New England Patriots
“You are taking it without any consideration. Simply what a wonderful sport. The perfect sport on the market.”
Hours earlier than Drake Maye helped the Patriots erase an 11-point deficit within the fourth quarter towards the Ravens, the Patriots quarterback heeded the message doled out by his head coach within the visiting locker room at M&T Financial institution Stadium.
New England was coping with loads of adversity coming into Sunday’s primetime matchup — contemporary off of collapsing towards the Payments at Gillette Stadium the earlier weekend.
Compounding the Patriots’ woes was the sting of the harm bug, with New England soldiering on with out key cogs like Milton Williams, Will Campbell, and Robert Spillane on Sunday evening. An already reeling New England depth chart can be additional sapped of its expertise as Sunday’s bout carried on.
However as Maye and the Patriots took to the sector in enemy territory, Vrabel preached the significance of relishing the second — particularly amid a season the place a once-rebuilding New England franchise has persistently punched above its weight.
That message rang true for Maye, particularly in the aftermath of Sunday’s dramatic 28-24 victory.
“You are taking it without any consideration, man,” Maye stated postgame. “You are taking it without any consideration. Simply what a wonderful sport. The perfect sport on the market. This sport, it’s brutal. There’s occasions with accidents and losses that weigh on you, however this successful feeling, there’s nothing prefer it. Coach reminded us of that pregame.
“He stated, ‘You may’t purchase that again, successful in that locker room.’ At his age, he all the time says, ‘I want I may go well with up once more.’ You simply can’t purchase that. He stated, ‘You should purchase anything in life, however you’ll be able to’t purchase this time we’re in proper now.’ And what a time it’s.”
New England overcame a number of hurdles on Sunday, be it these aforementioned accidents or a number of early miscues that prevented the Patriots from piling on factors towards Baltimore.
However in crunch time, Maye performed a number of the greatest soccer of his younger NFL profession.
He accomplished 12-of-14 passes for 139 yards and one landing within the fourth quarter, whereas additionally scrambling for 14 yards to assist ice the win for New England within the remaining minute of regulation.
Maye was as marketed when it got here to uncorking throws deep down the sector. As famous by NextGen Stats, Maye accomplished 4 of his passes that went for over 20 air yards for a career-high 111 yards and a landing.
His solely deep throw that was incomplete was his heave down the sector to Kayshon Boutte — a sequence the place Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey should have been whistled for defensive pass interference.
For Maye, it was a validating response for a Patriots crew nonetheless steaming after letting an opportunity to clinch the AFC East outright slip by means of their grasp final week towards Buffalo.
“It felt good getting that one,” Maye stated of Sunday’s win over Baltimore. “It was a type of a wakeup name final week. We had an opportunity to win the sport with a game-winning drive. It was like: ‘Let’s not have the identical feeling two weeks in a row.’”
Maye’s ascension from promising rookie QB to respectable MVP candidate has performed a serious function in New England’s sterling 12-3 document to date this season.
However the 23-year-old sign caller was fast to credit score his head coach for his function in setting the tone for a hungry Patriots roster working with a chip on its collective shoulder.
“I feel it’s high down,” Maye stated of the reasoning behind New England’s turnaround. “It’s Coach Vrabel coming in right here. It’s the teaching workers he employed. It’s the blokes shopping for in and believing in what we do. That’s the most important factor [in] a locker room. It’s believing in what the coach is saying. It’s believing in our id. Carrying it. Touring with it. He all the time says, ‘Pack our id.’
“Simply one other large win on the highway and it begins high down. The blokes — we simply love quite a lot of guys in that locker room, man. I’ll discuss to quite a lot of these guys in all probability for a very long time in my life.”
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