New England Patriots
“I just know that I can count on 10. When in doubt, count on 10.”
A quick glance at the stat book following Sunday’s AFC championship bout between the Patriots and Broncos won’t reflect well on Drake Maye.
The second-year QB’s ascension from promising QB to MVP frontrunner has fueled New England’s rise from a four-win club into a Super Bowl contender.
But as whipping winds and a steady snowfall blanketed Empower Field at Mile High, Maye’s aerial attack was grounded on Sunday.
The second-year QB completed just 10 of his 21 attempts. He threw for zero touchdowns and 86 total yards — averaging just 4.1 yards per attempt.
But as Stefon Diggs was quick to note on Sunday, individual numbers hold little weight when contrasted against the most important barometer of a team’s fate — the scoreboard.
“Things weren’t pretty,” the veteran wideout said. “But I told you a long time ago, I’ll take a ugly win before I take a pretty loss.”
A rough evening for New England’s passing game meant very little to Maye on Sunday — not after the gifted signal-caller and the Patriots punched their ticket to Super Bowl LX.
“It’s pretty special. It’s something I won’t forget,” Maye said after New England bested Denver, 10-7. “Road warriors, 9-0 on the road, playing for this team and finishing in victory formation, I head-bumped Will [Campbell], and that was probably the hardest head bump of my life after I picked up the first down.
It was special for those guys, we’ve been in that scenario a lot, I always say that’s my favorite play, and every team’s favorite play when you’re in victory formation. That was, I think, what, our 17th win? It’s been a long season, and it’s been worth it.”
In a game where points were at a premium in ugly weather conditions, Maye still doled out enough damage against an elite Broncos defense to capitalize in crunch-time situations — usually relying on his legs to move the chains.
Maye gained 65 yards off of 10 carries on Sunday, scoring New England’s lone touchdown of the afternoon with a six-yard keeper in the second quarter. He also gaining six of New England’s 12 first downs via scrambles and designed runs.
Perhaps most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over after fumbling six times in his last two playoff games.
“Those long legs came in handy,” Diggs said of Maye. “He was running around, stiff-arming guys, making plays at a high level. He was being smart. I think the biggest thing for this game is not turning over the ball. Our defense is gonna hold it down.
“So you don’t turn the ball over … we’re always in a good spot. … I just know that I can count on 10. When in doubt, count on 10.”
Diggs’ endorsement was validated with under two minutes to go in regulation.
After Chrisitan Gonzalez put New England on the brink of a Super Bowl berth by picking off Jarrett Stidham, New England still needed to gain a first down to run out the clock and go into victory formation.
Given the offensive slog that hindered both the Patriots and Broncos amid that snowfall, it was far from a guarantee that New England was going to move the chains on a 3rd-and-6 play from the Patriots’ own 40-yard line.
But Maye and the Patriots’ capitalized off a naked bootleg play, with Maye outrunning Jonah Elliss to the edge and picking up seven yards to move the chains and close out the win.
“We were in big personnel, running the same deal to the right, little stretch play, and at some point, they get lackadaisical, and got a chance to get on the edge,” Maye said of what he saw on the victory-clinching run. “I thought [Elliss] was going to track me and hawk me down, but got enough to pick up the first.
“Coach Vrabes will probably get mad about running out of bounds, but at that point, it doesn’t matter when you get the first down. So that was a cool moment, cool to celebrate with those guys, it’s always cool to finish in victory formation, so, pretty sweet.”
Maye’s highlight-reel tape from a breakout 2025 season won’t be rife with throws from Sunday’s game against the Broncos. But that seven-yard scramble — given the stakes at play — will be added to Patriots franchise lore, especially if this team can seal the deal in two weeks at Levi’s Stadium.
Maye is now just one way from being the youngest QB in NFL history to win a Super Bowl — a sentence that sounds surreal given the state of this franchise in the summertime.
The next two weeks will likely feature plenty of verbal barbs doled out by the likes of Cam Newton, Max Kellerman, Skip Bayless, and countless other pundits and media personalities who will be quick to discount Maye’s baseline stats in the postseason.
Of course, criticisms of New England’s lighter regular-season slate and the Patriots’ lackluster offensive production in the postseason (18.0 PPG) tend to ring hollow when weighed against the competition.
Yes, New England’s scoring output through three playoff games stands as the fewest by any team to make the Super Bowl since the 1979 Rams (15.0).
But the Patriots have also overcome three postseason matchups against teams who all ranked in the top-five in total defense this season — with Maye standing as the first QB in league history to win three playoff games against a trio of top-five defenses in one playoff run.
It won’t get any easier on Feb. 8, not against a Seattle defense that ranks first in points allowed per game (17.2) and sixth in yards against per game (285.6).
The final stat line may not be pretty for Maye in two weeks against another daunting opponent.
But if the night ends with Maye lifting the Lombardi Trophy, one would be hard-pressed to find fault in a season that few expected from the 23-year-old QB.
“It’s full circle,” Maye said of playing a game at Levi’s Stadium after going to Super Bowl 50 at the same field in February 2016. “My dad, when, I think, I was in seventh grade, said if the Panthers made it, we were going to go. It was heartbreaking, they lost to the Broncos, but what an experience for a kid at my age who loves football, who loves quarterbacks, that was Peyton [Manning]’s last game, what a Hall of Fame career he had.
“So, pretty cool to be full circle going back here 10 years later, and I think it’s just a special moment for this whole team and we’re just going to enjoy it tonight, head back. We’ve got two weeks, so we’ve got some work to do.”
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