Here’s what New England Patriots QB Drake Maye had to say following the Patriots’ 24-23 victory over the Buccaneers on Sunday:
On how he would describe his thoughts on this win:
“It’s great. I’m so proud of this team. Just every week we’re fighting. Some things aren’t going our way. We’re handling adversity, battling adversity. Defense is stepping up. What a complete game. That’s what we said all week, show up for 60 minutes. We knew it was a good football team. We knew if we got up, they were going to come back, and they came marching back. I was proud of the guys for standing up, especially our defense with a big stop. Man, just proud of this team.”
On if he can take us through the first-and-goal from the one:
“First and goal from the one? Yeah. Shoot, we didn’t get in the first three times. And called a play to get our guys involved and Stef made a great play. I think Hunter was open as well. Stef did a great job of getting two feet down. That was a toe tap extraordinaire.”
On what the feeling is like when his coach is showing confidence in going for it on fourth down:
“Yeah, Coach, again, that’s who he is. He’s aggressive. He’s not going to change. It’s fun listening on the headset and just hearing kind of what his thought process is. And he’s, like I said, the best in the business, and I’m just thankful I get to play for him.”
On if it makes him want to back it up for him:
“Yeah, I mean, shoot. I don’t really need to try to play well. I don’t really need extra. … I’m trying to play well for this team, for this organization, and battle and fight out there for those guys.”
On the touchdown to Kyle Williams, it looked like he checked to that play and if he can take us through that:
“Yeah, just Kyle got out the back door. He’s fast. You’re not going to catch him. Him and 32, TreVeyon. If they get going, you’re not catching them. So I’m just proud of him for stepping up. He only got maybe one target and made it count. So just proud of him for getting in there. Got a lot of reps this week. Sometimes on the tape where he was probably more open and just got to look his way.”
On how much he allows himself to get upset after that interception and the fact Vrabel said to take a few minutes to get mad about it and then come back out and finish:
“Yeah, I’m not going to change my approach. I wouldn’t change the throw. I had Mack earlier. Just got to make it him or nobody out there, out wide. You got to be mad yourself, but you know that you have a chance to either go on a two-minute drill to win the game or go on a five-minute scenario to win the game. That’s this league, just bouncing back from it, flipping the page. You want to throw things on the sideline, but the guys were watching me, and I think the biggest thing is just to get back out there and just show these guys we’re ready to go for the next play.”
On if someone dug into him on the holding play:
“Dig into me? Oh, that’s every game. If something happens, those guys did a great job up front this game. I think just trying to stand there and make throws. You know, you’re going to get hit, and that’s this league. So I’m going to stand there and make throws. Didn’t even notice it, so that’s football.”
On the first down play at the end of the half, and how much of that was him thinking clock and just getting down or if he was trying to get in:
“Yeah, I was trying to get in. Big Vita Vea. It ain’t easy to get in with Vita standing there. I know the clock, I think the clock’s a thing, so it ended up probably working out for us, but we ended up scoring, that’s all that matters.”
On him saying he knows he’s going to take some hits, and how much of this game was it him standing in the pocket staring down the blitz:
“Yeah, that’s what it is. I think you know with Coach Bowles and what he does, they do a great job defensively. They’re playing a little bit more spy. In third and long, we got to do a better job of getting it to third and manageable. We got to do a better job of getting third and short and making plays. But when we did, we were in third and long, I was just going to try to hang in there. There’s times on first, second down, I probably could have hung in there more. But like I said, just proud of this team. We’re blessed to play this sport. It’s fun out there.”
On his mindset on the quick turnaround (with the Jets Thursday night):
“Yeah, get on the plane. We’ll probably watch some tape of New York. We got to flip the next page. It’s a quick turnaround. We got one at home, though, so looking forward to playing with our fans. Our fans were great out there today. It was cool. I feel like our whole side was Patriots fans. So, that was pretty cool.”
On if it felt like with this game, there was a little bit something extra to it:
“Yeah. I mean, shoot. I think you’re exhausted. The heat, shoot the nerves, making plays, the back and forth. I think that’s what makes this sport so great. I think there’s nothing like it. Every win is crucial, every win is important. We’re going to go back out there next week and get another one.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
