“It’s great. Just so proud of this team,” Maye said. “Every week we’re fighting. Some things aren’t going our way. We’re battling adversity. Defense is stepping up. What a complete game. That’s what we said all week. Show up for 60 minutes. It’s a good football team. We knew if we got up they were going to come back, and they came marching back. Just proud of the guys for standing up, especially our defense with a big stop.”
It wasn’t Maye’s strongest game on this winning run, as the second-year quarterback was unusually inaccurate in completing just 16 of his 31 passes (51.6 percent). He still threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns against a typically aggressive Buccaneers defense under Todd Bowles.
“I think you know with Coach Bowles and what he does. They do a great job defensively,“ Maye said. ”We’ve got to get a little bit more third and manageable. We’ve got to do a better job of getting third and short and making plays. But when we did run third and long I was just trying to hang in there. There were times on first and second down I probably could’ve hung in there more, but just proud of this team. Blessed to play this sport. It’s fun out there.”
The Patriots swung the momentum in a big way either side of halftime, finding the end zone in the final seconds of the second quarter and in the first minute of the third.
The former was particularly pivotal, as Maye found Stefon Diggs in the corner of the end zone on a crucial fourth down to give New England a 14-10 halftime lead.
“Shoot, didn’t get in the first three times and called a play to get our guys involved, and [Stefon Diggs] made a great play,” Maye said. “Hunter [Henry] was open as well. [Diggs] did a great job of getting his feet down. That was a toe-tap extraordinaire.”
It was one of a couple aggressive moments for Mike Vrabel, who was happy to put some trust in his guys on fourth down.
“Coach, that’s who he is,” Maye said of Vrabel. “He’s aggressive. He’s not going to change. It’s fun to listen on the headset and hear what his thought process is. He’s the best in the business and I’m thankful I get to play for him.”
Maye’s low point on Sunday came in the fourth quarter, when New England had a chance to put the game out of a reach at the goal line before he threw a bad interception in the end zone. It didn’t come back to haunt the Patriots, with the defense making a crucial fourth-down stop before TreVeyon Henderson iced the game with a 69-yard touchdown run.
For Maye, the pick was more about execution than decision-making.
“I don’t change my approach,” Maye said. “I wouldn’t change the throw; I had Mack [Hollins] earlier. Just got to make it him or nobody out there out wide. You’re going to be mad at yourself, but you know that you have a chance to either go in a two-minute drill to win the game or go on a five-minute scenario to win the game, so that’s this league. Just bouncing back and flipping the page. You want to throw things on the sideline, but guys are watching me. I think the biggest thing is just to get back out there and show these guys we’re ready to go for the next play.”
immediately with the joint-best record in football, the Patriots face a short turnaround with the Jets in town on Thursday night.
“Getting on the plane,” Maye said of his mind-set on a short week. “Probably series some tape of New York. We’ve got to flip the next page. It’s a quick turnaround. We got one at home, so looking forward to playing with our fans. Our fans were great out there today. It was cool. It felt like our whole side was Patriots fans, so that was cool.”
Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.
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