Monday Patriots Thoughts: Eye Test Reveals Maye Wasn’t OK Sunday Night
Drake Maye's Struggles Highlight the Impact of his Injury in Super Bowl Loss
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Some thoughts on this Monday morning:
1) Drake Maye’s revelation after the game Sunday night that he took an injection in his shoulder more or less explains something many people thought coming out of the Denver game.
The second-year quarterback didn’t look like himself, and watching him on the field in the latter part of their match-up in Denver, as well as during most of Sunday night’s game, Maye was clearly hurt more than they were probably letting on.
He took a massive shot on the offense’s first drive, with Seattle defensive back Devon Witherspoon coming in on a blitz as Maye rolled to his right on a 3rd-and-9. Witherspoon caught him from behind as Maye tried to avoid a loss by throwing the football away, with Maye getting slammed to the turf on the play.
That set the tone for what ended up being a long night for him. Overall, he was hit 11 times and sacked six times, with the Seahawks doing what they’ve done throughout the postseason and wreaking havoc up front.
With Maye ailing, he was uncharacteristically off target all night. One throw, an incompletion late in the second quarter, while rolling to his right under pressure to Austin Hooper, was probably the one that signaled things weren’t right. Maye had him wide open on a 2nd-and-7 from their own 17 but missed him badly, with the ball sailing behind and nowhere close to the veteran tight end.
That play was tough because Hooper had a lot of open field in front of him. But if nothing else, it revealed something was wrong, and it foreshadowed what essentially happened the rest of the contest. The deep balls and floaters down the stretch were also uncharacteristic, with those passes not resembling the ones we’ve seen during this remarkable run.
After the game, Maye claimed he was OK. But the eye test of watching him in 19 other games in reasonably good weather certainly said otherwise.
“My shoulder feels… I shot it up, so not much feeling,” said Maye. It was good to go, and it felt all right.”
2) The second-year QB is facing a lot of criticism coming off that game, with people making comparisons to former Patriots QB, Tom Brady, given both Sunday night’s loss and Maye’s performance.
That feels a little unfair, for two reasons. One, there will never be another Tom Brady, whether that’s here in New England or anywhere else in the NFL for that matter. Two, given Maye’s health, there was some additional context and history with the second-year quarterback for people to have been able to see. The contrast between the player they saw during all of 2025 and essentially through the Chargers game was far different than the one we saw in Denver and Sunday night, which should have left people realizing that something was off about his performance.
Maye didn’t suddenly forget how to throw the football. It was just the perfect storm of being in pain against a team that was incredibly good at inflicting it.
Brady, fortunately, never had to play through anything quite that severe. The laceration in his hand in 2018 not withstanding, Brady seemed to avoid anything of consequence during the season prior to his season-ending knee injury in the 2008 opener. That injury was obviously a frustrating one for Brady, who had a roster primed for another championship run, only to have his season end before it ever really got started. It also didn’t help that he was already snake-bitten heading into that year, having also suffered a broken bone in his foot ahead of that contest.
Looking back, it’s hard not to wonder what the perception might have been after Brady essentially avoided a similar outcome in 2002 simply thanks to the fact that New England didn’t get into the postseason.
Brady suffered a shoulder injury during that season in their Week 15 game, a 24-7 loss in Tennessee, and then fell hard on that same shoulder during the finale against Miami. The damage he sustained in that final game was apparently so severe that there were reports that he may not have been able to come back for the postseason.
Brady claimed to be fine and didn’t undergo surgery, but while he healed up enough to make it through the 2003 season, which resulted in their second title, he ultimately did undergo surgery after that campaign.
“It’s doing great, and it’s something I probably should have done last year, but I didn’t,” said Brady. “I kind of paid for it all year.”
Had New England advanced to the postseason that year, and Brady kept quiet and played through it, it would be hard not to wonder what the perception would have been had his performance suffered. Especially had New England ended up on the wrong end of a lackluster offensive effort.
Some feel that if Maye was truly hurt, he shouldn’t have been out there. For those who feel that way, Sunday night’s outcome would probably have been a more difficult pill to swallow had it resulted in watching this incredible run come to an end with the ball in Josh Dobbs’ hands.
For now, let’s hope Maye learns from Brady and addresses whatever it is sooner rather than later so that it doesn’t carry over into 2026.
3) Credit New England’s defense for an unbelievable effort Sunday night. What those players managed to do against Seattle’s offense was nothing short of remarkable, and hats off to them for making all the plays they did to keep it close.
It was still gut-wrenching to see their reaction on that final turnover, with the broadcast capturing the moment all of their heads dropped, knowing their chances of this game ending in a storybook fashion were all but erased.
