Drake Maye To Draw On ACC Championship Game Experience In NFL Postseason Debut

The New England Patriots have smashed preseason expectations in head coach Mike Vrabel’s first year.

They secured the AFC’s No. 2 seed and will host the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium in the Wildcard round on Sunday.

Unsurprisingly, it will be second-year quarterback Drake Maye’s NFL postseason debut. But it will be far from Maye’s first truly meaningful game.

In 2022, the then-20-year-old quarterback squared off with the college football juggernauts that are the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Conference Championship game.

It was Maye’s sophomore year at the University of North Carolina, and he had brought the Tar Heels to a 9-3 record and a top-25 ranking.

Maye was asked during his Wednesday afternoon press conference what he learned from that experience.

“Maybe a little bit,” Maye said when asked if that college experience correlates to his NFL playoff debut. “Getting back to trying to play for championships… I think it’s a little bit different in the NFL.

“Just the mentality of ‘win or go home’ or ‘win and advance,’ and I think that’s the biggest thing that’s different. In the ACC Championship, you go to a bowl game. Here it’s (win) now, or you’re going home.”

Maye was unable to win the conference championship in 2022, and, as he alluded to, earned a second chance in a game against Bo Nix’s 15th-ranked Oregon Ducks.

Maye threw for 206 yards and three touchdowns in the 2022 Holiday Bowl. He led his team to a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead and added three points on his final drive of the game.

The defense was unable to stop the Ducks’ two-minute drill as Nix threw the game-winning touchdown with 19 seconds on the clock and beat the Tar Heels 28-27.