Bedard: Drake Maye OUTPLAYED Josh Allen in Patriots win

Bedard: Drake Maye OUTPLAYED Josh Allen in Patriots win

Is the fawning justified, Greg? The fawning over Drake May is justified. Uh what he did from um basically the the the last drive of the first half, the the little out throw getting outside the pocket low to Deario Douglas. From that point on until the end of the game, Drake May played at an elite level. It was it was incredible. He was a lot better than Josh Allen. He did Josh Allen things. He out Josh Allen. Josh Allen. And uh to me, he was the story of the game. If if Drake May doesn’t play superhuman from in that stretch of the game, the Patriots don’t win that game. Drake May was ridiculous. He made uh five throws that were elite level or plays um basically in the second half. Just uh just ridiculous play. As far as the team, I’m not ready to say that yet. I mean, it they’re certainly ahead of we talked about it last week. I thought they were ahead of where I thought they would be last week. This week even more. It was a great program win uh going to Buffalo and beating that team. That was great. I’m I’m not ready to say as a team that um they are in the good category. I mean, you know, they’re probably ahead of where I had them at the beginning of the season, which was nine and eight. um you know competing for a playoff spot now with the things in the way things are going in the AFC with the Bengals and the Ravens probably better and they probably have moved into should be favored for a playoff spot at this point. Um but uh I thought to me the story about Sunday night was Drake May elevating to an elite level for that portion of the game. I was just gonna ask you, that was an example of him elevating what was around him. Yes. I mean, look, Stefon Diggs was great, too. Probably, you know, on a per play rate because Stefon Diggs only played 50% of the snaps. It it didn’t feel like that with this production. Uh, Diggs was probably the best player quote unquote in the game. But, um, you know, for Drake May, he to me he elevated. I mean, the the stuff that he did, the Dayan Jones play is just ridiculous. that’s I don’t know five or six guys in the league can make that kind of play. You know, some of his accuracy down the field, uh the throws on the sideline, you know, hanging in the pocket, which he did better uh in the second half. He was not doing that um to start the game as he was a little bit jittery or I I don’t know what was going on with him, but he certainly wasn’t comfortable. Um but yes, I thought that this was Drake May sort of. Remember, no running game. This team can’t leak a drop in the running game consistently. So, it’s on Drake May. And Drake May, like I said, was super human in the second half the other night. And they don’t win a three-point game like that unless he does that. So, Mike Frabel’s been getting a lot of uh, you know, billing coming off of that game. You think that’s a little overrated? Um, I don’t know. It’s hard for me to say. I mean, look, he’s the head coach of the team. This team was ready to play. I liked that he the the attitude that he had all week where he, you know, challenged the guys and said, “Look, this is a measuring stick game, a gauge game, whatever you want to call it. We’re going there.” He didn’t shy away from it. He had straight on. Those guys embraced it. I thought the defensive game plan finally in week five was really good. It was sort of the anti- Steelers uh game plan. U they they looked at the Bills and said, “Well, Josh Allen doesn’t like to throw deep anymore because he doesn’t really have any weapons.” So, we’re not we’re going to make them beat us over the top. We’re going to take away the run game. We’re going to have a plan for Allen’s feet and try to hold our own there, which they did. So, you know, that was really good. I thought the defense was back to back to flying around on defense. This was the fastest that I’ve seen them play probably since the first preseason game when we were all like, “Holy crap, look at this.” They haven’t really played that way. Um, you know, not sure why. Maybe it’s just a, you know, uh, just getting things down, understanding the system, being able to play faster. Um, the job they did against James Cook was tremendous. Um, you know, but, you know, I thought it was to me the story of the game was May and Diggs and then the Bills did not play well. They, you know, they kept shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, if if if the Patriots had a game and it’s sort of the Steelers game light, but if the Patriots had a home game and they end up by losing by three where they have 11 penalties, eight in the first half, lose the turnover margin, what would what would we be saying? Yeah, the Patriots blew the game. Well, the Bills had to be complicit for you to win. I mean, you’re just not in the same tier right now. So, the Bills that that had to be, I think, part of the equation. If the Bills played a clean game, I I don’t know if you win that. you didn’t have the horse. And also, if you would have told me before the game that Ed Oliver was going to be inactive and Matt Milano was not going to play in the second half, who Milano was really good in the first half and caused the Patriots um issues, if you would have told me before the game that those guys weren’t going to be there in the second half, then I would have been like, the Patriots are probably going to win this game. Well, so so Maz mentioned it yesterday and the more I thought about it and kind of looked at some of it again, went back and watched some of it, uh I think Maz is right. I’m I’m kind of more impressed with the defense overall, meaning the scheme of it. The most impressive player in the game and the key to the game was Drake May, but