Drake Maye’s Super Bowl LX Disaster Looks Worse When Compared To Tom Brady’s First Big Game
Maye followed his magnificent regular season with a slew of duds in the playoffs
There are many reasons why the New England Patriots came up short in their pursuit of a seventh Lombardi Trophy Sunday night.
The Patriots defense, for as good as it’d been throughout the playoffs and as clutch as Pro Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez was in the big game, struggled to contain the Seattle Seahawks’ rushing attack.
Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III wrapped up his dominant postseason in style, rushing 27 times for 135 yards and adding two receptions for 26 yards on his way to Super Bowl LX MVP honors.
New England’s offensive line, again, failed to protect quarterback Drake Maye, allowing the regular season MVP runner-up to be sacked six times, tying his career-high.
Let’s shift the focus to Maye, who, after his magnificent regular season, followed it up with a slew of duds in the playoffs.
The 23-year-old finished Sunday’s loss 27-for-43 with 295 passing yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions while adding five carries for 37 scoreless yards. Maye also lost a fumble and recorded a 79.1 passer rating.
His passing yardage and pair of scores through the air were largely a product of going into comeback mode in the fourth quarter.
Maye and company were shut out until the fourth quarter and their last gasp comeback attempt was thwarted when the two-time Pro Bowler chucked an ill-advised shot downfield into the waiting arms of Seattle linebacker Uchenna Nwosu for a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Even though he was nursing a shoulder injury, the bottom line is that Maye’s Sunday effort was his first two-interception output of the season and his first since the fourth start of his career in Week 9 of the 2024 campaign.
Like it or not, as the Patriots’ new franchise signal-caller, Maye will likely be compared to Tom Brady for years, which makes the former’s Super Bowl LX disaster look even worse.
Brady’s numbers in his first taste of the big game (Super Bowl XXXVI) weren’t gaudy by any means, but most importantly, he played turnover-free football in the upset of the then-St. Louis Rams.
TB12 finished the 20-17 victory against the Rams 16-for-27 with 145 passing yards, one touchdown and no interceptions for an 86.2 passer rating.
Maye didn’t have the benefit of a game-changing defensive play like Brady did in Super Bowl XXXVI (Ty Law’s pick-six) or any productivity in the running game (Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 13 carries and 42 yards).
The turnover discrepancy between Brady and Maye, however, is the biggest difference in the pair’s first Super Bowl performances.
One year ago, nobody could’ve expected New England to be playing in Super Bowl LX, so we’ll see how the Patriots bounce back in the 2026 season.
