The New England Patriots got a massive win in the Divisional Round thanks to a masterful performance on defense. After the game, a teammate of Drake Maye sent a big-time warning as the team prepares to face the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game.
All the talk about the Patriots has been centered about Drake Maye and the offense. However, after forcing five turnovers vs. Texans, defensive tackle Milton Williams opened up about the unit’s output. “It definitely fueled the whole defense. Nobody has been talking about our defense all year. We’ll see what they say today,” he said to ESPN.com.
For Williams, it was a straight-forward mission. “It was our defense versus their defense. See who could make more plays, create more turnovers, stop the run and get the ball back to our offense.” Drake Maye didn’t even have a great game but the defense was good enough.
The defense has been the team’s biggest playoff strength
Last week, the Patriots defense held Justin Herbert and the Chargers to only three points. Now, they absolutely dominated the Texans offense. Now, it’s up to the defense to make sure Broncos backup quarterback doesn’t pull any upset on Sunday. After all, Jared Stidham is confident that the Broncos can still win despite Bo Nix’s injury.
The fact is right now, the defense is putting the team on its back, while Drake Maye is just capitalizing on what the defense accomplishes. Now, the Patriots will go head to head with another top defense, so Milton Williams and company will have to bring their A-game one more time.
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Drake Maye is great, but has a massive problem
No one can deny how good Maye is. That’s why he is an MVP candidate. However, he has a huge problem with taking care of the football. He leads the NFL in fumbles and the Texans actually caused a lot of issues last week. The Broncos are likely to do the same.
So, while the Pats defense is stuck with the Broncos offense, Maye has to be focused on not losing the football. As long as he protects it, there would be no reason to believe that the Patriots will lose the game. After all, they’re facing Jared Stidham, who has just four games under his belt.