I think like as a unit in terms of game plan, overall approach, front to end, the defense, I think impressed me more in that maybe more sustainable where I think offensively I just think May and Diggs took over is kind of what happened. I mean, the scheme that they came out with didn’t really work. They were trying to run the ball and they’re trying to do it with, you can tell me, Greg, like heavier personnel, right? Didn’t they have multiple tight ends out there and they tried to get big against the Bills defense and they tried to run the ball, it didn’t work. I think that the the big plays, not all of them, but a lot of the big plays in the second half were Drake May flushed out of the pocket, sprinting to the right sideline or making something on his own, him and Diggs coming up with something on their own in the middle of the play. And again, not to take anything, those are great big plays. But I think it was really more about May and Diggs. The defense, I think, was about the team, M. I think you were right about that. Yeah, I just think that they So, Greg, what I saw you put this in your notes. It felt to me like there was more man-to-man in this game. And I know the numbers don’t necessarily suggest it was a majority of the time, but your just interpretation of how they played pass coverage in this game. Yeah, the their man rate was a little bit um higher than it has been. Um you know, you can’t go crazy with the man coverage against Josh Allen because he’ll just um you know, turn and run. you know, I will say, you know, to what you’re talking about, um, you know, the offense in the first half, and I do think this goes to, you know, May being a little bit uneasy, uh, for for large stretches of the first half, was, you know, they also shot themselves in the foot. I mean, you know, the first drive of the game, um, you know, Drake May takes a sack on third down that he didn’t need to take, and I had him for two sacks, you know, in the first half there. Uh the next drive, Stevenson fumbles after a seven-yard gain. You know, if you’re in second and three, who knows? Maybe, you know, May there’s a simple pass. May gets settled down. Third drive, Diggs drops a third down where May made a great throw to put it on the outside should shoulder to keep him away from the linebacker and you know, Diggs dropped it. But, you know, you talk about the defense, the same the the flip side of the coin is, you know, what the Bills did. I mean, you look at their possessions. This is just this is the first half yards penalized on offense on their drives. -7 -5 -7 -5 – 10. Now some of those the Patriots created like Christian Barmore um you know getting held where he had a really good first half. You know some of those are unforced errors but you know the the same way that the the Patriots could have done more offensively if uh if they didn’t make some big errors. You know, it’s hard to play offense in this league. Even if you have Josh Allen, if you know, you’re going back five yards every single drive. And so those things caught up to the Bills. When those things settled down for both offenses, the game that I thought we were going to get back and forth duel between Josh Allen and Drake May, that’s what we got in the second half. Did they blitz much, the Patriots? No. No, I had them. It didn’t feel like it. It didn’t feel like it, Greg. That’s why Yeah, both teams blitz. I had it for uh one in the first half. the the Bills went they they had seven blisses in the second half including five on consecutive plays where the Patriots ended up scoring a touchdown. The Patriots blitzed four times in the second half. How disruptive were Bar and Williams though cuz there was times especially in the second half where Josh Allen to me was running immediately after the ball was snapped for like no reason. So was that because they were getting such a push or So um I would say Christian Barmore was very effective in the first half. He did have two pressures in the second half. Um the the other part of this game was Josh Allen did not play well like you know he was like those two plays at the end of the game where uh you know he throws deep out of the end zone to Keon Coleman and then the Shakure pass where let’s face it Gonzalez was a little bit early even he thought he was early. He was looking for a flag but whatever. I don’t have a PI. It could have been a PI. Yeah, he was early but no I’m fine with them not throwing it. But on the first on the first pass and and I found myself saying this a few times during the game which surprised me was so you could tell they were going to have nothing down the field immediately. He has James Cook against one of the Patriots linebackers. Just dump it down and get into third and manageable. And I was saying at times in this game, you know, Josh Allen is playing too much like Cowboy Josh Allen. If he played more like Drake May, they would be in better shape. Just take the check down. Then on the on the Shakir play, Keon Coleman was wide open in the end zone almost the entire play. You know, they were in a zone. Uh Gonzalez was playing more the underneath route, you know, cuz Josh Allen just leaves the pocket for no reason. He can’t see it. So Josh Allen did not play well in this game. And you know, some of it was the Patriots, but I think a lot of it was just, you know, they didn’t have the running game going. They shut down the run game. And then Josh Allen was just like, you know, I’m going to cowboy up and I’m going to do my thing. And it was to the team’s detriment this week.

Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal shares his analysis of Drake Maye and the Patriots on Felger and Mazz.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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