{"id":716726,"date":"2026-01-30T14:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716726\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:44:20","slug":"patriots-josh-mcdaniels-and-drake-mayes-secret-play-surprised-teammates-in-afc-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716726\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots: Josh McDaniels and Drake Maye’s secret play surprised teammates in AFC Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBOROUGH \u2013 At one of the most crucial points in Sunday\u2019s AFC Championship game, several Patriots<\/a> offensive linemen feared the worst.<\/p>\n

While in the huddle, Drake Maye<\/a> told his teammates that they were running an outside zone play to the right, where Rhamondre Stevenson would get the ball. Instead, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels<\/a> radioed into Maye\u2019s headset that he had other ideas.<\/p>\n

He wanted Maye to fake the handoff and execute a bootleg run that would have him sprint to the left while his teammates were blocking for a run play to the right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember it happening, and I looked at the guy I was going to block, and I just see him start sprinting over to the left,\u201d left guard Jared Wilson said. \u201cI was just like, \u2018Oh, no. Something happened. Something bad has happened.\u2019 I just see Drake running across. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my goodness.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At 1:57 of the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-6, Maye faked the handoff and sprinted seven yards. The first down allowed the Patriots<\/a> to run out the clock and secure their 10-7 win over the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n

On the field, Patriots offensive linemen didn\u2019t know what was happening but were elated about the result.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us knew it was happening. Kind of took us off guard,\u201d left tackle Will Campbell said. \u201cBut hey, it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised but not entirely surprised. It\u2019s one of those plays. Drake is a playmaker. It was third-and-6. I\u2019m glad he did,\u201d right guard Michael Onwenu said. \u201cOnce I saw the linebackers shuffling in and start running, I pretty much figured the running back cut the ball back, or someone got the ball to the left. While I was blocking, I was like, \u2018ok, everyone is running the other way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That play marked a first for Maye. During his football career, the quarterback had never called a play in the huddle only to have a different play radioed in his headset. He said it was a fun moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t done that before,\u201d Maye said. I asked a few of (my teammates) after, and they\u2019d rather me not tell them. I think it was pretty cool, a pretty cool moment for coach McDaniels and the guys in the box to see, and for me to try to catch the edge. I was able to catch the edge and give a little stiff arm, try to make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players didn\u2019t know why Maye opted for the bootleg run until after the game.<\/p>\n

While the Patriots were celebrating their berth to Super Bowl 60, Maye walked up to center Garrett Bradbury and told him about the play. He explained that he debated telling everyone, but opted to keep it between him and McDaniels.<\/p>\n

BETTING: BetMGM<\/a> has the total set at 45.5 points for Super Bowl 60\u2019s matchup featuring the Patriots and the Seahawks. Our comprehensive BetMGM Sportsbook review<\/a> shows you how to navigate through their platform. For all of the best Patriots Super Bowl odds<\/a>, check out our expert takes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a called play by Josh. So Drake wasn\u2019t just going crazy off the rails,\u201d Bradbury said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in offenses where that\u2019s happened before, where like they\u2019re pursuing really hard on the backside, then it\u2019s a good option, especially when everyone in the world knows you\u2019re running it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Bradbury has seen that happen before during his NFL career, the center said it\u2019s the first time McDaniels had Maye execute a run play where no one else on the field knew it was coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was super surprised,\u201d Bradbury said. \u201cThen we\u2019re all sitting there watching, have no part in blocking for him or anything. You\u2019re just like, \u2018Please get it, please get it, please get it.\u2019 So he got it, and we were all juiced up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH \u2013 At one of the most crucial points in Sunday\u2019s AFC Championship game, several Patriots offensive linemen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,25362,7,6,83599,31185],"class_list":["post-716726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-dsc08405","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nflcom","tag-nflraw25"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115984588290508129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716726","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=716726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}