Drake Maye Is Back and Chris Brockman Could Not be More Relieved

For three weeks, the Patriots conversation was a funeral. Then Drake Maye walked into Buffalo and played like the Drake Maye from last year, and Chris Brockman got his quarterback, and his weekend, back.

Rich laid out exactly how the panic sounded. Through the first three weeks, the story went that Maye was regressing, that New England was headed back to a top-five pick, and that the quarterback who had the confidence to call his own number and put the Patriots in the AFC Championship game in the snow "is gone and he's never coming back." The conclusion, as Rich mockingly summarized it: "The Patriots are screwed."

"That's why I'm saying it's just one month," Rich said. The very next week, Maye showed up in Buffalo the same way he did last year, when he won the last Patriots game in the old building. This time he won the first Patriots game in the new one. There were still some mistakes with the football, Rich acknowledged, but Maye "just let it fly and made the right choices."

And once the quarterback looked like himself, the weapons followed. Romeo Doubs, who Rich said "couldn't catch with both hands in Seattle," made a one-handed grab. "Maybe that's the thing," came the joke from across the studio. "Only catch with one hand."

Then came the big one. With the game on the line, number 86 made the kind of catch that sends a whole stadium to the program. His name, Rich pointed out, was exactly what every Bills fan in the building was saying: Efton Chism. One-handed. Chris admitted the catch nearly got him in trouble at home. "I think I alarmed the neighbors."

Rich gave Josh Allen his due as well. Allen did "Josh Allen things," two scores in the air and one on the ground, keeping Buffalo in it on a day that did not look like his best. But in the end it was Allen, not Maye, who made the throw that nailed the coffin, a pass into double coverage. "He's human," Rich said.

The standings tell the rest. The Chiefs are the only undefeated team left in the AFC, and the Bills are now only a half game ahead of New England. Buffalo comes out to Los Angeles to face the Rams next, while the Patriots go home against a Raiders team that won there last year. Rich's advice: show up with your P's and Q's like you did in Buffalo, "otherwise they're going to get beat."

Maye, for his part, sounded like a quarterback with his feet back under him. "I think I got confidence in myself and these guys," he said after the game, pointing to the work the offense had put in all week on finishing drives in the red zone. He talked about the highs and lows of an NFL season and his coach's message: "Coach always says don't ride the roller coaster, and that's what we're going to buy into, and know we got a lot of work left to do."

"Look, see, he's back," Rich said. "Looking like a confident quarterback at the podium."

And just like that, the Patriots are 2-2, same as the Lions. So which 2-2 team inspires more confidence? "Your Patriots," Rich said, and Chris agreed, especially with the defense pulling this off without Christian Barmore and Christian Gonzalez.

There was one more storyline worth savoring. Mike Vrabel drew a 15-yard penalty for telling an official it was an effing terrible effing call. The problem, the crew decided, was the second F. If he had only said "an effing terrible call" or "a terrible effing call," the theory went, he might have gotten away with it. The studio landed on a name for it: "carpet F-bombing." Nobody blamed Vrabel much anyway. "It was a terrible call."

"Little swagger back," was the verdict in the studio. "I think the team needed it. Obviously, I think Vrabel needed it."

Rich closed with the full turnaround. A week ago, Chris was done with the Patriots, on to the Celtics because the Red Sox were gone too, convinced Maye was never coming back. Now New England is 2-2, right there with the Steelers, Bengals, Colts and Broncos. "Look at you now," Rich said. Tatum can wait.