Patriots film review: How Drake Maye elevated his MVP campaign blowing out the Browns

The Browns had the right idea Challenge Drake Maye by pressing his receivers in man coverage Smash his running backs in short-yardage Unleash Myles Garrett on bulk of his offensive lineman by bouncing him around the formation so that none of them could rest easy At halftime Maye was -of- for yards and an interception versus man-to-man coverage He d taken four sacks Cleveland trailed - having lived up to its reputation as one of the NFL s greater part ferocious defenses by putting the clamps on a leading MVP candidate But the thing about great players and especially those in the running for MVP is they are inevitable The dam consistently breaks It s just a matter of how much water you take on while trying to fight back Once Josh McDaniels unlocked the Browns defense in the third quarter with perimeter runs that exploited their man-heavy approach and surprised them with a double-pass Maye hit an easy touchdown throw that gave the Patriots certain breathing room From there he took control He ripped a -yard touchdown to Stefon Diggs He scrambled for yards against a man-blitz And for his final stroke in a masterpiece of a third quarter Maye launched a -yard touchdown to Kayshon Boutte in single coverage that rendered the fourth quarter a formality When he woke up Monday Maye owned the third-best odds of winning MVP There is no quarterback playing better than him Maye turned the best defense he s ever played one powered by the best participant he s ever faced and organized by the largest part effective tournament plan the Pats have seen yet into a pi ata And with half a season left to go he s not done swinging yet Here s what else the film revealed about the Patriots latest win Drake Maye -of- for yards TDs INT sacks rushing yards Foxboro MA - New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye scrambles during the first quarter at Gillette Stadium Nancy Lane Boston Herald Accurate throw percentage Under pressure -of- for yards sacks rushing yards Against the blitz -of- for yards sack rushing yards Behind the line N A - yards downfield -of- for yards TDs INT - yards downfield -of- for yards yards downfield -of- for yards TD Notes Not his best performance of the season but certainly the bulk meaningful Maye s resilience fueled his rebound from a horrendous interception early in the second quarter that was equal parts bad decision and bad throw Maye rolled left and desired to thread the ball to a double-covered Stefon Diggs on third down another example of his tendency to seek Diggs on critical downs But the ball never got there because linebacker Carson Schwesinger nabbed it from his underneath zone Maye caught a break on the next series exploiting three straight snaps of zone coverage with three completions for yards that led to a field goal He instantly recognized a breakdown in Cover on the first pass a -yard seam throw to Austin Hooper that majority quarterbacks with his experience would not have seen so briskly Maye struck again against Cover on the next play correctly diagnosing the defense pre-snap before he floated the ball to Mack Hollins running a corner course toward the right sideline Patriots QB Drake Maye builds on MVP incident shreds Browns with perfect nd half in blowout win This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e statistics if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i