New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots have won eight games in a row and quarterback Drake Maye has solidified himself as a legitimate MVP contender.
Prior to the team’s Week 10 road upset against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however, there’s one area on offense that both Maye and the Patriots had been struggling.
As noted by ESPN’s Mike Reiss, the former No. 3 overall pick has only been sacked twice over the last two contests, which is the fewest across a two-game stretch in his 24-game career.
“NOTES: Drake Maye sacked 2 times in last 2 games – fewest in 2-game stretch over career…Maye on OL – ‘heartbeat of team,'” Reiss posted on Bluesky.
Entering Week 10, Maye was tied atop the NFL leaderboard with Tennessee Titans signal-caller Cam Ward for most times sacked with 34. That’s on top of the 34 times the 2024 Pro Bowler was taken down across his 11 games during his rookie season.
Maye is still second in the league with 36 times being sacked (Ward is first at 41), but the past two games vs. the Buccaneers and New York Jets are only the third and fourth time this year that he’s been sacked just once. Maye hasn’t had a game yet this season when he wasn’t sacked.
The most the North Carolina product was taken down in a single contest last season was four (on five occasions). This year, Maye was sacked five times in Week 3 vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers and six times in Weeks 8 and 9 against the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons, respectively.
Fortunately for New England, its Week 12 opponents (the Cincinnati Bengals) are second-to-last in the NFL in sacks with 14. The Bengals are also likely to be without star defensive end Trey Hendrickson on Sunday as he deals with a hip injury.
