Feel like I got a good rapport with those guys and where they’re gonna be at,” Maye said on WEEI Monday. “The big thing we talk about in the quarterback room is ball placement, that can lead to yards after catch. We showcased that well on Sunday.”
Miscues
There weren’t many mistakes for Maye on Sunday as he posted a season-low turnover worthy play rate (2.1 percent), but the few errors were unfortunately costly.
Maye lost another fumble on a strip sack, although the continued failure to pick up line games up front makes it hard to fault the quarterback. Even though the rookie took the blame, the sack occurred in 2.32 seconds — the fastest sack this season for a defensive lineman.
“Just got to get it out. Third-down, if it happens to be incomplete then we punt it away. Can’t take a sack, especially in our own territory and [put] the defense in that spot,” Maye explained. “Boutte had a stop route and beat the guy off the release so bad he was ahead of him. Just got to throw it over his head or give him a chance.”
Before we hit on the interception, one of the plays Maye shared he wanted back after his film review came down in the red area — where New England’s recent struggles continued as they went just 2-of-5.
Los Angeles brings an all-out pressure which leaves Pop Douglas wide open working over the middle from the bunch formation. Feeling the heat, Maye sails the ball out of the end zone and potentially keeps six points off the board.
Then came the interception to lose the game, which both Maye and Douglas described as a miscommunication afterwards.
“It was a two-high look and Pop’s up the middle, and they’re pretty good up front rushing five,” Maye explained. “I tried to kind of put it on him and kind of hit him over the linebacker, and Pop was thinking probably deep, but at the end of the day, just got to be on the same page, and I think Pop did the right thing.
“I guess, got to just talk through more conversations. Just goes back to me during the week doing more, talking through different situations, “hey, I may put this one on you versus let it rip.” That’s about it.”
On the play, it appeared the safety along the left hash locking onto Henry led to Douglas looking to split the two-high safety look downfield. However, Maye expects Douglas to settle over the linebacker and put the ball on him at that point. You can understand both lines of thinking but the throw looks inaccurate even if Douglas does settle.
It’s unfortunate another positive game ended this way for Maye, who also took a tough sack with a potential big play opportunity to Boutte on the play earlier. But, the first 58 minutes of the game leave the arrow pointed upwards for New England’s talented 22-year old gunslinger.