Real Reason Behind Drake Maye’s INT to Romeo Doubs in Patriots Opener | Sharma’s Film Room

The in-depth explanation of Drake Maye’s interception while targeting Romeo Doubs in the New England Patriots’ opener against the Seattle Seahawks.

Sep 9, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) scrambles during the second quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Drake Maye’s three-interception performance in the New England Patriots’ season opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks has drawn immense criticism. The first interception in particular caught my eye.

With 14:27 left in the fourth quarter, Maye threw a deep rainbow down the left sideline to receiver Romeo Doubs that was tipped and picked. This was a particularly horrendous decision into double coverage that makes no sense — until you figure out the context.

I think I’ve pinpointed exactly why Maye throws this interception. This will be a deep dive into two plays but it’s crucial to understand the first play to understand the interception.

First Passing Down of the Game:

First passing down of the game. Play action off outside zone with a deep curl-flat and vertical clearout route concept. | NFL Pro All-22. Annotation by Arnav Sharma.

Going back to the very first passing down of the game, New England runs an outside zone play action in 12-personnel with a deep curl-flat concept with a vertical clearout. This concept involves a shoot route from the #1 receiver, a deep 20-yard curl from the #2, and a flat from the back. The Seahawks open with a Cover 8, a quarter-quarter-half concept where the quarters side is away from the passing strength of the offense.

The idea behind this play is the play action draws the linebackers in, creating a void in the second level for the deep curl. Concurrently, the concept attacking the Cover 2 side of the play is actually a pretty strong matchup since the fade stresses the play-side safety, forcing him to stay middle and throttle down on the curl in front of him. 

The Mike linebacker is playing “vertical hook,” meaning his job is to take the #2 receiver vertically if needed before dropping back into an intermediate zone. However, he gets sucked into the line by the play action and doesn’t get depth when covering Brown’s vertical stem.

This means that Maye has AJ Brown open on the deep curl and Romeo Doubs open for a “hole shot”. However, he starts to feel pressure coming at the top of his hitch and decides to tuck and run for an easy first down. 

These are two missed opportunities; however, they would have required strong throws with anticipation, and it’s understandable that Maye didn’t feel comfortable ripping a hole shot with his first pass in competitive play in half a year. 

There are a few key reasons why this play call created the opportunities it did:

1. The Mike slides with the outside zone in his run lane, delaying his ability to get deep on his vertical hook. By the time he realizes the play action, Hollins is already deep behind him, and he isn’t able to recognize the verticality of the #2 route in time to fill the lane.
2. The cover 2 corner stays particularly shallow, allowing Doubs to get even with him at five yards past the line of scrimmage. This elongates the cover 2 hole between the safety and corner.
3. Since Maye’s eyes stay on Brown initially, the cover 2 safety has to stay between the #1 and #2 receivers’ vertical stems, unable to cheat to either side. This keeps him from throttling on the curl or squeezing on the shoot route.

Sep 9, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) looks to pass during the third quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Interception:

This brings us to the interception — which comes on the exact same play call as the one we just dove into.

Pre-snap look at Drake Maye's first interception against the Seattle Seahawks. The offensive and defensive playcalls are identical to the first passing down of the game. | NFL Pro All-22. Annotation by Arnav Sharma.

After the initial missed opportunity in the first quarter, Josh McDaniels kept this look in his back pocket, bringing out the exact same call against Seattle’s Cover 8 later in the fourth quarter. Since Brown was injured by this point in the game, the only difference is Mack Hollins subbing in as the #2.

However, the receivers are not nearly as open this time, despite the playcall being the exact same on both sides of the ball. This came down to execution by Seattle on the three keys we discussed.

1. With the Patriots ground game becoming a nonfactor in the second half, the Mike peels off his gap fit much more quickly on the outside zone play action. This allows him to turn his hips and run back much sooner, getting greater depth against Hollins’ deep stem.
2. The cover 2 corner doesn’t peel off Doubs after a shallow 5 yards, staying hip-to-hip with him until 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. This shortens the window of the potential hole shot. With that said, a hole shot is still present when Doubs is even with the receiver since Doubs is running full speed while the corner is in trail technique.
3. Maye takes two extra hitches at the peak of his dropback. As he hitches, he’s staring straight at Doubs. This effectively tips off the cover 2 safety, allowing him to break towards the shoot route before Maye finishes his throwing motion.

Just before the #2 receiver (Hollins) enters his break on the curl, the #1 receiver (Doubs) is even with the shallow corner and running faster, providing a brief window for a hole shot down the near sideline. At this stage, Maye begins the first of his two hitches and misses the window. | NFL Pro All-22. Annotation by Arnav Sharma.

There are numerous ways that Maye messes up on this play.

Firstly, he’s late — really late. The hole shot is absolutely there when Doubs is even with the underneath corner, but Maye taking two unnecessary hitches closes the time-sensitive window while tipping the safety off to the boundary.

Maye then delivers a lofted touch pass instead of firing the required bullet pass to protect the ball from the safety; as if this wasn’t enough, the pass is also underthrown and led inside, giving the safety leverage on Doubs in the contested catch. It’s clear Maye did not read the defense to begin with.

This brings us to the reasoning behind Maye’s decision: this was premeditated. With how wide open both routes were in the first play, McDaniels had the play in reserve for a home run shot in clutch time. It’s not unlike the way he came back to the same Julian Edelman whip route in Super XLIX for the game-winning touchdown after missing on it earlier in the game.

Maye, figuring the defense would play their assignments the same way, also locked in on one target, failing to move off it despite the coverage adjusting. Ironically, had the play not had success in generating open looks in the first time around, there’s a better chance that Maye would’ve moved through his progressions and settled on the correct read (the flat). 

While most analysts have chalked this play up to Maye deciding to play rash, I don’t think this interception is an example of that the way the other two picks are. This to me screams design shot play that Maye blindly expected to be open based on a tell him and McDaniels thought they had found previously in the game.

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