FOXBOROUGH - During his mid-week press conference, Drake Maye backed up something we've been writing about in this space for weeks now. "A lot of the sacks I have taken have been my fault..."
For a split second, I considered giving Maye the Matt Damon/Robin Williams 'Good Will Hunting' treatment - 'It's not your fault, son' - before a) realizing that would be weird and b) remembering my thesis that it was his fault. Obviously, that doesn't absolve the breakdowns that are happening around him - Mike Onwenu, can you please pick up these stunts? But when the success of this season, and of this franchise, hinges so much on Maye's play — and his health — this is an area that needs to be cleaned up.
"I think we're trying to thread a fine line here of making those plays off schedule, which everyone loves, including me, he does, everybody else does, and then doing something where we hang on to it a little longer than maybe we could, and then incur a negative play or a turnover, which we don't want to obviously," Josh McDaniels said when I asked about how they go about "fixing" this.
"So I don't think we want to over-coach that and take that away from him, which we're not doing. I think as a young player who's going to continue to learn, hopefully, we'll eventually find that real sweet spot where it's like, you know what? I have a great feeling for this."
Maye didn't do that consistently against Atlanta's heavy blitz game plan. While he made a ton of plays, he left some meat on the bone and had a game-altering sack/fumble before the half. All that's going to do is encourage this weekend's opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Todd Bowles' defense has the seventh-highest blitz rate (35%), fourth-highest pressure rate (40%), and is tied for eighth with 25 sacks, with 15 of those coming in their last three games. The Bucs have also forced two or more turnovers in five of their eight games.
"What Todd adds is just a lot of pressure, great disguises, bringing multiple players from off the football," Mike Vrabel said when I asked him about the characteristics of a Bowles defense. "It's not just a linebacker; you could have a corner, you could have a safety, you could have the nickel, and the coverage changes. And you've seen them force a lot of turnovers, especially on third down, when quarterbacks are making quick decisions, that they make the wrong decision. So, 10 turnovers in the last four games, it will be critical that we take care of the football."
The disguise element is critical to the Bucs' success. Not just with how they will attack the quarterback, but also the coverages they will spin into on the back half. Cover three is the most common call for Bowles, but even that's only done at a 33% rate. You want to know why they seem to force turnovers in bunches, and this is as good a reason as any. If Maye reads the look one way, and his receivers another, the ball could end up in harm's way.
"So that just my mindset of get it out and know that there's less people covered with their blitzes," Maye said. "And just trying to be better and keep on growing against where guys are coming from and what they're trying to do behind the blitzes."
There's also the real possibility that the Pats will go into Sunday's game without Rhamondre Stevenson for a second straight week. He is far and away their best running back in pass protection, and while internally, the Pats have been pleased with the progress TreVeyon Henderson is making in that regard, there were a handful of plays from the Falcons game that were concerning. His backfield mate, Terrell Jennings, only had four passing play snaps and was never put in the protection scheme.
"Blitz pickup is not a win or lose proposition," McDaniels said, noting, "This week's a huge challenge because of how physical they are. But sometimes losing slowly is what you need to do, you know, and just giving the quarterback enough time. So we've had some really, really good backs here that have passed protected well for a long time, that lost slow and died."
The pre-snap process for these young backs is crucial, and McDaniels emphasized the importance of good eyes. That message has definitely been conveyed.
"If you don't see it, and you don't know who you're blocking, you will never be able to adjust and get to him in time," Jennings told me. "Paying attention to who I got, the rotation of the defense is key.
"It's a lot of disguise in the NFL. You have to be very smart to play in this league, because you have to recognize the linebacker depth and his intention on the actual play."
Henderson works on his technique daily, but he's still adjusting to the difference between what he faced at Ohio State and what he's seeing at the NFL level.
"Most of the guys in college pretty much just had one move," he said. "It was just bull rush all the time. And so I could just throw my stuff in there. Here, I feel like you have to be more patient and, for lack of a better word, more relaxed, and not too aggressive. That's the key thing, because these backers get paid to get to the quarterback, and they're really good. They have a lot of different techniques and tools to get there. So that's something that I got to continue to learn is how to match up to all the tools that they have to get to the quarterback."
Maye has managed to bail his teammates out multiple times per game because of his athleticism and improved feel in the pocket, and currently ranks fourth against the blitz in EPA per drop-back. However, that's also what has gotten him into trouble at times — the fine line he's trying to thread. Think about trying to stiff-arm Myles Garrett in week eight, or as he told us, toying with that same idea when Jalon Walker was shot out of a cannon on the sack/fumble.
Eventually, Maye will strike a better balance of knowing when to keep trying to make a play versus just throwing the ball away. He had one on Sunday, and it drew some kind of noise from Bedard. But until then, there will be moments when everyone, including the guy calling the plays, collectively holds their breath and hopes the 23-year-old makes the right decision and lives to play another down.