Tom Brady got a front-row seat to a rough afternoon for Drake Maye, and he didn’t exactly miss the chance to poke fun at it.
Brady was back in Foxboro this weekend for Rob Gronkowski’s New England Patriots Hall of Fame induction on Saturday and then Sunday’s game between the Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. The first part of the trip went well for New England fans. The second was a lot less enjoyable.
Green Bay rolled to a 45-27 win behind Jordan Love’s 372 passing yards and four total touchdowns, while Maye endured a tough outing of his own with three costly interceptions.
After the game, Brady, working as a broadcaster, took a playful shot at Maye during FOX’s postgame interviews.
Speaking with Packers safety Evan Williams, who finished with five tackles and an interception, Brady pointed to the Patriots quarterback’s generosity with the football.
“Xavier [McKinney] had two picks, you had one on the sideline. There was some deli meat given out by Drake Maye today,” Brady said.
Williams laughed and replied, “I’m not gonna say that,” before adding, “but he was giving us some gifts for sure.”
Brady kept it going: “There was a few out there, and you made him pay,” he said.
The “deli meat” line was a clear callback to a phrase used last week by Los Angeles Rams safety Quentin Lake, who said Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was “throwing deli meat out there” in a loss to the Rams. Lake later apologized to Herbert by text and said he wasn’t trying to be “disrespectful.”
Brady’s jab may have landed hard, but it came after a stretch in which Maye had actually been playing much cleaner football. Through his first four games, he had only four touchdowns and seven interceptions. Over the next four, he turned that around with 11 touchdown passes and just one pick before Sunday’s rough return to form.
After the loss, Maye pointed directly to the turnovers.
“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,” Maye said.
“I’d say, put our defense in a bad spot in the first, the first drive, and just gave them the football and had some other chances down the field and got to see in front. I got to see in front.
I feel like I was just a little late sometimes. I feel like we got into a throwing game, and that’s partly because of what we did offensively, and then we didn’t really get to build off the run game, and I think we just got to start the game, and me specifically, start better.”
New England’s next chance comes Sunday, when it faces the Detroit Lions in Munich, Germany.
In Other News...
Jordan Love Is Giving Packers Fans A Very Familiar Feeling
Jordan Love keeps stacking performances that make the Packers feel like they have seen this movie before, only with a new quarterback in the lead role. In the win over the Patriots, he was efficient, explosive and in command, completing 23 of 29 passes for 372 yards and three touchdowns while adding a rushing score in Green Bays 45-27 victory.
Love said afterward it was among the best games he has played, and the numbers back up the impression. He now leads the league in passing yards and ranks third in touchdowns, which is exactly the kind of early-season production that gets a fan base thinking beyond one good Sunday and toward what this offense might become if it keeps humming. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Offense Exposed A Patriots Weakness Fans Will Love
The Packers left New England with a 45-27 win, and one of the clearest takeaways from the game was how often their passing attack forced Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez into uncomfortable spots. Green Bays offense kept pressing the issue, and the matchup quickly became a rough one for a player the Patriots count on to anchor the secondary.
Mike Vrabel did not hide his disappointment afterward, publicly saying Gonzalezs performance did not meet the teams expectations while also taking some responsibility for the defenses lack of preparedness. Gonzalez owned his poor outing and said he plans to move on and get ready for the next game, but for the Patriots, the bigger concern is how quickly Green Bay exposed a weakness they could not cover up. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Just Sent A Dangerous Message With More Help Coming
The Packers 45-27 win over the Patriots did more than pad the standings. It offered a reminder that this team can beat you in multiple ways, with Jordan Love steering the offense efficiently and the defense creating repeated problems for New England by forcing four turnovers and getting to the quarterback four times. Evan Williams and Trey Smack were among the players who helped make the afternoon feel like a statement rather than just another regular-season result.
What makes the performance even more interesting is what could still be on the way for Green Bay. The roster already looked capable of dictating games when the offense is rolling and the defense is taking the ball away, and the possibility of another major piece returning only adds to the sense that the Packers are building toward something bigger. For a team that just sent a clear message on the field, the next stretch could say even more. [Read more 🡒]