Patriots Preseason Game 3: Drake Maye Proves He's Capable of Carrying an Offense All By Himself

In the training I've received since birth to become a Patriots blogger, the one rule I was taught about the final preseason game is that it's a Pass/Fail exam. A binary choice. If no one got seriously injured, it's a win. If someone did, nothing else matters. 

A lot of that stems from the trauma of 1989, when a promising Pats lost Andre Tippett, Garin Veris and Ronnie Lippett - starters at each of the three levels of their defense - for the season in that last game. As a result, they dropped from having the league's 5th best defense to its 23rd (out of just 28 teams), went 5-11, fired head coach Ray Berry, replaced him with Rod Rust, and went 1-15 the next season. Thanks to that institutional memory, I'm predisposed to care about nothing else but how healthy they are heading into Week 1 and nothing else. 

But this season hits different. We're 13 days away from a new era and there are still major questions left unanswered. So this one counted for a lot. As far as the most important unresolved mysteries, last night gave us answers to the top two:

1. Drake Maye can carry an offense.

2. He's gonna to have to. 

This was A Game of Two Cities. The best of times, the worst of times. It was Harvey Dent after the Joker burned half his face away. It was Janus, the two-faced Roman god of "beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings." Because while Alex Van Pelt's offense in general and Scott Peter's O-line in particular were a clusterfudge of chaos and failure, Maye proved he doesn't need everything to be perfect - or even acceptable - in order to make plays, move the chains, put together drives, and get points on the board. 

We'll get back to the 99 problems this team had later. First let's show that Maye wasn't one of them:

--I said last week that watching him without the training wheels that are a red practice jersey, finally gives you the chance to see just how much more athletic he is than most of the other 21 players on the field. He proved that from the moment he subbed in for an injured Jacoby Brissett. The first of many bad snaps on the night from Nick Leverett backed the Pats up inside the 5. Then this 17 yard scramble:

First of all, nice dual block by La'Michael Pettway taking out two defenders upfield. But still, Maye had the burst to out race the split safety Mychal Walker to reach the line to gain. In fact, Walker was lucky to get a hand on Maye's ankle or else this would've gone another 10 yards or more. 

--Then two plays later, sensing pressure from behind, stepped up and to deliver a sniper round right in the hands of Ja'Lynn Polk on a deep out away from the seam defender:

Simply put, we've never had a quarterback on the roster with these physical tools in his box. And these live games put those skills on display in ways practices don't. Of course Tom Brady was able to overcome anything with his pocket awareness, vision, accuracy, ability to read coverages, handsomeness, and power to make space-time bend to his will. But Maye's size/speed/arm represent a Combo Meal the likes of which no Patriot has ever possessed. And even a small sample size this preseason, it has been bailing AVP's offense out:

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--His touchdown to Kevin Harris was no exception. Ordinarily, trying to hit a target near the boundary with a flat defender bearing down on him is just about the worst gamble a QB can make. But the risk/reward ratio gets flipped when you can deliver a Nolan Ryan fastball to the outside corner the way Maye did. Not only did the ball beat the defender to the spot in ways no Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe could ever get it there, he hit Harris on the outside shoulder, allowing him to protect it, turn upfield and finish the catch & run:

--On that drive the Pats converted three 3rd downs, as Maye went 5-of-6 for 71 yards. A season ago, drives like that were the stuff of ayahuasca-induced fever dreams. Now they look like our reality at some point in the next couple of months. If not weeks.

--But obviously the plays we'll be talking about forever for as long as it takes us to forget preseason ever happened, are the ones that didn't count. Because they were struck from the record thanks to somebody else's screw up. Beginning with this non-TD to KJ Osborn:

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To review: That was him escaping the pocket. Buying himself room to throw. Launching it while in a full sprint without getting his feet set. And putting it on target with 40ish air yards. That is not only something we haven't had, that ability to make big, impactful plays out of structure is what the top quarterbacks in this league have been doing routinely in the last half decade or so. Most especially to the Patriots defense. It's also exactly what I envisioned when this team locked up the 3rd overall pick. Making this a beautiful day to be alive in the City of Champions. 

