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Mike Vrabel’s pregame message resonated with Drake Maye, Patriots before win over Ravens
“You take it for granted. Just what a beautiful sport. The best sport out there."
Hours before Drake Maye helped the Patriots erase an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter against the Ravens, the Patriots quarterback heeded the message doled out by his head coach in the visiting locker room at M&T Bank Stadium.
New England was dealing with plenty of adversity entering Sunday’s primetime matchup — fresh off of collapsing against the Bills at Gillette Stadium the previous weekend.
Compounding the Patriots’ woes was the sting of the injury bug, with New England soldiering on without key cogs like Milton Williams, Will Campbell, and Robert Spillane on Sunday night. An already reeling New England depth chart would be further sapped of its talent as Sunday’s bout carried on.
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But as Maye and the Patriots took to the field in enemy territory, Vrabel preached the importance of relishing the moment — especially amid a season where a once-rebuilding New England franchise has consistently punched above its weight.
That message rang true for Maye, especially in the aftermath of Sunday’s dramatic 28-24 victory.
“You take it for granted, man,” Maye said postgame. “You take it for granted. Just what a beautiful sport. The best sport out there. This game, it’s brutal. There’s times with injuries and losses that weigh on you, but this winning feeling, there’s nothing like it. Coach reminded us of that pregame.
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“He said, ‘You can’t buy that back, winning in that locker room.’ At his age, he always says, ‘I wish I could suit up again.’ You just can’t buy that. He said, ‘You can buy anything else in life, but you can’t buy this time we’re in right now.’ And what a time it is.”
New England overcame several hurdles on Sunday, be it those aforementioned injuries or several early miscues that prevented the Patriots from piling on points against Baltimore.
But in crunch time, Maye played some of the best football of his young NFL career.
He completed 12-of-14 passes for 139 yards and one touchdown in the fourth quarter, while also scrambling for 14 yards to help ice the win for New England in the final minute of regulation.
Maye was as advertised when it came to uncorking throws deep down the field. As noted by NextGen Stats, Maye completed four of his passes that went for over 20 air yards for a career-high 111 yards and a touchdown.
His only deep throw that was incomplete was his heave down the field to Kayshon Boutte — a sequence where Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey should have been whistled for defensive pass interference.
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For Maye, it was a validating response for a Patriots team still steaming after letting a chance to clinch the AFC East outright slip through their grasp last week against Buffalo.
“It felt good getting that one,” Maye said of Sunday’s win over Baltimore. “It was a kind of a wakeup call last week. We had a chance to win the game with a game-winning drive. It was like: ‘Let’s not have the same feeling two weeks in a row.’”
Maye’s ascension from promising rookie QB to legitimate MVP candidate has played a major role in New England’s sterling 12-3 record so far this season.
But the 23-year-old signal caller was quick to credit his head coach for his role in setting the tone for a hungry Patriots roster operating with a chip on its collective shoulder.
“I think it’s top down,” Maye said of the reasoning behind New England’s turnaround. “It’s Coach Vrabel coming in here. It’s the coaching staff he hired. It’s the guys buying in and believing in what we do. That’s the biggest thing [in] a locker room. It’s believing in what the coach is saying. It’s believing in our identity. Carrying it. Traveling with it. He always says, ‘Pack our identity.’
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“Just another big win on the road and it starts top down. The guys — we just love a lot of guys in that locker room, man. I’ll talk to a lot of those guys probably for a long time in my life.”
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