SEATTLE — Drake Maye confessed.

In fact, he sang like a canary.

“We were really good up to the point where I tried to force one down the sideline to Romeo (Doubs). We were patient and dumping it off, and trying to move the chains,” Maye said.

And then?

“(I) just stopped being patient and made decisions that ended up, like I said, costing us the game.”

And with that, in the case of the People of New England versus Drake Maye on Sept. 9, 2026, the prosecution rests.

Since Wednesday night’s loss at Seattle, Maye has widely been charged with killing the Patriots‘ chances in the court of public opinion. He pled no contest in his postgame press conference. He had no other choice.

Sam Darnold’s exit in the first quarter knocked the air out of the loudest crowd in the NFL, and in that ensuing quiet, it was all there for the taking: a 1-0 start, a statement win and modicum of revenge for Super Bowl LX. But slowly, as each Maye misfire led into one titanic turnover after another, his mistakes breathed life back into the stadium.

Most damning, all Maye had to do was run a slow-and-steady offense against a Seattle defense that tried, but failed, to speed him up like it did back in February. And for three quarters, he did. Maye was happy to play the tortoise, plodding along with just 128 passing yards and virtually no support from his run game entering the fourth.

Most drives went like this: a scramble here, an incompletion there, then 5-yard completion and a short run. The Patriots punted often, but that was no problem. They took an unbothered ball-control approach, with hands on the wheel at 10-and-2, and cruised to a late lead.

Then, for whatever reason, Maye hit the gas, and crashed. Over and over and over again.

He pressed throughout a fourth quarter where every Patriots possession resulted in an interception. He was chasing it, plain and simple. Maye played immature football at a time when his development, specifically as a more cerebral player, is expected to push the Patriots over the hump.

Instead, trailing by three with less than a minute left and standing inside his opponent’s 20-yard line, Maye tossed an interception no NFL quarterback has thrown under those circumstances in almost five years, according to ESPN research. He fired wildly for the end zone, when all the Patriots needed was to stand pat and kick a field goal to tie. Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe punished him for it with a spectacular pick.

Those six seconds were a disaster-class in situational football.

The play itself was broken even before Maye threw the ball. Multiple players in the locker room confirmed to me postgame that the design was a quick passing concept, as evidenced by offensive tackles Will Campbell and Morgan Moses cut-blocking right at the snap. Maye was supposed to unload the ball within two seconds on that third-and-5, and held on to it too long; a major flaw of his last season.

Granted, Maye’s teammates were reluctant to admit that. No one likes to kick their quarterback while he’s down.

But we should all concede this: it was no accident Maye threw all three interceptions after A.J. Brown left with a reported high ankle sprain. Brown was his binky against the league’s most menacing defense.

Before the incompletion where he got hurt, Brown caught all three targets around a 34-yard pass interference penalty he drew to set up the Patriots’ only touchdown. He led the Pats in receptions, targets and receiving yards. He also converted two first downs and helped Maye beat the same blitzes that dogged him in the Super Bowl.

That’s all gone now.

Meanwhile, Doubs, Maye’s other new toy and No. 2 receiver, didn’t see a target until the fourth quarter. You remember that play. It was Maye’s first interception, when impatience struck like a lightning bolt on a deep play-action play where Doubs was blanketed deep.

“We can’t have those. It’s unacceptable,” Maye said. “And I know we’ve got to get back to work.”

Maye launched that pass on second-and-long at Seattle’s 45-yard line. If he had instead settled for a checkdown or scramble, the Patriots could’ve planned for another short gain on third down and kicked a field goal even if they didn’t move the chains. Just two possessions earlier, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels took that approach on a third-and-10 on the fringe of field goal range by calling a bubble screen he knew would pick up a few yards, but had virtually no shot of converting a first down.

The Pats kicked a field goal to lead 10-0, and likely would have led 13-3 with less than a quarter to go if it weren’t for Maye’s initial interception.

Minutes later, after Doubs dropped the second pass he saw from Maye, the 24-year-old gunslinger tried to rip a hopeless throw down the right seam for DeMario Douglas on the very next snap. A bad ball and an even worse decision. Another pick.

By this time, Maye came off most of his receivers except Mack Hollins, who replaced Brown as his binky. Maye targeted Hollins, a journeyman, for a fourth-down conversion on the Patriots’ final drive and on his final interception, where Hollins drifted into the end zone.

“The only thing you couldn’t do is turn the ball over,” he said, “and that’s what I did.”

Patience is often the last lesson for elite quarterbacks. In the old days, Bill Belichick frustrated Peyton Manning for years by disguising deeper coverages that force-fed him a diet of checkdowns he didn’t want to eat. Manning often reached for more and choked.

Twenty-years later, Belichick did the same to Josh Allen until Allen became Belichick-proof in Year 4 of his career and evolved into the perennial MVP candidate he is today, the best and most dangerous player in football.

Maye is only in Year 3. But as the centerpiece of a contender that has paid to put fresh talent around him — Brown, Doubs, and new left guard Alijah Vera-Tucker — Maye cannot play the youth or inexperience cards anymore.

Sure, Wednesday may have been simply a bad night in a big spot. But the Patriots knew simple, clean football would be enough to win, especially after Darnold went down. Slow and steady.

Instead, compelled by some impulses he could not control, Maye tried to race to the finish.

He tripped and took his entire team down with him.

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