It could have gone down in New England Patriots history as “The Scramble” – the 12-second, back-and-forth play that could have launched Drake Maye to stardom.
Instead, it turned out to be just another glimpse of what could be in the future, when Maye has — maybe — developed into a franchise quarterback and the Patriots (2-7) have built a stronger team around him.
“Drake is just phenomenal. He keeps showing it week in, week out,” wide receiver Kendrick Bourne said after Maye helped New England send Sunday’s game into overtime, only to throw a game-ending interception that handed Tennessee a 20-17 victory.
“We’ve got to keep being behind him, help blocking for him, catching the ball, running good routes, so that we can get the full potential out of him,” Bourne said.
“When you’ve got somebody like that, it encourages you to go harder. And that’s what we want as a unit, for everybody to give their best foot because clearly, he is.”
The No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft, Maye spent the first five games backing up Jacoby Brissett before he got the starting QB job. He lost his first two starts, then left his third game with a concussion.
Brissett came in and led the team to a win over the New York Jets, ending a six-game losing streak.
Maye was able to clear the concussion protocol and play against the Titans on Sunday. His performance was mixed, but it was largely forgotten when he delivered a stunning play from the Tennessee 5-yard line with four seconds left and New England trailing 17-10.
Maye took the shotgun snap, dropped back, moved to his right, drifted left, ran right, then shuffled back to the left before running right again.
As he was being tackled, he lofted the ball toward the end zone, where Rhamondre Stevenson caught it with no time left on the clock.
But Maye also threw an interception in overtime, leading the Patriots to their seventh loss in eight weeks.
“Thought I found a way at the end of the fourth and just came up short,” said the rookie from North Carolina, who completed 29 of 41 passes — both career highs — for 209 yards. “Credit to the guys up front. Those five up front were blocking their butts off for 12 seconds. That’s impressive.”
Maye’s running game. The rookie ran eight times for 95 yards, doubling his previous personal best. It was the third-most rushing yards by a quarterback in team history and the most since Steve Grogan ran for 103 yards in 1975.
Five of his runs gained more than 10 yards, and six of them resulted in first downs. In the third quarter, he ran for 5 yards on third-and-5, but the play was called back for holding. On the replay, he ran for 22 yards to pick up the first down anyway.
