By Yardbarker,Zac Wassink
Copyright yardbarker
On Monday, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel acknowledged that he wants quarterback Drake Maye “to be cleaner” after he committed two costly turnovers in the team’s 21-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
During a Monday evening appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI, Maye spoke openly about the pair of plays he’d like to have back.
What went wrong on Drake Maye turnover plays
In the closing seconds of the first half against Pittsburgh, Maye tossed an interception in the end zone after a pass that likely should’ve sailed out of play but was instead tipped at the line. On Monday morning, Vrabel said he thought Maye needed “to put some air under” that particular attempt.
“You learn from any interception you throw,” Maye explained, per Conor Ryan of Boston.com. “I think it’s unfortunate how it got tipped. And I was trying to throw kind of a little back-shoulder ball to [wide receiver Kayshon Boutte] — would have been a touchdown. So maybe given a different ball flight to it. … But really, I wouldn’t change my decision down there on throwing it. So it’s unfortunate that a good player got his hands on it. But from there, I wouldn’t change my decision.”
Halfway through the fourth quarter of Sunday’s defeat, Maye lost a fumble after he extended a play with his legs but then took a crunching hit. The Steelers subsequently marched down the field for what became a game-winning scoring drive.
“No doubt — you can’t do that when we’ve got a chance with the game on the line,” Maye said about that fumble.
How Patriots plan to bounce back from Steelers game
In total, the Patriots committed five turnovers in the loss to the Steelers, dropping New England to 1-2 on the season. On Monday, Maye campaigned for New England players to “rally around each other” heading into Sunday’s home game against the 1-2 Carolina Panthers.
“I think just the positive from it is we still moved the ball and had some plays that we left out there … and still remained in the game,” Maye added. “So it’s tough to take away something positive from five turnovers. But I think, at the end of the day, with fixing that, it’s something that’s not just something that you can say — ‘Hey, next week, we’re going to fix it.’ It’s something you got to take pride in practice.”
As of Tuesday morning, ESPN BET had the Patriots as 5.5-point favorites over the Panthers.
