New England Patriots
All sentiment aside for NFL elders, Maye absolutely should win it.
Welcome to the Unconventional Review, an instant reaction to standouts, stats, and story lines from the Patriots’ most recent game …
I don’t believe Drake Maye will win the NFL Most Valuable Player award this season.
The suspicion here is that it’s going to go to Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, not just as an acknowledgment of his tremendous season, but as something of a career achievement award for the Canton-bound 37-year-old.
But I’ll tell you this. All sentiment aside for NFL elders, Maye absolutely should win it.
He is the single most important player to a team’s success in the league this season — especially relative to expectations — and it’s not particularly close.
His near-perfect performance (19 of 21 for 256 yards and 5 touchdowns before putting on the Comically Oversized Quarterback Jacket and checking out after the Patriots’ first drive of the second half) during the Patriots’ 42-10 demolishing of the Jets Sunday is one of many reasons.
Yes, sure, it was just the Jets, a chronic debacle masquerading as a football team. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2010, a season so long ago now that some of us remember first as the fleeting time Rob Gronkowski and Randy Moss overlapped as Patriots. They haven’t had a star quarterback since Joe Namath’s knees turned on him. They’re broken again, with three wins in coach Aaron Glenn’s first season.
The Jets stink. Established. Yet it doesn’t matter here. Maye’s performance was so dominant, so overwhelming, that it should stand as a testament to his burgeoning greatness rather than an indictment of an inept opponent. The Jets did play hard, give them that. And yet by halftime, Maye had fired, slung, and lofted a career-high four touchdown passes, and his last pass of the day, to undrafted rookie Efton Chism, got him a fifth in the third quarter. Maye’s only two incompletions came on a Kyle Williams drop and a throw to DeMario Douglas that came up short when his arm was hit.
What else? He guided the Patriots to 344 yards in the first half, the most by any team before halftime in the league this season. The offense averaged 9.1 yards per play through their tone-setting first two drives, both resulting in touchdowns, while never facing a third down. He became the third quarterback in franchise history to eclipse 4,000 yards passing, joining — of course — Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe. And he did it while missing receivers Mack Hollins and Kayshon Boutte, as well as rookie linemen Will Campbell and Jared Wilson.
Save for the second-half hiccup against Buffalo, the story of the season has been Maye, in cahoots with coach Mike Vrabel, making sure the Patriots meet the challenge in front of him. Last week, it was leading a breathtaking fourth-quarter comeback against the Ravens. This week, making sure the Patriots beat down the Jets in such a ruthless way that the rampaging early-season ’07 Pats almost look sympathetic by comparison.
Sure, the Patriots schedule is historically easy. But remember: they were supposed to be the patsy on other teams’ schedule after winning 4 games last year. Instead, they’re 13-3, with a perfect 8-0 record on the road, despite attrition all over a fairly thin roster.
There are many reasons and people responsible for this delightful team’s success story. But again: no one anywhere is more responsible for his team’s success on the field than Maye is for the Patriots’ extraordinary ascent.
So keep those M-V-P chants coming. He deserves them, and he deserves the award, and maybe some people who have a say in such things will hear them.
Some further thoughts, upon immediate review …
THREE PLAYERS WHO WERE WORTH WATCHING
Players suggested in the Unconventional Preview: Rhamondre Stevenson, Christian Barmore, Jack Gibbens.
Stefon Diggs: Just like his quarterback, Diggs packed a full game’s worth of big plays into the first 30 minutes, catching all 6 of his targets on the afternoon for 101 yards and a touchdown before halftime.
Not sure if it was deliberate or due to circumstances, but Diggs was involved right off the bat in several Patriots drives. His first catch was a 12-yard gain on the Patriots’ second play from scrimmage. On the first play of their third possession, Maye found him for a spectacular 31-yard catch to the Jets 35, and he had a 21-yard grab near midfield on the first play of their first possession in the second quarter.
But he was at his best late in the first half. With 3:01 left before the break and the Patriots facing fourth-and-goal from the Jets 3, Maye threw a quick strike to Diggs for the score and a 28-3 lead. Analyst Drew Brees noted that the play looked like one the Patriots ran against the Falcons in Super Bowl, so the 28-3 score was fitting in a way.
That wasn’t his last big play of the first half. With 1:17 to go, Maye found him for a 26-yard gain to the Jets 32. That was the key play on a drive that ended with a Hunter Henry 13-yard touchdown catch and a 35-3 lead.
Breece Hall: We could salute a dozen other Patriots here (Chism, Henry, Jayllin Hawkins, who contributed a rangy Devin McCourty-style interception, and on and on). But I wanted to note that Hall – who scored the Jets’ lone touchdown with a 59-yard burst in the third quarter – deserves better than to be toiling on this tattered team. He finished with 111 rushing yards on just 14 carries, surpassing 1,000 yards on the ground for the first time in his career.
Rhamondre Stevenson: In his third straight strong game, Stevenson had some serious bounce in his step. He faked out one Jets defender and spun away from another on a 24-yard run on the opening possession, burst in from a yard out for the Patriots’ second touchdown, and overall finished with 47 yards on eight carries. He was also second to Diggs in receptions with five, totaling 55 more yards and another touchdown. He got wide open on the first play of the second quarter for a 22-yard touchdown, putting the Patriots up 21-0.
GRIEVANCE OF THE GAME
Complaints? I do not have a few. Or even one, though it did get a bit tense late in the first half when Maye absorbed from Jermaine Johnson that drew a roughing the passer call. Bill leaving guys out there. It was the right move to give Maye the rest of the day off after one series in the second half. Wonder how long Bill Belichick would have left him in.
THREE NOTES SCRIBBLED IN THE MARGINS
Predicted final score: Patriots 34, Jets 10
Final score: Patriots 45, Jets 10
I had heard Brees is much-improved in his second stint as a broadcaster, and this game confirmed it for me. He casually predicted the first of the Jets’ two fake punts, when punter Austin McNamara channeled Tom Tupa and hit Malachi Moore for a first down … Play-by-play voice Adam Amin is enthusiastic in a way Rich Eisen could not muster during Saturday’s oddly dull Chargers-Texans broadcast, but I didn’t quite get why he blurted out that Diggs had hit a financial incentive (“And that catch is worth $500,000 bucks too!”) on his touchdown. Can’t recall ever hearing a touchdown call that doubled as an update to Spotrac.com … Believe it or not, this is not the worst pummeling the Patriots have ever laid on the Jets. That still has to be the 56-3 win in September 1979, when Steve Grogan threw five touchdown passes — three to Harold Jackson and two to Stanley Morgan on six total targets — and the Patriots racked up 597 yards of offense. But it’s close. Very close.
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