With 1:57 left in the fourth quarter, the New England Patriots were one play away from punting the football to the Denver Broncos, who would be driving down the field with a chance to win the game and go to the Super Bowl.
It was third-and-five, and the Broncos had just used their third and final timeout.
The play call was a stretch outside zone run at the sixth offensive lineman out of the I-formation, but quarterback Drake Maye had different plans.
Maye pulled the handoff out of Rhamondre Stevenson’s stomach and ran a naked bootleg at his own 40-yard line.
Everyone on the Broncos defense was fooled, and, as it turns out, everyone on the offense was as well.
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According to Patriots center Garrett Bradbury, Maye decided to keep the ball unbeknownst to the rest of the team.
“I hit my block, and all the defenders started running the other way,” Bradbury told Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald. “I’m like, ‘What? Oh my God.’
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“After the game, Drake’s like, ‘I debated telling you guys if I was gonna (keep) it or not. But I just decided not to.'”
The Patriots’ most iconic play from the 2025 Super Bowl run came on a gutsy play call by the second-year quarterback himself.
Featured image via Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
