When Drake Maye and Caleb Williams squared off in 2024, both quarterbacks were rookies. Neither had a memorable performance.
Thursday night’s matchup between the Patriots and Bears was a different story. Maye is coming off an MVP runner-up season, and Williams is playing the best football of his young NFL career thus far.
And while a whole lot happened during the Bears’ 30-24 win over the Patriots, the story does always come down to how the quarterbacks played. And though Maye performed well, the Patriots Postgame Live crew was asked a boxing analogy: Who came out on top in this 15-round heavyweight fight that went the distance?
“I think you have to say the guy who won the game and didn’t turn the ball over wins by decision at the very least,” Phil Perry said. “It’s not a knockout, but because they ended up with very similar numbers, and I thought Drake Maye, aside from the one mistake, played really well. I mean, there’s a number of plays where he has to elude pressure, shake a blitzer. The Bears were getting after the Patriots with the blitz all night, and he’s able to really create something out of nothing on more than one occasion. But Caleb Williams did it on the other side too, and he didn’t make the back-breaking error. So you got to give it to him.”
The “back-breaking error” was an underthrown interception in the second quarter, on a play when Maye had Eli Raridon running open in the end zone. Maye finished with 321 passing yards to Williams’ 308, and he had a better completion percentage. They each threw a pair of touchdowns, and though Maye ran for 26 yards and a score, he also threw the only interception of the game.
For that reason, Tom E. Curran gave the edge to Williams, but only by a hair.
“Split decision, and it goes to Caleb Williams, because they ended up winning the game,” Curran said. “The funny thing is, there’s no one here in New England who’s saying, ‘Wow, I wish they had Caleb Williams instead of Drake Maye.’ And I’m sure there are very few people in Chicago saying the opposite. We’ve seen the mistake previously, the red zone mistake. So when that happens, that’s a blemish on [a 24-for-31] day. He was great. And the throws that he made, he must have had six or seven high-level throws that had velocity, placement, 15, 20, 25 yards down the field.”
While Williams got the win in the game, Ted Johnson thinks the Bears’ QB had some advantages that Maye just lacked in this game.
“Could I change your mind if I tell you that I think Caleb Williams is playing with better skilled receivers, a better tight end, a better offensive line?” Johnson asked on a night when the Patriots started third or fourth-string guards. “The leading receiver for Chicago, Luther Burden, four catches for 130 yards, 32-yard average, so he can catch and run. And the leading receiver for the Patriots was Rhamondre Stevenson.
“I would lean more towards a draw,” Johnson continued. “Even though there was that one mistake, it was a big mistake. But I just look at what Drake is playing with compared to what Caleb was playing with.”
Though Michael Holley was playing the role of referee while leaning on the judges for a ruling, he remained hung up on that interception.
“Just a mind-boggling throw from Drake Maye,” Holley said. “I mean, they’re moving the ball all over the place, and he just threw it right to him. And you look at it, you probably could feather that ball up there. You could float it. You could do a lot of things. But what he did was just throw it on a line. There’s no elevation whatsoever, and the defender made an easy interception.”
Maye might have agreed with the discussion.
“I like my chances in there, and just … yeah, it’s frustrating,” Maye said of the INT. “I know that was a big turning point in the game, and I know I let my team down.”
The Bears ended up driving 80 yards for a touchdown to take a 20-7 lead after the pick, but the Patriots miraculously got those points back when Stevenson scored on a 48-yard catch-and-run before halftime. So the actual damage of the pick can be debated.
“A-plus performance with a grade and a half off, bringing him down to a B, because of the critical nature of the pick,” Curran said of his final grade for Maye on the night. “It’s just a shame, because he played brilliantly in prime time, on a short week, it’s his fourth commendable game in a row.”
