FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The pocket was collapsing. The heat kept coming. A series of relentless collisions ensued in the backfield. And the passes, when Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was able to get the football out of his hand, were mostly hurried and ill-timed.
It was a dominant performance from the Texans’ aggressive defense during the second game of the season as Williams acknowledged afterward how the game left him bruised up as he was sacked seven times and hit 11 times during the loss. The top overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner from USC had a 4.9 passer rating against the blitz for the worst performance in the Next Gen Stats era as he went 3 for 12 against the blitz with five sacks and an interception.
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Now, the 4-1 Texans are looking to replicate that performance against another inexperienced quarterback Sunday. New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye makes his NFL starting debut against the Texans at Gillette Stadium after coach Jerod Mayo opted to shut down struggling veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the midst of a four-game losing streak and launch the era of the first-round draft pick from North Carolina.
Athletic and big at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, Maye is expected to play with a faster pace than a plodding Brissett, who held the football far too long playing behind a porous offensive line that has allowed the highest pressure rate in the NFL for the 1-4 Patriots and have given up 19 sacks, the second most in the NFL.
How the Texans operated against the Bears, showing more and more pressure in the second half to prevent halftime adjustments, could be instructive to their strategy Sunday against Maye. Maye is mobile, but arguably not as good at improvising as Williams and not as talented. In that game, Pro Bowl defensive ends Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter combined for three sacks.
The Texans want to turn this game into a pressure cooker for Maye.
The Texans aren’t taking Maye lightly.
“For Drake, what I’ve seen is a young, athletic quarterback who has a live arm, can move around really well in the pocket, can escape the pressures,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “For them, making that move, looking for a spark for their offense and he can provide it. He can make all the reads go to the right spot. He makes good decisions with the football.
“So, defensively, there’s a lot of unknown with this being his first start, so a lot of unknown for us. We just have to go out and execute our job the proper way, not so much about them and focusing on what they’re going to do or can do. They can do a lot of different things. We don’t know that, so we’re just going to focus on ourselves and making sure we execute the details of our job.”
'You see the talent, it jumps off the tape' #Texans DC Matt Burke on matchup with #Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/UBfpbEikZM
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) October 10, 2024
That job involves applying heat to Maye and confusing him with different coverage schemes and disguised looks.
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“I think the biggest thing is me playing on time, playing in rhythm, and trusting the guys around me,” Maye said. “I think the game plan is not going to change. I think obviously you got a rookie quarterback going out there, but at the same time, what we do on offense is what we do on offense.
“It’s probably going to be a little nervous at the beginning. I think once we settle down, we have a chance to move the football and just have fun out there. That’s what this game is about: Don’t make it too big or the spotlight too big. Just go out there with those guys that we’ve been battling for three months since training camp, go out there and try to make some plays.”
The Texans rank first in the NFL with a pressure rate of 42-percent on all drop-backs. The Patriots have already used five different offensive line combinations with Brissett completing just 79 of 135 passes for 696 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
“It’s really not so much about them,” Ryans said. “It’s more so about us. We’ll play our defense. It won’t change.”
Maye has played a little bit, going 4 for 8 for 22 yards against the New York Jets in the third game of the season.
Now, his role expands. In terms of playing style. Maye has been compared frequently to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who struggled mightily against the Texans last week in a 23-20 loss as he completed just 9 of 31 passes for 131 yards in a performance that was the worst percentage of success in three decades.
Maye is expected to roll out more, use more play-action and, perhaps some run-pass option plays. The Patriots needed to shake things up. They’ve averaged only 8.7 points per contest over the past three games.
“I like his versatility, he is very athletic,” Texans Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “He steps up into the pocket really well, he only runs when he has to and not when he just feels like it. He gets the ball out in time, really elite accuracy so I am excited for him in his first start. I am definitely looking forward to matching up against him.”
Any advice?
“Not this week,” Stroud said. “I am rooting him on. I hope he does good, not against us, but in his future.”
For the Tar Heels, Maye completed 64.9 percent of his throws for 8,018 yards and 63 touchdowns with 16 interceptions, 1,209 rushing yards and 16 touchdown runs. He gained 953 yards on scrambles over his final two seasons. That mark was only topped by Jayden Daniels, the runaway leader for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year for the Washington Commanders.
“I mean there is a reason he was drafted where he was,” Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said. “From a talent standpoint, big, athletic, moves around pretty good, throws on the move and a lot of arm talent. Obviously, a lot of unknowns, but just sort of trying to triangulate between what he see him do well on college tape and what they’ve done in the season so far with the structure of their offense.
“What the coordinator liked against us last year some. Just trying to put it all together and see what we think. As always at the end of the day, it’s going to be about us executing what we want to execute, but you see the talent jump off tape for sure.”
This isn’t the first running quarterback the Texans have played again. They’ve already competed against Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, Williams and Allen. They’re 3-0 in those matchups.
“There are elements,” Burke said. “I mean you go back to Anthony Richardson, Caleb, Josh, and a lot of the guys that we’ve faced that we have to account for. Whether it’s how we rush and how we contain, or how we work in the back end when things break down and covering through the down and those things. I do think there is some carry over to some of the things that we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year.”
The Texans went back to look at Maye’s college film to prepare for this one since there’s a limited sample size in the NFL.
“With the structure of their offense I’d be pretty shocked if they start running things that we’ve never seen before,” Burke said. “I don’t know if that will be the operation, but what you try to do is sort of cross reference. I would say the sort of unknown is, ‘What do they like him doing specifically and what is he good at and what throws does he like to make, or where does he like to set up in the pocket and all those types of things.
“You try to find those answers a little bit and then cross reference that with in the offense, where are those type of plays and where are those answers. Okay, he is better at this, so maybe they call more of these types of plays. I mean you can start chasing rabbits.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com
