Coach Mike Vrabel said Monday that he created a special game ball to commemorate the remarkable road record. That ball went to Maye, his first this season.
“It was just a pretty special performance,” Vrabel said of Maye’s game, via the team transcript. “It’s no secret how I feel about Drake. Again, it was a special game ball. It was one that I had made that had a lot of tape and paper, and I did arts and crafts on it. It was all our winners on the ball that I had taped on there. So, he better bring it here and he should put it in the quarterback room because I put a lot of effort into it.”
Given that Maye is the main reason the Pats sit at 13-3, it’s fitting that Vrabel’s craft project went to QB.
“I had said the night before, whoever the hitter was, they would get that special game ball,” Vrabel said. “So it’s kind of fitting that Drake had the performance that he had. There were a lot of other really good performances and a lot of guys that helped us contribute, but certainly the day he had and what he’s done so far for us. So we’re going to need a lot of that effort from him going forward. You know that, and I expect that to happen.”
With 4,203 yards through 16 games, Maye became the third Pats QB with 4,000-plus passing yards (Tom Brady had 11 such seasons in New England; Drew Bledsoe, two). Maye leads the NFL in completion percentage (71.7), yards per attempt (8.9) and passer rating (112.9).