Patriots QB Drake Maye Postgame Transcript 11/8

PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK DRAKE MAYE

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

November 8, 2026

Q: How disappointing was this performance for you overall?

DM: Yeah, very. Very. I’m disappointed in myself for — you can’t put the team in the hole straight off the bat, first possession, first half. I feel like in the times we had chances to get back into the game, I messed them up, and we had chances to put us back within three points multiple times, and just frustrating. I’ve got to do a better job from a whole perspective, communication, doing the little things right, and I just, I wasn’t good. I wasn’t good today. And we’ve got to bounce back, and we’re on a far flight, but we’ve got to bounce back and know that there’s still some games left and we’re battling. We’ve got to battle. I think that’s just, that’s it.

Q: You talk every week about turnovers. You had some again today. How frustrating is that for you? Also, you just said you’ve got to battle. What kind of mindset do you have going forward with this team for this week?

DM: Yeah, we haven’t had a clean, a turnover-free game yet. It’s, starting with me, it’s one of the biggest differences between winning and losing football games. I’d say, put our defense in a bad spot in the first drive, and just gave them the football and had some other chances down the field, and I’ve got to see in front. I’ve got to see in front. I feel like I was just a little late sometimes, and I was just trying to — I feel like we got into a throwing game, and that’s partly because of what we did offensively to the team. Then we didn’t really get to build off the run game, and I think we’ve just got to start the game, and me specifically, start better.

Q: Can you just take us through the three interceptions, what you saw pre-snap and then post that led to those turnovers?

DM: Yeah, just throwing the football in spots that I don’t think I should’ve thrown it. The first one, I think I’ve just got to see the guys deep, see the safety positions. The second one happens, maybe throw it a little farther. And the third one, like I said, they’re jumping cross routes, so I’ve got to see in front.

Q: You took some hits today. I’m curious how you would describe how you feel coming out of this game physically.

DM: Yeah, it’s football. Everybody’s taking hits out there, so I feel good. I know we are battling. This team is. Some [guys] not feeling so good and some injuries, and I know these guys are trying to step up and get in there. We’ve got to band together, and we’ve got to start being better throughout the week, practicing. It starts in practice. And Coach [Mike Vrabel] always says the good players, our best players, got to play well, and we didn’t do that today.

Q: You’ve talked in the past about sometimes you can’t hunt the big play, you just have to make the right play. Going against this team, they play a lot of two high, they play a ton of zone, they feast on turnovers, they try and take away big plays. Did you guys feel going into this game you could out-strength them? Your strength is big plays, you could get big plays on them, or was the game plan really supposed to be take what they give you?

DM: Yeah, I mean, I think it depends on the feel of the game. I think we felt like they were good in the back end, especially the safety positions, they’re ball aware. They’ve hunted a lot of turnovers on [having] eyes on the quarterback in zone coverage. I knew that coming into it and forced the first one. And then like I said, they jumped some crossers, and just got to do –just got to see it, and that’s on me. And from there, we did hit some big ones, so there’s some give and take to it. But I think the bad ones hurt more than the good ones, unfortunately.

Q: Basically halfway through the season at this point, what is your gauge on who this team is? Mike [Vrabel] talked about identity of this group. What do you sense about who this team is halfway through the year?

DM: Yeah, I think, man, we’ve been through a lot. I think just start with nine games, and it’s crazy we got pretty much half the season left. We’ve been through a lot and we’ve got a lot of bumps and bruises, got some big wins, got some bad losses. So, we’ve got to find a way to be consistent. Coach preaches that, being consistent, being the answer. And in these games when you face adversity, we’ve got to do a better job, beginning with me, of handling it and playing games from ahead. That’s the biggest thing, offensively speaking. And then from a team standpoint, we’ve got to band together. This is the National Football League, it’s any given week, and these teams around the league are — we’ve got a target on our back. We won the AFC, played in the Super Bowl. Everybody’s — we had top offense, top defense, so everybody’s coming after us, and we’ve got to respond.

Q: Obviously this was a special weekend for the organization, with Gronk’s (Rob Gronkowski) induction and Super Bowl team reunion. Looking back at how the team performed today, do you feel like this event’s become a distraction and potentially impacted how the team prepared this week?

DM: No, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t think any of the team had some players from the reunion around at practice on Friday, and you say what’s up, and then there’s nothing the players were mandatory obliged to go to or attend. We were focused on the Packers, and I don’t think there’s really a correlation.

Q: Just wondering if it’s at all demoralizing when you’re down 17-0 and you’re watching what [Jordan] Love is doing on the other side, and I wondered if you even just had a thought on how well he played today with his receivers on the field.

DM: Yeah, I’ve gotten to know Jordan over the years. A big fan of his game, the way that he throws the football, can throw it downfield. And no, I wouldn’t say I’m over there really cheering for him or kind of paying that much attention to it. I think I’m just worried about offensively, what we can do to win the game. And I know that he had a big day, so props to them. Props to them on offense, on defense, on special teams for the plan they had. They out-planned us, out-schemed us, out-efforted us, so we’ve got to, like I said, band together and look to get back.

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