When the Patriots team plane lands in Denver on Saturday, it will mark the first time Drake Maye has stepped foot in Colorado.<\/p>\n
As the quarterback then gets ready to take on the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, he\u2019ll quickly have to learn the effects of throwing a football in altitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t thrown at altitude before,\u201d Maye explained. \u201cI\u2019ve never really been to Colorado or to a place with altitude that I\u2019ve thrown a football at, but I think there is some adjustment to it. Feeling it out in warmups, seeing what a deep ball is like or what the altitude does.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thinner air can make it more difficult for players to breathe and run due to less oxygen, while a football can also travel farther and faster because of reduced air resistance. Warmups will be key for Maye as he acclimates to both factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing, for us, just kind of fatigue-wise, I think we\u2019ll try to get a feel for it in warmups,\u201d Maye said. I know it\u2019s a little different, but I know a lot of teams play out there all the time. So, we\u2019ll have an adjustment. Just for me, just feeling out warmups, maybe throw a few extra deep ones, see how it is. I think it\u2019ll be pretty cool. Get a few extra yards on a deep ball, you can always use that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that Maye needs it, but he will certainly take an extra yards. Maye was one of the league\u2019s more aggressive \u2014 and successful \u2014 quarterbacks in throwing downfield this season, finishing with more air yards per attempt (8.9) than any other quarterback. New England also ended the regular season with the NFL\u2019s top explosive play rate.<\/p>\n
Now, against a Broncos pass rush that leads the league in sacks, Maye doesn\u2019t plan to shy away from taking shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re trying to change it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think last week, you change it, and Kayshon doesn\u2019t make the play. So little things like that, just knowing the time and place for it. I think trying to get the ball out of my hand, just being cognizant of the edge rushers and taking care of the football is the number-one thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if we have time and have a look down field, you know me, I\u2019m going to take a look and take a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maye is coming off an outlier performance throwing downfield, completing just one-of-six attempts of 20-plus air yards. That lone completion, however, was the play to Kayshon Boutte he referenced \u2014 a 32-yard touchdown that helped the Patriots secure a spot in the AFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n
With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, Maye will look for a stronger downfield showing in the altitude while continuing to be calculated when taking those shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to be aggressive in this game against these teams that we\u2019re playing against now, you better be calculated, because you\u2019re usually throwing against good players, against good scheme coaches that are trying to discourage you from doing it,\u201d offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be important to really identify what you\u2019re dealing with when the ball is snapped, because a lot of times you\u2019re not going to see the truth until you have the ball in your hands. And then once they go ahead and start to play the coverage once the ball\u2019s been snapped, now you got to make good decisions about is this a good opportunity for us or am I wasting a play or it\u2019s a low percentage play. So I think he\u2019s done a nice job of that all year. Hopefully we\u2019ll have him some opportunities this week to make some explosives and do those kind of things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Patriots team plane lands in Denver on Saturday, it will mark the first time Drake Maye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-699313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}