Feb. 9, 2026, 5:34 p.m. ET

If you’re New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, reading this article, I’d advise you to stop reading right now.Enjoy, Cabo, Cancun, or whatever beautiful isle you will be spending your wonderful vacation.

But let’s be honest here: the Patriots QB had one of the worst Super Bowl performances in its 60-year history.

There have been 120 starting quarterback games in championship history, and Maye, by pure numbers, is at least in the bottom 10 all-time.

Although he boosted the overall statistics when the game was already out of reach, and the Seattle Seahawks were dancing on the sideline, the first three quarters were an abomination for someone who days prior was a mere vote away from being named NFL MVP.

By using Expected Points Added (EPA), which calculates how much a QB’s play directly affects a game, he had a bottom-five performance in the Super Bowl. When adding together his entire playoff run, in which he struggled against the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, and Denver Broncos defenses, it is the worst-ever.

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.

The efficiency that he was so lauded for during the regular season was gone. To be fair to Maye, he played four good-to-elite defenses in the postseason, but his play didn’t elevate to the occasion expected of someone who was almost named the league’s most valuable player.

The internet fans, who’ve had to watch the Patriots attempt to resurrect their long fallen dynasty, held no punches back when dissecting Maye’s “disasterclass” of a game.

For Maye, as it was for Jared Goff almost a decade ago, when he got rocked by the Patriots’ defense in an all-time collapse, it’ll be up to him to rehabilitate his image going into next season.

Goff needed to switch cities and teams to reinvent himself. While Maye is in no danger of being traded like the current Detroit Lions QB, the expectations are now set.

As a third-year player, if the Patriots don’t make another run in the playoffs, he will get blamed.

And it all started with a night he’ll try to forget in Santa Clara.