New England Patriots
“I think we had a good plan to try to start chipping away and be patient, and I lost patience and costed us.”
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The final image of the Patriots’ season-opening loss to the Seahawks was an ugly one.
Quarterback Drake Maye, now in his third NFL season, launched a pass off his back foot as he was falling away. He tried to hit Mack Hollins in the side of the end one, but Seattle’s Josh Jobe was in front and ready to make the interception that sealed Seattle’s win.
It wasn’t just the throw, which Maye seemed to just chuck up there out of panic, that was concerning. It was favorable scenario that the Patriots just threw away. New England, down by three, was in field-goal range to tie the game with the ball on the 16-yard line.
They had 26 seconds left in the game, a timeout still on the table, and would have had fourth down left to play had Maye not turned the ball over.
Maye shook his head and blew some air out of his mouth as he described what happened.
“I think we had the game under control,” Maye said. “I think we had a good plan to try to start chipping away and be patient, and I lost patience and costed us. I think it was decisions that just costed us the game. On my part, my end.”
“I vowed to myself to be better and realize that it’s a long season. At the same time, you can’t have those. You can’t have those, it’s unacceptable and I know we have to get back to work.”
The Patriots had a 10-0 lead in the third quarter until the young quarterback started taking ill-advised deep shots. Both teams were held under 200 yards passing. Maye, the runner-ip for last year’s MVP award who was extraordinarily accurate on deep throws last year, tried to go back to his biggest strength when the Patriots were in position to put Seattle away.
It backfired. According to Next Gen Stats, Maye went 3-for-9 on throws longer than 10 yards downfield. Three of those passes were intercepted.
The first one, intended for Romeo Doubs, was thrown into double coverage. The pass was tipped, and Seattle’s Nehemiah Pritchett was able to track it down.
The second one, intended for DeMario Douglas, fell well short of where it was supposed to be. Maye justs didn’t get enough on the throw. Julian Love undercut Douglas and knocked the Patriots receiver over in the process.
Then came the final mistake that Jobe took away. The offensive line, which had a much better showing that it did in last year’s Super Bowl LX, showed some cracks at the end as Seattle intensified its blitzing. New England used chip blocks, jumbo packages, and other techniques to slow down the rush.
Maye had a defender in his face on the final play. Right tackle Morgan Moses tried to execute a cut block, but the defender hurdled him and sprinted towards Maye, who hurled the ball right to Jobe.
“That wasn’t how I play football and how I want to represent my game and playing quarterback for the Patriots,” said Maye.
Maye finished 23-for-33 passing. It was a below-average night by his standards, but it wasn’t all bad. He drew and A.J. Brown drew a penalty on a deep throw that set up rookie tight end Eli Raridon’s first career touchdown. Maye was 7-for-8 on throws behind the line of scrimmage, which the Patriots used to alleviate some of the pressure generated by Seattle’s pass-rush.
Maye made several plays with his legs, including a key bootleg run that extended the final drive and help put the Patriots in the position they were in before Jobe’s interception.
“We had a certain protection on when we were cutting and just trying to get rid of it,” Maye said. “Realized Mack was back there in the back and didn’t put enough on it.”
He got the Patriots out of trouble several times before the costly interceptions were thrown. The Patriots had a shutout going for most of the game. The turnovers helped defending champion Seattle regain their swagger.
“I felt like our defense responded. You can’t throw three interceptions. Drake knows that,” Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said. “We put ourselves in some long yardage situations that I think were probably forced, and I think the guy made a great play on the last one.”
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