BALTIMORE — Hopefully the rest of the NFL enjoyed the respite.
The New England Patriots are back in the playoffs — with an unflappable quarterback and a coach who is thirsty for more.
Sound familiar?
Drake Maye guided New England to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, rallying his team from an 11-point deficit to a 28-24 victory over Baltimore on Sunday night that clinched a postseason spot for the Patriots and dealt a devastating blow to the Ravens’ playoff hopes.
“We’re going to try to win the division. We’re going to focus on that,” New England coach Mike Vrabel said. “I’m excited. All the credit to the players. When we win, it’s because of them.”
Seven years after Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their final Super Bowl together in New England — and four years after Belichick reached the playoffs with Mac Jones at quarterback — the Patriots return to the postseason in Maye’s second year behind center. Maye certainly didn’t hurt his MVP case Sunday, throwing for a career-best 380 yards and two touchdowns.
Down 24-13, Maye connected on a 37-yard scoring strike to Kyle Williams, and a 2-point conversion pass to Rhamondre Stevenson made it a three-point game with 9:01 to play.
After New England forced a punt, the Patriots drove 89 yards for the winning touchdown. Baltimore’s pass rush, which was nonexistent earlier in the game, was much better toward the end, but Maye showed why he and his team are in first place in the AFC East.
New England remains a game ahead of second-place Buffalo despite losing to the Bills last week.
“It was kind of a wake-up call last week — we got a chance to win the game with a game-winning drive, and this week it was like, man, let’s not have that feeling two weeks in a row,” Maye said. “It was kind of the elephant in the room.”
Maye went 12 of 14 for 139 yards in the final quarter, although the winning touchdown came on one of New England’s few productive running plays, a 21-yard dash by Stevenson with 2:07 left.
The Ravens, who lost Lamar Jackson to a back injury in the second quarter, turned the ball over on their final drive on a fumble by Zay Flowers. Baltimore (7-8) is now two games behind AFC North-leading Pittsburgh with two to play. To win the division, the Ravens would need to win at Green Bay and Pittsburgh and have the Steelers lose to lowly Cleveland in Week 17.
“Tough loss,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “We didn’t do the winning things we need to do. We made some mistakes that cost us.”
The Steelers beat Detroit earlier in the day. The dramatic ending of that game came after many fans had already entered the stadium in Baltimore, and Steelers-Lions was shown on the big screen.
Pittsburgh’s win put immense pressure on the Ravens, and things went from bad to worse when New England took a 10-7 lead and then Jackson left late in the second quarter with yet another injury.
Tyler Huntley — who led Baltimore to a huge win in Week 8 over Chicago when Jackson was out with a hamstring problem — helped the Ravens rally. Flowers scored on an 18-yard end around to give the Ravens a 17-13 lead in the third quarter. Baltimore then snuffed out a fake punt near midfield and went ahead by 11 on Henry’s 2-yard run with 12:50 left in the fourth.
But that was the last time Henry touched the ball — another baffling set of decisions in another fourth-quarter collapse by a Baltimore team that’s had plenty of those in recent years.
The Ravens took a 7-0 lead on a 21-yard run by Henry — just their third first-quarter touchdown in nine home games this season. After Maye was intercepted, Baltimore’s offense was rolling before Henry fumbled. New England tied it on a 1-yard pass from Maye to Hunter Henry.
It was 10-all at halftime.
The Patriots lost Rookie of the Year candidate Tre’Veyon Henderson when the running back left with a head injury in the second quarter.
