If the New England Patriots are going to win yet another Super Bowl, they're going to need Drake Maye to play more like a 2nd-team All-Pro quarterback.
The Patriots went 14-3 in the regular season and have now beaten three of the best defenses in the NFL en route to Super Bowl LX, with perhaps the true final boss on deck. The Seattle Seahawks' defense has been arguably the most well-rounded of any defense in the NFL this season, ranking 1st in points allowed, 6th in total takeaways, 1st in 3rd-down percentage, and 5th in red zone percentage.
With the way Drake Maye has struggled during the Patriots' playoff run, the early picture for Super Bowl LX looks bleak.
Drake Maye's rough NFL playoffs paint bleak picture for Super Bowl LX
The Patriots have won their first three playoff games, and Maye has obviously been making plays in the midst of that. It's not that he's being dragged along consistently in this playoff run, but to think he is going to be able to play the same way we've seen in the first three playoff games and beat a well-oiled machine like the Seahawks is ignoring reality.
Maye has completed just 55.8 percent of his passes in the playoffs so far with five total touchdowns, 15 sacks taken, and a whopping six fumbles. He's also got a pair of interceptions, but one of them was a ball that was tipped and the other was a Hail Mary attempt, so you can't fault him too much for those.
The way Maye played against the Denver Broncos was undoubtedly his worst performance of the postseason so far, even before the blizzard-like conditions started affecting how each team called plays.
Maye had just 86 passing yards against Denver, and 31 of those yards came on a well-timed flea-flicker that turned out to be a game-changing play.
And in the midst of all of this, that's something that also cannot be ignored. Maye has been making plays off-script as well as capitalizing on the mistakes of the opposing teams the Patriots are facing. Even in a game like we saw against the Texans where there were eight turnovers combined, Maye threw a pair of touchdown passes and found a way.
Against the Broncos, without a single play being run in Denver territory in the first half, Maye cashed in on Jarrett Stidham's backward pass with a designed run for a touchdown.
You can't discredit the ways he's been capitalizing on the extra opportunities, but you also have to acknowledge that against Seattle, Maye needs to look more like a 2nd-team All-Pro and less like it's the first time he's ever playing in the postseason.
The Patriots have been so good situationally, and they've been outstanding on defense and special teams throughout the postseason. You win as a team in the playoffs, and the Patriots are proving that. But if Maye plays the way we've seen in the first three playoff games when he takes the field in Santa Clara, the Seahawks are going to make his life miserable.