Maye is 23 years old, finished 2nd in the MVP voting, and just led his team to the Super Bowl. Did he play poorly in the Super Bowl? Yes. But you know what? It turns out that that Seattle defense was *elite*. Remember, these were the defenses he faced in the playoffs:
- Chargers: #5 yards, #9 points
- Texans: #1 yards, #2 points
- Broncos: #2 yards, #3 points
- Seahawks: #6 yards, #1 points
I mean, that's a murderer's row of defenses to face, two of those games were in horrendous weather conditions, one was on the road, and one at a neutral site. During that four-game stretch, the Pats averaged just 17 points a game, but that's not too far off what these four teams allowed on average per game combined, and then you factor in the weather in two games. Maye's stat line those four games:
70-120 (58.3%), 828 yds, 6.9 y/a, 6 td, 4 int, 82.2 rating, 29 rushes, 178 yds, 6.1 y/a, 1 td
Here are a couple of fairly well-known quarterbacks who had Super Bowl runs (culminating with a Lombardi) with similar/worse overall stat lines:
QB 1 - 51-92 (55.4%), 539 yds, 5.9 y/a, 2 td, 1 int, 47.9 rating, 5 rushes, 10 yds, 2.0 y/a, 0 td
QB 2 - 60-97 (61.9%), 572 yds, 5.9 y/a, 1 td, 1 int, 77.3 rating, 8 rushes, 22 yds, 2.2 y/a, 1 td
Guess who those QBs were that won Super Bowls while doing that in their playoff runs?