Drake Maye and the New England Patriots came up just short against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Despite the disappointing result, Pats fans have to be encouraged by the upside their rookie quarterback showed in his fourth NFL start.
Maye completed 29 of his 41 passes for 206 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. He led the team in rushing yards with 95 -- the third-most by a Pats QB in franchise history -- on eight carries.
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The third-overall draft pick's lone TD pass was the play of the year for New England to this point. The Patriots were down 17-10 on Tennessee's five-yard line with four seconds left in regulation when Maye scrambled for 11 seconds and found Rhamondre Stevenson in the end zone to send the game into OT.
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Maye's day ended on a sour note as his overtime interception sealed a 20-17 Titans victory. The 22-year-old turned the ball over three times in the defeat, but our Tom E. Curran still came away convinced that New England has found its franchise QB.
"They couldn't stop the run, they couldn't run the ball, they had penalties, they had wide receiver miscues all over the place, they allowed pressure on Drake Maye. But you come out of this game feeling so wholly different than you did in other games that were plagued by mistakes because you have the most important position in professional sports capably staffed, it appears, for the next however many years," Curran said on Patriots Postgame Live.
"Wish he didn't have a couple picks, wish he didn't have a strip-sack, said earlier today I was going to raise my expectation level and say that you have to pursue wins. But to see that kind of performance -- and that kind of clutch performance by Drake too -- really sells the kid. I can throw out my receipt, I'll take him."
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Former Pats linebacker Ted Johnson agreed with Curran's point that Maye's flashes of brilliance helped make up for the loss.
"I kind of come away with this feeling OK about the outcome because of what I saw from the quarterback," Johnson said.
"Yeah, he threw a couple of interceptions. Yeah, he got strip-sacked. Yeah, he threw a really bad interception in that first half. Having said all that, he still brought this team back. And not only did he bring him back, he brought them back with some flare and some athletic ability we haven't seen at that position in a very, very long time."
Between Maye's rushing ability and the impressive athleticism he showed on his miraculous TD pass, Curran expects the No. 10 jerseys to start flying off the shelves.
"This is the kind of game that makes kids buy the jersey," Curran said. "That makes dads and moms buy the jersey and show up and it sells a lot of Maye jerseys. And Mac Jones really never had a game like that where he put on the cape and brought the team down the field. And Drew Bledsoe didn't have a lot of those early on in his career until the great finger game, the last one in 1993, or the 70-attempt game in 1994.
"Those are the things that really captivate and capture your audience. So if you're the Krafts right now sitting in that box, you're saying to yourself, 'All right, so we do stink, and we're not sure on Jerod (Mayo). But man, we've got the right quarterback.' "
Maye and the Patriots will look to get back in the win column when they visit the Chicago Bears next Sunday.
Watch the Postgame Live crew's full reaction to Sunday's Pats-Titans game below or on YouTube:
