Drake Maye Discusses Week 8 Second-Half Mentality and more on WEEI 11/2: "We got better football ahead of us"

Ken (0:00)

Hey, Drake, thanks for joining us, man. We really appreciate it.

Rich (0:03)

Hey, Drake.

Drake Maye (0:04)

Yes, sir.

Ken (0:05)

Hey, what's up, Drake? Thanks for coming on, man.

Wow, what a game. What a tale of two halves, and with all the rain, can you kind of take us through, when you guys went into the locker room after that first half, like what was said or what was done by either Mike Vrabel or the people around you that got you prepared for essentially taking over once you guys hit the field in that second half?

Drake Maye (0:29)

Yeah, I think just sticking together and realizing that we got better football ahead of us. I think that was the biggest thing. We knew kind of we had some chances offensively and we didn't end up in the half, how we wanted to miss in a field goal and not trying to get in the end zone with a touchdown. And then they went down and scored. So we kind of built ourselves a little hole. So we tried to get out of that and our mindset was to go down and score the position at a half time. We didn't accomplish that, so we just tried to get back going and the defense kind of played some complimentary football and got things going.

Rich (1:03)

So Drake, on your rushing touchdown, how often do you rep that? And also great job to avoid Morgan Moses. It looked like he almost took you out by accident coming across the field there at the goal line.

Drake Maye (1:14)

Yeah, I mean, you get some good reps throughout the training camp, throughout kind of different weeks in the game plan. You kind of sometimes, it comes off the call sheet, sometimes it doesn't. So you get some good amount of reps with a lot of plays that we run. And then I just tried to avoid Big Mo while I was getting in. I kind of feeling that sometimes they show up and he's working hard trying to block somebody. So he's got a tough job.

Ted Johnson (1:39)

Hey, Drake, the last two years, you've gone down there and won games in Miami, which is the first time the Patriots have won down there back to back since 2011, 2012 And your performances in those games have been stellar. You've basically, you were 35 for 43, 429 yards, four TDs, zero interceptions in the QBR of 139 In those two games combined, the last two years. What is it about Miami?

Is there something about just the weather, the conditions that makes you feel more comfortable down there? Do you enjoy playing down there in the South, obviously?

Drake Maye (2:11)

I really do. I really enjoyed playing down there. I think the weather yesterday wasn't obviously the best to play in as a quarterback, but I think that is what it is. I enjoyed playing there in college. I've had some good memories in there so far and had one bad one in my rookie year. So I try to have more good ones than bad ones. And anytime going down there in some warm weather, and especially kind of early in the season, it's not as bad for us when it gets cold versus when we're going down there and battling the heat. But I think it's a full team effort and glad to get the win.

Ken (2:38)

So Drake, take us through that 43-yard touchdown to Kyle Williams. Like, what did you see before the snap and when did you know that you had them?

Drake Maye (2:46)

Yeah, I think we had a chance coming out of kind of repping throughout the week in practice, trying to get a look and just props to Kyle for making a good decision, running hard and just, he's a really special player when he's at a full speed coming at you at defenders. He's tough to guard, tough to handle, he's got great releases and just try to give him a chance to give him a ball to go catch. And I thought it was a touchdown when I saw him in live action. I was kind of waiting to see what kind of the rest were thinking, but props to Vraibs and Stretch and the guys figuring out and obviously looked like a touchdown. So glad that ended up.

Rich (3:19)

And how about the fourth and two conversion with Pop? Were you pretty sure that he had gotten the first down and what do you make of the new, the replay and some of the spotting this year? Are you confident in it?

Drake Maye (3:29)

Yeah, I think, I was, I got in the argument with the ref at one of the home games. I remember when I was mic'd up, I was basically trying to say, you'll kind of, you take out the virtual measurement aspect of it when they're putting this, when the human's putting a spot on the ball. I feel like this should be, the chip should kind of tell you, I'm not sure if it does or not, but whether it does, the chip should tell you if the player with the ball during the play made it past it. I'm not sure if it's based on the spot or where the, you know, he made it during the play, but I think it's such a human error. It's common for rest. They got a tough job out there trying to mark the spots. I feel like he had a chance, pop out a chance to get it. I feel like he got it when I was, you know, when watching from my point of view, but he even got that extra stretch and we're glad to pick up the first, fourth down.