Patriots' Mike Vrabel names concern about Drake Maye's 'resiliency'

Second-year New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was responsible for two of his team's five total turnovers in its disappointing 21-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon that dropped the Patriots to 1-2 on the season. 

During a Monday appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel suggested that he'd prefer for Maye to have fewer opportunities where he needs to bounce back from making a costly mistake during a game. 

Drake Maye must be "cleaner" moving forward

"Those are good qualities," Vrabel said about Maye quickly moving on from miscues, per Scott McLaughlin of Audacy. "We just can't keep testing it over and over and over again. But I do appreciate the resiliency of him and this football team and our ability to continue to fight and continue to stay in it and compete. It just has to be cleaner so that we're not always in that situation." 

In the closing seconds of the first half, Maye tossed a brutal interception in the end zone when he could've simply thrown the ball away and settled for a chip-shot field-goal attempt. Halfway through the fourth quarter, he lost a fumble after he took a crunching hit. 

Not all Drake Maye's fault? 

While Vrabel acknowledged that Maye needed "to put some air under" the pass that was tipped at the line and picked off, the coach hinted that members of the New England offensive line fell asleep before Maye lost control of the football on the fumble. 

"I don't know how long the guy is going to have the football," Vrabel said about that particular play. "That's why we say we have to finish longer than the guy with the ball. And there's a lot of examples of that, and thinking that the play is over, and sometimes the play isn't over. So, it's easy to say, 'Well, you gotta have better ball security.' And it's going to be really easy for me to say, 'We have to finish longer than the guy with the ball,' because we did it on numerous occasions." 

While Maye completed 28-of-37 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns versus Pittsburgh, his two turnovers were massive as they pertained to the contest's final score. According to Pro Football Reference, Maye began Monday ranked 16th in the NFL among qualified players with a 57.7 adjusted QBR and ninth with a 101.3 passer rating for the season. He recorded five touchdown passes and two interceptions over New England's first three games. 

The Patriots next host the 1-2 Carolina Panthers this coming Sunday. As of Monday afternoon, ESPN BET had New England as a 5.5-point favorite for that matchup.