“We were able to make some plays, but it was a little too late,” said Maye. “Our defense played a hell of a game tonight, and we just didn’t show up how we planned showing up offensively. It starts with me.”
They held Sam Darnold to just 19-of-38 (50%) for 202 yards and one touchdown, while shutting down Jaxon Smith-Njigba (4 catches on 10 targets for 27 yards) and limiting Cooper Kupp to just 6 receptions on 12 targets for 61 yards.
Christian Gonzalez and rookie Craig Woodson were two of the biggest highlights in this game, with Gonzalez coming up with some big pass break ups, while Woodson did the same and also made some key tackles. The rookie ended up leading the defense after combining for 10 tackles, capping off an impressive rookie campaign.
Meanwhile, that group brought pressure of their own, keeping Darnold off balance for most of the night. They held Seattle to five field goals before finally breaking after a turnover gave the Seahawks the ball in good field position. They punched it in, which created a deficit that, given how much Maye and the offense was struggling, was too much for the Patriots to overcome.
“Guys, we can sit here and try to put it on one guy,” said Vrabel, referring to Maye. “You’ll be disappointed because that’ll never happen. It starts with us as a coaching staff and making sure that we’re doing our part. And then obviously, we have to be able to execute. We got to be able to protect.”
“When we do protect, we have to be able to progress through and throw the ball to the guy that’s open and help the quarterback, and then he’s got to be better. That’s just how it goes. So that’s never going to change.”
4) What was surprising was the lack of adjustments on the offensive side of the ball, especially to the amount of pressure the Seahawks were bringing.
New England never really started to go to any type of quick game until late, or anything to get Maye on the move to try and slow down Seattle’s pass rush.
Bryce Baringer punted eight times on Sunday night, with New England unable to get into any type of rhythm as Seattle’s defense kept them from stringing any plays together.
“Again, we just have to not let mistakes pile up,” said Vrabel after the game. “We can’t let one bad play turn into two bad plays and be able to settle down and be better early on in drives. That just wasn’t the case. We’d make a play here and stall, and we’d have a good run and stall. So again, just the competitive stamina, the competitive, the physical stamina, and the mental stamina that’s required in these types of games.”
The fact that Maye didn’t do what he had done in the previous postseason games, using his legs, was telling. The thought was likely that they were trying to limit his exposure to taking any unnecessary hits, but they also didn’t alter the passing game to allow him to get the ball out faster and slow them down. Instead, quite a few of the hits and sacks came as they tried to let things develop downfield, and there simply just wasn’t time for that.
“I don’t think they did anything differently,” said Vrabel on the Seahawks defense. “They pressured and moved. When they didn’t, sometimes we blocked them, sometimes they didn’t, sometimes we gained yards. We hit a good play, a positive 20-yard gain on first down, and [went] backwards.”
As it was, the Seahawks were having their way with both rookie Will Campbell and fellow rookie Jared Wilson, both of whom spent the entire night getting manhandled. So the fact that there was no adjustment there was probably one of the more surprising developments of the night.
Campbell’s another player who, like Maye, had a solid year prior to getting injured. He hasn’t looked like himself since coming off of injured reserve, and he’ll benefit greatly from a full offseason to both get healthy and get stronger.
The same can be said for Wilson, who also needs to bulk up this offseason. For Wilson, the thought is that he might be the future replacement for Garrett Bradbury at center, which will likely mean the team will continue adding depth on the offensive line this offseason.
For now, it’s disappointing, but for a team that enjoyed a fair amount of good fortune for most of the year, some bad luck and injuries down the stretch ultimately caught up to them. In the meantime, it’s still a young team that ended up with a 2025 season that absolutely exceeded expectations, which should make what happens this offseason even more intriguing heading into 2026.
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Ian. Right on. People immediately start calling Will Campbell “T-Rex” or bashed mCDaniels or Maye. To me, Campbell already showed he was solid at LT for 13 games. Before his injury that is. He came back and wasn’t the same guy. Maye got hurt and wasn’t the same player thereafter. Not sure what Wilson’s challenge was but hey give SEA some credit. Regards adjustments not seen, I’d let McDaniels comment on that. To me the score being 3-6-9-12 pt leads left the pats in reach and they did what they did per the score regardless of how bad it looked… Read more »
I agree with you, Jim. I think it’s a little early to give up on Campbell, especially given that he was playing at a pretty high level prior to getting hurt and I don’t recall much criticism. Some people were calling for Vederian Lowe and while Lowe had done well in pass protection, Campbell had been a more ferocious run-blocker, which they obviously needed Sunday night. It’s just unfortunate that they weren’t really able to get into a rhythm, and it definitely hurt them. I do think they’ll explore options at tackle in the draft because of Morgan Moses’ age,… Read more »