Seven yards was all that stood between the New England Patriots and a trip to the Super Bowl with 1:57 remaining in the AFC Championship Game. Moving the chains against a Denver Broncos defense that had played a disciplined and effective game up to that point would allow the Patriots to run out the clock and secure a 10-7 win.
Of course, playing in blizzard conditions and being backed by a defense that had allowed only 26 total points in the playoffs, the Patriots were also not interested in throwing all caution overboard.
And so, Josh McDaniels ended up calling a Rhamondre Stevenson stretch run to the right. Ten of the 11 Patriots on the field executed that play.
Drake Maye had other ideas.
“I hit my block and all the defenders started going the other way,” center Garrett Bradbury told Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald after the game. “I was like, ‘What? Oh my God.’”
Maye had taken the snap as planned, but instead of handing the ball off to Stevenson kept him on a naked bootleg. The defense was caught off guard, and so were his teammates.
“After the game, Drake’s like, ‘I debated telling you guys if I was going to [keep] it or not. But I just decided not to,” Bradbury recalled.
The Pro Bowler’s deception worked as intended. With the entire offense flowing to his right, so did the defense. As a consequence, only linebacker Jonah Elliss — the brother of Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss — stood between Maye and the first down marker. It was a footrace the defender was unable to win, which allowed New England’s QB to gain the necessary yardage and seal the victory.
“We were in big personnel running the same deal to the right, little stretch play,” Maye explained during his postgame press conference. “At some point they get lackadaisical and you got a chance to get around the edge. I thought he was going to track me and hawk me down but we got enough to pick up the first. Coach [Mike Vrabel] would probably get mad about running out of bounds but at that point it doesn’t matter when you get the first down.
“That was a cool moment and cool to celebrate with those guys. It’s always cool finish in victory formation. It’s pretty sweet.”
