The Patriots are back in the Super Bowl, but people are making a lot of noise about their path to get there.<\/p>\n
New England had the benefit of the second-easiest<\/a> strength of schedule since the 1999 Rams, who went on to beat the Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n But the playoffs have been a different story, more specifically for Drake Maye<\/a>.<\/p>\n Making NFL History<\/p>\n In the league\u2019s history, no quarterback has ever<\/a> managed to defeat three of the top five defenses in terms of yards allowed in a single postseason. Maye managed to conquer that feat in just the first three rounds of the playoffs.<\/p>\n The Chargers, Broncos and Texans were fifth, second and first<\/a> in yards allowed in the 2025 regular season, respectively. The Maye-led Patriots were able to overcome this path on the way to the franchise\u2019s 12th Super Bowl appearance.<\/p>\n Sure, those offenses were either limited or ineffective in the postseason, but Maye doesn\u2019t face the offense. The quarterback can really only influence the game by dissecting the defense, something Maye has been able to effectively do.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n When looking at the bare stats, the numbers are pedestrian, but numbers don\u2019t tell the full story.<\/p>\n Drake Maye so far in the playoffs<\/a> has:<\/p>\n 55.8% completion percentage<\/p>\n Five touchdowns (one rushing)<\/p>\n On the surface, the numbers tell a story of a quarterback who has struggled in his first three playoff games. While it\u2019s been far from perfect, Maye has done a serviceable job anchoring the Patriots\u2019 offense against some of the best defenses in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before diving into New England\u2019s playoff opponents, it\u2019s also important to note the Patriots defense has been playing at an elite level in the postseason.<\/p>\n New England has limited<\/a> their opponents to 71 rushing yards per game, forced eight total turnovers and has allowed just 8.7 points per game.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Without the Patriots defense stepping up in the bright lights, it\u2019s very likely that another team would be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. But one can say the same about Maye\u2019s performances against the best defenses the league has to offer.<\/p>\n Do Your Job<\/p>\n Before the Patriots\u2019 divisional round matchup against the Texans, people made a lot of noise about Houston\u2019s defense and rightfully so.<\/p>\n But with a little help from his own defense, Maye was able to throw for three passing touchdowns, becoming the only quarterback this season to achieve that milestone against that vaunted Texans defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although Maye\u2019s passing numbers aren\u2019t as flashy as they were in the regular season, he\u2019s made up for it by exploiting the ground game.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Through his first three playoff games, Maye has averaged 47 rushing yards per game. It\u2019s a small sample size, but his average in the regular season was 26.<\/p>\n Because New England has been playing these elite defenses, sometimes receivers simply aren\u2019t open. But Maye\u2019s athleticism has allowed for big gains on the ground, which led to arguably the biggest play of the young signal caller\u2019s career.<\/p>\n Drake Maye Called Game<\/p>\n Of all the plays that Drake Maye\u2019s been able to extend with his legs, the most important by far occurred in the AFC Championship.<\/p>\n The Patriots, up by three and with possession of the ball, just needed a first down to ice the game. It was a 3rd-and-six with under two minutes left to play. Denver had no timeouts. They would be unable to stop the clock or the Patriots if they landed a first down.<\/p>\n Maye and Josh McDaniels dialed up a quarterback bootleg and told no one else. The ball\u2019s in play, Maye takes the snap, runs to his left and not only gets the first down but seals his ticket to Super Bowl LX.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the great thing about Drake. The ability to extend plays and if it\u2019s not there, gain chunks. He\u2019s done that most of the year,\u201d Mike Vrabel<\/a> said via CBS News<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to get a lot of things corrected and we\u2019ll have to play our best football game in two weeks if we want to finish [as] champions.\u201d<\/p>\n If the Patriots are going to hoist the Lombardi trophy in February, they\u2019re going to need their MVP-caliber quarterback to play well. But don\u2019t let the bare numbers fool you, he\u2019s already playing at an elite level.<\/p>\n The post Drake Maye\u2019s Playoff Schedule Has Been Historically Difficult<\/a> appeared first on The Lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Patriots are back in the Super Bowl, but people are making a lot of noise about their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[231,833,7,221,1167,6,84,208,1257,6746,5340,2854],"class_list":["post-718019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-denver","tag-drake-maye","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-new-england","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-patriots","tag-quarterback","tag-rushing-yards","tag-the-chargers","tag-the-patriots"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115987352477057437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718019","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=718019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}