Drake Maye and New England Patriots Embrace the Ugly To Claim AFC Championship
Some wins go on your highlight reel, and some wins simply keep you alive. On Sunday night, with the AFC Championship on the line, Drake Maye and the New England Patriots found a way to do the latter, creating one of the strangest statistical anomalies in NFL postseason history in the process.
Maye became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for fewer than 100 yards in a conference championship game and still emerge victorious. It’s a stat line that looks like a typo for a player who, just weeks ago, was lighting up the New York Jets and posting near-perfect passer ratings. But playoff football is a different animal, and Sunday proved that Maye doesn’t need to be perfect.
Weathering the Storm
The conditions in Denver were far from ideal, neutralizing the passing attack that has defined the Patriots’ resurgence in 2025. Wind gusts swirled, and the bitter cold made gripping the ball a nightmare. For a young quarterback still finding his footing in high-stakes moments, this could have been a disaster.
Instead, Maye managed the game with the poise of a 10-year veteran. He didn’t force throws into tight windows. He didn’t turn the ball over. He accepted that the deep ball wasn’t there and leaned heavily on a ground game and a suffocating defense that kept the Patriots in control.
A Historic Anomaly For the New England Patriots
To understand how bizarre this win was, you have to look at the context of Maye’s season. This is a quarterback who, earlier this year, became the first player in history to record two games with at least 200 passing yards and a completion percentage of 90 or higher. He also had six games with a passer rating of 135 or better.
He is a precision passer. Sunday, however, required him to be a game manager in the truest sense of the word.
Winning an AFC Championship with sub-100 passing yards is usually a recipe for a blowout loss. It speaks volumes about the complete team effort the New England Patriots put together. The defense suffocated the opposition, giving Maye short fields and managing the clock. When he did drop back, his focus was purely on risk mitigation. He took sacks rather than risking interceptions. He threw the ball away when plays broke down.
Maturation Before Our Eyes
There is a human element to this game that numbers can’t capture. Standing on the podium, holding the Lamar Hunt Trophy, Maye didn’t look like a kid who had just played a statistically “bad” game. He looked like a leader who understood the assignment.
Great quarterbacks are often defined by their ability to win when they don’t have their “A” game. We’ve seen legends like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning win ugly playoff games on the backs of their defenses. For Maye to experience this kind of gritty victory so early in his career is invaluable. It teaches a lesson that no amount of regular-season touchdowns can: adaptability is the most dangerous weapon in football.
The narrative heading into the Super Bowl won’t be about Maye’s lack of yardage in the conference title game. It will be about a New England Patriots team that can beat you in a shootout or drag you into the mud.
