Pats Pulpit
A 17-yard completion from Drake Maye to Hunter Henry sealed the New England Patriots’ sixth straight victory on Sunday. But despite icing the game with the ball in his hands, Maye left the field knowing things needed to be better.
“I’ve got to play better for this team down the road,” he said. “I think it’s tough, it’s tough in a game where you win and you can feel in that locker room that these guys know we can play better.”
In total, Maye finished 19-of-29 for 259 yards and two touchdowns — the first coming on a throw in the bucket to DeMario Douglas from the high red zone for a 19-yard score.
The pair of touchdowns helped the Patriots march out to an early 21-7 lead over the Atlanta Falcons. But with a chance to extend the lead at the end of the first half, Maye carelessly lost a fumble leading to the Falcons finding the end zone just plays later.
“We really got a chance to get some more points going into halftime, and free rusher, first thing I had to do, I told our quarterback coach, just got to tuck the ball to the chest, and getting in a bad habit of trying to break tackles on these guys that I don’t have a great chance of breaking a tackle on,” Maye explained.
After a strong opening possession to start the second half that ended with a field goal, Maye then threw his fourth interception of the year on a miscommunication over the middle of the field to Hunter Henry.
“Ball on the 50, around midfield, wasn’t on the same page as Hunt,” Maye said. “Gave the ball back to them at midfield and now it just changed the game.”
In the end, Maye and the Patriots did enough to earn their seventh victory of the season, one they’ll enjoy even if they know there is room to grow moving forward.
“It’s tough to win in this league, so you’ve got to enjoy it. You’ve got to enjoy it,” Maye said. “Shoot, we didn’t want to make the defense make another stop for us again. And there’s so much things to learn from this game, and I’m just proud of this team for — it doesn’t matter if it’s 24-23 or 3-2. Proud we got the win.”
