New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was knocked out of Sunday's 35-10 loss to the Detroit Lions in the first quarter after injuring his ankle on a sack by defensive end Aidan Hutchinson at Allianz Arena in Munich.
Hutchinson brought Maye down from behind on a third-down play, his right arm reaching around Maye's right shoulder pad before he landed on the quarterback's lower leg. The tackle initially appeared to be a possible hip-drop tackle, a technique that has drawn scrutiny across the league.
On the Fox broadcast, rules analyst Mike Pereira said the play was "not a hip drop." Pereira explained that a hip drop requires a defender to unweight himself, swivel around the back of the ball carrier and land on the back of his leg below the knee, none of which fully happened here. "This was more of a horse collar-type pulled down from behind. [But] certainly not a horse-collar penalty," he said.
Walt Anderson, the NFL officiating rules analyst, confirmed Pereira's reading through a league spokesman, noting the tackle was not a hip drop because there was no swivel or unweighting. It also was not a horse-collar foul because neither the collar nor the nameplate was grabbed. Referee Clay Martin's crew did not call a penalty on the play.
Asked for his view of the tackle, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said he was not going to assume any ill intent on Hutchinson's part. "However it happened, I don't think it was anything intentional; it's just part of the game," he said.
Maye was helped to his feet and limped to the sideline before walking to the locker room for further evaluation. Backup Tommy DeVito replaced him on the next drive, and Maye was not present in the locker room when reporters were there after the game. "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," Vrabel said.
Hutchinson did not escape the play unscathed either. The Detroit pass rusher injured his right knee when he landed while celebrating the sack, and he is feared to have suffered a significant injury that will keep him out for the foreseeable future, sources told NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo.
New England absorbed another blow in the fourth quarter when wide receiver A.J. Brown was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Brown had only returned Sunday after missing two games with a knee injury. "He wasn't able to finish. We'll see what the severity of that is once we get back and kind of go from there," Vrabel said.