--And here's another negated play that, while not nearly as spectacular, shows what he can do to pick up a 1st down from a dirty pocket (on what I think was a Flat-Slant, but don't hold me to that):

--While it pains me, with excruciating agony, to admit it, Maye himself was far from perfect. He sailed the ball over his target on a simple flow screen. Threw a hospital ball to Polk, and the TV cameras seemed to catch him apologizing for that one back on the bench. But he also put one on Jalen Reagor's hands in traffic that was dropped. But he finished fauxball season with a stat line of 21-for-34, 62%, 192 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT. With another 32 rushing yards on 7 attempts and a TD. Despite playing in a completely rebuilt offensive scheme and behind an O-line that is in total disarray. And this Friday is his 22nd birthday. Maye's future is so bright I might start putting all my money in the Sunscreen Futures market.

--The present though, remains dark. You know it's bad when you have to put up with the snark of yet another generation of Hochulis:

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We're now five-plus months after Eliot Wolf decided not to make offensive tackle a priority in free agency. And four months since he more or less ignored the position in the draft. (Pundits consider Caeden Wallace more of an OG/OT 'tweener.) Yet with less than two weeks to go before kickoff, The Wolf is still shuffling his cards trying to find a winning hand. It's still possible some veteran will end up in the discard pile that he can pick up. But that's a hell of risk to be taking at this point in the game. 

--On top of that, there's the mental errors. The only person in the same stratosphere as Brady when we talk about how hard it is to replace him is Dante Scarnecchia. If Scar witnesses 1/10th that many illegal formations, false starts, bad snaps and assorted unforced errors as we saw last night, he would've straight up murdered his starting five with swear words alone. And I can't wrap my feeble brain around the fact they're still experimenting with moving Michael Onwenu back to RT after putting him at RG for most of camp. Strap in and prepare yourself to be watching them all season long struggle to find a combination that works. Hint: This wasn't it. 

--Joe Milton remains what Joe Milton has been all along. An extremely interesting prospect with high end traits who needs a lot of time, work, and patience. Just as capable of making a big play for us:

… as he is of making a big one for the opposition:

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Milton is definitely worth keeping a roster spot open for. Bailey Zappe's spot, to be specific. Though should the need arise for a third string quarterback, I'd rather trust some waiver wire free agent than him for now. But watching him develop over the course of the next year or so is going to be one of the great subplots of this franchise's story.

--Before we move onto the other side of the ball, here's the latest on the biggest questions of all: Whether Brissett or Maye is the Week 1 starter. It sounds undecided. But you can't help but read into the subtext that it's Brissett as long as his shoulder will allow it:

--Defensively, it was a mixed bag of starters -  Christian Gonzalez and Marco Wilson at corner, Jahlani Tavai at LB, Keion White on the line - and backups opening the game. With what appeared to be roster bubble guys getting the bulk of the snaps. White in particular stood out. Just as he did last week against Philly:

I think ultimately his emergence is the reason they traded Matthew Judon. Well, his emergence and tens of millions of dollars. But still.

--The true standouts defensively were the Hyphenated Guys. Even before Joe Giles-Harris' interception (helped by a corner blitz from Joshua Bledsoe):

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… he was flying around the underneath routes, making tackles and limiting yards after catch. He did bite on a zone read play with Washington backed up inside their 5 that went for a long gain. But showed some promise as a depth guy.

--Similarly, Giles-Harris' brother in three part names William Bradley-King was disrupting all along the line of scrimmage. He had a QB hit on a very effective stunt. And was around the ball enough to at least be considered a potential part of a crowded Front-7 depth chart. 

--The most encouraging thing defensively overall is something Devin McCourty talked about after the game. How more than anything else, this unit has always been in the hands of the players. That they're allowed to call the game based on what they're seeing. And to do that effectively with Kyle Dugger, Jabrill Peppers and Ju'Whaun Bentley getting a night off speaks to the program Bill Belichick developed and that Jerod Mayo played, captained, called, and is continuing as head coach. 

--Obviously, the offense is the polar opposite situation. And still needs to be sorted out. Until it is, let's just appreciate the promise that comes from having a future superstar who can make plays with 50% of the shoes a normal, human quarterback needs: