Drake Maye made a leap in Baltimore and took the Patriots with him

BALTIMORE — It needed to be this fashion.

Down 11. Down unhealthy.

Teammates strewn throughout the sphere, nearly a dozen misplaced to damage. A foul decide and misplaced fumble behind him. However every little thing he needed, all of it, nonetheless forward.

As long as Tom Brady’s statue casts a shadow at 1 Patriot Place, quarterbacks who play in that shadow might be measured by how they carry out in moments like that. Moments like Sunday’s fourth quarter, the place embers of an outdated rivalry threatened to burn the Patriots’ first playoff berth in a brand new period.

Drake Maye had by no means confronted such stakes, such strain, when he took the sphere with 12:44 left in Baltimore. Not even the 11-point deficit, the Pats’ largest of the season, felt acquainted. This was all new — supplied you don’t rely final week’s debacle versus the Payments.

That loss, gamers later admitted, was high of thoughts Sunday evening. The Patriots hated shedding what they’d misplaced — a shot on the division — and the way they’d misplaced it, letting a three-touchdown lead slip at residence. Maye faltered greater than most that day, squandering two probabilities at a game-winning drive whereas Josh Allen powered Buffalo to the kind of win Maye had by no means led earlier than; the identical sort that outlined Brady’s profession: the fourth-quarter comeback.

“We needed to sit on that each one week,” Pats captain Hunter Henry stated, “and so for that (situation) to actually come up once more the subsequent sport on the street in a big-time atmosphere — fairly cool.”

What Maye did subsequent was higher than cool. It was clutch.

Down 24-13, he asserted management via 5 straight completions, every overlaying lower than 10 yards. Then, Maye struck with a sideline bomb that coated 37 yards, soared over All-Professional nook Marlon Humphrey and landed within the palms of rookie receiver Kyle Williams.

Landing.

After a Ravens punt, Maye opened with one other deep strike, this time ripping a 20-yard cross to Mack Hollins that led to a brief display. Then got here a dart delivered over the center to Stefon Diggs, whereas he acquired clocked on a blitz courtesy of one other All-Professional, linebacker Roquan Smith.

Regardless of. First down.

Subsequent, the offense hit a snag that will’ve moored some quarterbacks and a few groups mentally: a deep incompletion supposed for Kayshon Boutte ruined by blatant, but uncalled, cross interference. Maye pivoted rapidly, discovering backup tight finish Austin Hooper for eight yards, then surviving a cross breakup and returning to Diggs on fourth-and-2 with the sport at stake. Diggs beat man-to-man protection on that play, a 21-yard pickup, simply as he had on his prior catch earlier in the identical drive.

Two performs later, Maye handed off to Stevenson and watched him rumble off proper deal with for a protracted landing. That view was Maye’s reward for all of the work he’d poured into that comeback; work greatest summed up by his glowing fourth-quarter stat line — 12-of-14 for 139 yards and a landing, plus 14 speeding yards — and teammates’ flowery post-game reward.

“It was wonderful, man. It was wonderful,” left deal with Vederian Lowe stated. “All we’ve to do is do our job and provides Drake the time that he must make the play, and he’s gonna execute. He’s confirmed it to us time and time once more this season. We’re gonna journey with 10 it doesn’t matter what.”

As they need to.

In main two landing drives, Maye climbed over the identical obstacles that blocked his path towards Buffalo — a late deficit, tight protection and strain — and chased down a win. He grew.

“Simply gritty. (Maye) acquired hit, they pressured, he simply saved getting up and battling. He didn’t flinch,” Vrabel stated. “I feel it was vital for all of us to have that sport — all the crew.”