The New England Patriots are still a long way from Tom Brady’s heyday, but fans of the team are in for a more than encouraging season with young quarterback Drake Maye leading the offense.
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By beating the Ravens by a score of 28-24 on Sunday night in Baltimore, the Patriots confirmed their qualification for the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2021.
“It’s great to qualify for the playoffs, but we want to finish at the top of the division,” Maye said Sunday evening during his post-match press briefing.
With an impressive 12-3 record, the Patriots are ahead of the powerful Buffalo Bills (11-4) in the Eastern Conference America. Before beating the Ravens, the New England team had lost an important match on December 14 against the Bills.
“It was a wake-up call for us last week,” Maye commented. We didn’t want to experience the same feeling [de la défaite] two weeks in a row.”
Teamwork, according to Maye
Aged 23, Maye also experienced, against the Ravens, his first career game with more than 300 passing yards in the NFL. The Patriots scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to secure this victory.
In terms of his personal statistics, the quarterback completed 31 relays in 44 attempts for a total of 380 yards. He added 25 yards rushing.
“I trust myself and I trust the guys around me,” said Maye, who threw touchdown passes to Hunter Henry and Kyle Williams.
“I’m so proud of the team, it takes everyone,” insisted the young quarterback. We often talk about the attack, but I want to tip my hat to the work of the defensive unit, which had a great game.
A first title since 2019?
The Patriots will visit the New York Jets next Sunday before concluding their regular season at home against the Miami Dolphins. If they were to win both games, the Patriots would secure their first division title since 2019, when Brady was in his final season with the Massachusetts club.
Already, regardless of the results to come, we can say that the Patriots have experienced some redemption as they finished the previous season with a 4-13 record.
Maye, who is in his second season in the NFL, gained experience after being drafted in the first round, third overall, by the Patriots in 2024. The former University of North Carolina Tar Heels was also chosen after two other quarterbacks, Caleb Williams (Chicago) and Jayden Daniels (Washington). Remember that Mac Jones was also the offensive pivot for the Patriots, in 2021, during their last appearance in the playoffs. Brady was still continuing to shine at this point, but with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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