Drake Maye hears 'MVP' chants, leads Pats to 8th straight win - ESPN

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Quarterback Drake Maye strengthened his position as the favorite to win the NFL's MVP award with another impressive performance, as the New England Patriots' turnaround continued with a 27-14 win over the visiting New York Jets on Thursday, lifting the team to an NFL-best 9-2 record.

The Patriots have won eight games in a row, breaking a tie with the Denver Broncos for the league's longest current winning streak. After finishing 4-13 in each of the past two seasons, they are just the fourth team in the past 25 years to win nine of their first 11 games after having four or fewer wins in the previous season, joining the 2013 Kansas City Chiefs, 2016 Dallas Cowboys and 2019 San Francisco 49ers.

While such a reversal has taken many by surprise, that isn't the case for Maye, who completed his first 11 passes and finished 25-of-34 for 281 yards with one TD and 0 INTs.

«I don't think anything has surprised me,» Maye said. «When you put the work in, and we have good players and good coaches, you are going to get a result that you want.»

Over the past 20 years, Maye became just the fourth quarterback in his first or second NFL season to lead his team to eight straight victories and have his team score at least 20 points in each of those games. Dallas' Dak Prescott (10 straight in 2016), Philadelphia's Carson Wentz (nine straight in 2017) and Baltimore's Lamar Jackson (eight straight in 2019) were the others.

«I would say his performance, in general, has been what we expect,» said first-year head coach Mike Vrabel, who was credited by multiple players after Thursday's win for instilling a culture that was a catalyst for the franchise's turnaround. «We have high expectations for Drake. He has high expectations