{"id":467916,"date":"2026-02-11T11:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467916\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:27:09","slug":"one-bad-game-on-nfls-biggest-stage-wont-define-drake-maye-unless-he-lets-it-karen-guregian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467916\/","title":{"rendered":"One bad game on NFL\u2019s biggest stage won\u2019t define Drake Maye – unless he lets it| Karen Guregian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karen Guregian\u2019s football analysis is sponsored by Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers<\/a>, a Leading Boston Personal Injury Firm. <\/p>\n

FOXBOROUGH – Drake Maye <\/a>is taking a break. He\u2019s leaving football behind for a bit. <\/p>\n

With the season over, and a lost Super Bowl in the rearview mirror, the Patriots quarterback plans on spending some quality time with his wife, Anne Michael.<\/p>\n

Then he\u2019ll be back to the grind, back to the business of preparing for next season.<\/p>\n

After essentially bombing in the big game, all eyes will be on Maye to see how he responds to his nightmare outing at Levi\u2019s Stadium Sunday night.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, and for the foreseeable future, that\u2019s Maye\u2019s challenge.<\/a><\/p>\n

Will he sink further into the abyss, unable to rise from Super Bowl failure?<\/p>\n

Or will this strengthen his resolve, and be the impetus for greater things to come? <\/p>\n

Knowing his uber competitiveness, knowing how motivated he is to succeed, it\u2019s hard imagining that Maye won\u2019t conquer the new demon in his life.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll somehow manage to top his extraordinary second season, or be right in that same ballpark. He\u2019ll be hellbent on extinguishing that image.<\/p>\n

Listening to him in his final session with the media Tuesday, you could already hear it in his voice.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t want that Super Bowl performance to define him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chance to battle back from something that didn\u2019t go your way or you wish would have gone different,\u201d Maye said when asked his mindset heading into next season in wake of his less than stellar Super Bowl performance. \u201cIt gives you fuel to remember that and gives you something to work for.\u201d <\/p>\n

Had Maye<\/a> captured a Super Bowl ring in Year 2, and been one of the heroes in the game, it probably wouldn\u2019t leave the same level of hunger and desire to improve.<\/p>\n

Losing, and having a stinker of a performance with three turnovers (two picks, one lost fumble) while triggering some to question if he\u2019s cut out to win the big one can certainly provide a spark.<\/p>\n

Yes, he was dealing with a shoulder problem, <\/a>suffered in the AFC Championship game, but he claimed he wasn\u2019t bothered. <\/p>\n

Maye\u2019s entire playoff run left more questions, as opposed to affirmation of his talent.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t helped by an offensive line that didn\u2019t protect him all that well. Maye <\/a>was sacked at least five times against each playoff opponent. He was dropped six times on on Super Bowl Sunday.<\/p>\n

He also fumbled seven times during the postseason run, losing four. He threw four interceptions.<\/p>\n

He played 21 games, 17 of which thrust him in the MVP conversation for his regular season prowess. He understands his last game is the only one people are talking about, the \u201cone that really mattered.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also knows as one of the two Super Bowl teams, the Patriots aren\u2019t going to feast on as many cupcakes as they did this year. They\u2019re not only going to play a much harder schedule, they\u2019re going to get everyone\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to elevate, and teams are going to be looking at what we did, how we improved so quickly, how we won the division and won the AFC and a lot of great things,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, teams are going to try to have a bullseye on us and try to stop us. So, we\u2019ve got to try not to be complacent and know that the teams are going to be chasing us, and we\u2019ve got to try to chase the Seahawks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Patriots can\u2019t chase the Super Bowl champs if their quarterback doesn\u2019t rebound.<\/p>\n

Maye had the cape on during the regular season, and led the team to the promised land. The cape fell off at the worst possible time. <\/p>\n

He understands his place in the narrative. He also knows he can\u2019t let one bad game dictate his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to try to find that extra edge,\u201d Maye said. \u201cI know those guys in the locker room are going to try to find that, and I know the team may not be the same and the coaching staff may not be the same, but I think our identity and what we put on display this year is something that we can translate to this next year and build off of. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m looking forward to that and looking forward to being back.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karen Guregian\u2019s football analysis is sponsored by Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, a Leading Boston Personal Injury Firm. FOXBOROUGH…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82,180678],"class_list":["post-467916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-super-bowl-lx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}