Drake Maye’s struggles against Green Bay lead to more troubling questions

FOXBOROUGH - During warmups, Tom Brady, who was broadcasting the game with FOX, took a minute to go over and shake Drake Maye’s hand. It seemed fitting, and the hope was that it was a bit of foreshadowing. To beat the Green Bay Packers, Maye was going to need to take a page out of Brady’s book. He was going to have to play a smart, patient, disciplined game to get the better of a Packer defense that was one of the best in the league of taking away the long ball. Forget any foreshadowing. Maye didn’t take any cues. He didn’t take a play out of Brady’s book. Instead, he invited more questions about whether he can truly be an elite quarterback. Early on especially, Maye didn’t play with the type of patience and discipline needed against Green Bay. Unlike the previous five games, he was plagued by poor decision making. Maye had a horrific first half. It was one of his worst of the season, and there were already a few stinkers (Seattle, Jacksonville) in there. His stat line from the first half? He tossed two touchdowns, but he also threw three killer interceptions and nearly had a fourth before the end of the half. It was tough to recover from that. It was basically a disaster across the board, as Green Bay blew out the Patriots, 45-27. Maye finished 21-for-38, 299 yards with three TD passes and three picks. He was sacked four times. DeMario Douglas was his top receiver with 5 catches for 102 yards. Maye, who was replaced by Tommy DeVito with 6:56 to go with the game well out of hand, had just earned AFC Offensive Player of the Month honors for October, seemed to have turned the corner after a rough start to the season, but delivered a stinker at home, with a cast of Patriots legends looking on. All of the Patriots losses this season have come against top-10 scoring defenses. Seattle, Jacksonville, Chicago and now Green Bay put the clamps on Maye and the offense. The Packers entered the game with the 10th best scoring defense (20.5 ppg) in the league. More to the point, their pass defense ranked among the best. Maye entered the game without A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs, the two weapons that were supposed to put the offense over the top. Mack Hollins returned, but Maye still wasn’t able to produce at the level that was needed. The Patriots weren’t able to protect consistently. That led to multiple throwaways by Maye, multiple hits, and multiple plays the Patriots quarterback would like to have back. The very first series of the game, on a 2nd-and-9, Maye was flushed out of the pocket to the right and made a reckless across the field pass. It was in Hollins’ neighborhood, but went right to safety Xavier McKinney. That led to the Packers first score. Pick No. 2 was a throw into double coverage meant for Kyle Williams. It was deflected and picked off Evan Williams. At this point, Mike Vrabel chatted with Maye, trying to pump his quarterback back up. The next series, Maye threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson. The next series, he was back into the turnover pool. He threw late trying to hit Eli Raridon, and that was picked off by McKinney. Last season, Maye endured a rough playoff ride en route to the Super Bowl going up against several of the NFL’s best defensive units. While he did what was needed against the Chargers, Texans and Broncos, making plays at key points, he crashed and burned in the Super Bowl. This wasn’t the Super Bowl, but it was an important game against winning team, with a top defense. Maye crashed and burned once again. He still hasn’t shown he can consistently get past the better defenses in the league, especially those who take away the long ball. DeVito led the team to what amounted to a garbage time touchdown late in the fourth quarter, with Corey Kiner running it in from the four. More Patriots Content 5 takeaways as Patriots lose in embarrassing fashion to Green Bay Packers Patriots lose top running back to injury in ugly game vs. Packers Rewind: Packers dominate Patriots in embarrassing loss Bill Belichick makes surprise appearance at Patriots event in Foxborough Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .