The New England Patriots seemingly had a win gift wrapped and handed to them to kickoff the 2026 season. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold was lost for the game just six plays in with a hip injury, and New England held the Seahawks without a point until the waning minutes of the third quarter.
Despite facing backup quarterback Drew Lock and holding a 10-point second half lead, the Patriots’ own quarterback continually handed the Seahawks opportunities to get back in the game, which allowed Seattle to score 13 unanswered points and escape Week 1 with a win in the Super Bowl LX rematch.
Drake Maye finished the season’s opening tilt going 23-of-33 with 178 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions, all of which came in the fourth quarter.
While the first interception of the night for Maye was a deep jump ball to Romeo Doubs that was batted around and ended up in the hands of Nehemiah Pritchett, the latter two were inexcusable throws, especially for a quarterback who was a hair away from being the league’s MVP just seven months ago.
With 9:25 left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 10 on 3rd-and-14, Maye threw a hot air balloon of a pass over the middle that could have been timed with an hourglass before it finally landed in the hands of Seahawks safety Julian Love. The Seahawks converted the turnover into a field goal, capping off a run of 13 unanswered points in the game’s final 19 minutes.
Maye still had a chance to right his wrongs by leading the Patriots on a potential game-winning drive, or at the very least a march downfield that would result in a field goal to take the game into overtime. It looked like the third-year quarterback was poised to do just that, as he overcame a 1st-and-20 and a pair of fourth downs in the midst of a 15-play drive. Unfortunately, the 15th play would see Maye make a terrible decision to (under)throw a pass into one-on-one coverage in the end zone that was picked off by Josh Jobe to seal the 13-10 win for Seattle while the Patriots were in comfortable field goal range. Our Mark Schofield wrote that Patriots fans should be worried about regression from Maye, and he’s not wrong.
This was a continuation of a concerning trend for Maye. He hasn’t had a truly complete game since Week 17 of the 2025 season when he threw five touchdowns to just two incompletions in a 42-10 public execution of the New York Jets. In four postseason games against the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, and Seahawks – all of whom fielded defenses that finished in the top eight in defensive EPA per play – Maye struggled.
After posting a QBR of 77.1 in the regular season, that number dipped down to 40 in the playoffs. He also completed less than 60 percent of his passes while averaging less than seven yards per attempt and posted a 6-4 touchdown-interception ratio.
To continue, Maye’s efficiency also took a massive hit. After leading all quarterbacks (min. 150 plays) in adjusted EPA per play (0.322), Maye posted a dreadful -0.105 number in that same metric in the postseason, ranking 11th out of 16 quarterbacks who took a snap in the playoffs. For reference, that -0.105 number would put him 43rd in the NFL if it were his regular season number, sandwiching him between Cam Ward and Dillon Gabriel.
After his terrible performance in Week 1, the former third overall pick has now thrown the same number of interceptions as touchdowns in his last five cumulative starts. His yards per attempt in those games sits at just 6.4, which would put him in the same range as Bo Nix and Kirk Cousins among the lowest in the league from a season ago.
While Maye had a tremendous 2025 season, the common demerit placed upon him was that he largely did it against lesser competition and weak defenses. In his last five games, he’s faced a collection of the league’s best defensive units, and he’s looked like a completely different quarterback.
Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. And this is a concerning trend for the Patriots and their young quarterback, whom they absolutely need if they want to reach the same heights they did in 2025.
