Patriots QB Drake Maye to have testing on ankle injury - ESPN

MUNICH — New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was knocked out of Sunday's 35-10 loss to the Lions in the first quarter after he was sacked by Detroit defensive end Aidan Hutchinson at Allianz Arena.

Maye hurt his ankle while being sacked by Hutchinson, who also sustained an injury to his right knee after landing in celebration of the play. Hutchinson is feared to have suffered a significant injury that knocks him out for the foreseeable future, sources told NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo.

«Obviously wasn't able to finish the game, so we'll have to get some more tests run and we'll see when they come back, the severity,» coach Mike Vrabel said of Maye.

Maye wasn't present in the locker room after the game when reporters were there.

Hutchinson sacked Maye on third down, ripping him down from behind with what appeared to be a possible hip-drop tackle. Hutchinson's right arm reached around Maye's right shoulder pad as he brought him down and landed on the quarterback's lower leg.

On the Fox broadcast, rules analyst Mike Pereira said Hutchinson's tackle was «not a hip drop.»

«Three things have to happen: you have to unweight yourself, swivel all around the back and land on the back of his leg below the knee,» Pereira said. «This was more of a horse collar-type pulled down from behind. [But] certainly not a horse collar penalty.»

Walt Anderson, the NFL's officiating rules analyst, confirmed Pereira's explanation through a league spokesman, noting it was not a hip-drop tackle because there was no swivel or unweighting.

It was also not a foul for a horse collar tackle, as Pereira noted, because neither the collar nor the nameplate were grabbed. No penalty was called on the play by referee Clay Martin's crew.