FOXBORO — Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had a special game ball prepared for the best performer in Sunday’s win over the Jets.
That just happened to be quarterback Drake Maye, who, according to some metrics, had one of the greatest single-game performances in NFL history, completing 19-of-21 passes for 256 yards and five touchdowns in just 2.5 quarters.
“It was just a pretty special performance. It’s no secret how I feel about Drake,” Vrabel said Monday morning. “That was a special game ball. That was one that I had constructed that had a lot of tape and paper, and I did arts and crafts on it. That was all our road wins on the ball that I had taped on there. So, he better bring it in here, and he better put it in the quarterback room because I put a lot of time and effort into that thing.
“Yeah, when we won three games in a row on the road, those three weeks, Stick (equpment manager Preston Rogers) had done a nice game ball that had those three games on there, and so then I went back and kind of added on all the other ones. I printed them off and put them on there. So, I’d said the night before, whoever was the player to gain, they got this special game ball. 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 that he had and what he’s done so far for us. So, we’ll need a lot of those efforts from him to continue. You guys know that, and I anticipate that to happen.”
Maye tied the record for QBR in a single game with a 99.8 (out of 100). Only six quarterbacks, since the metric was developed in 2006, have had a 99.8 QBR in a single game.
Maye leads the league with a 76.5 QBR this season.
