NASHVILLE — In his fourth NFL start, Drake Maye delivered what might go down as the defining highlight of his rookie season.

Facing a third-and-goal from the 5-yard line with five seconds remaining and his Patriots down seven, Maye bobbed, weaved, scrambled and evaded as he waited for a receiver to uncover in the Titans’ end zone.

Eventually, one did. After sidestepping past edge rusher Arden Key, and with three other Tennessee defenders converging on him, Maye floated the unlikeliest of touchdown passes to running back Rhamondre Stevenson.

DRAKE MAYE MAGICCCCCCCCC!!!!!!!!!

: FOX pic.twitter.com/UvIB3dRi8k

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 3, 2024

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The score capped an 11-play, 50-yard drive and sent the game to overtime. The Titans ultimately prevailed, winning 20-17 on a Nick Folk field goal, but Maye’s elusiveness and playmaking ability had his teammates buzzing.

“That’s Drake,” cornerback Christian Gonzalez said. “Nobody was surprised, honestly. Drake does stuff like that all the time. He fought and did all he could. I’m proud of him, happy for him.”

From snap to throw, Maye’s touchdown lasted 11.82 seconds. It was the second-longest time to throw on a touchdown pass since Next Gen Stats began tracking such metrics in 2016, trailing only the last-second Hail Mary fellow 2024 draftee Jayden Daniels threw one week earlier for Washington.

“Drake is just phenomenal,” wide receiver Kendrick Bourne said. “He keeps showing it week in, week out, and I’m just proud of him. We’ve got to keep being behind him — help blocking for him, catching the ball, running good routes — so that we can get the full potential out of him. But when you’ve got somebody like that, it encourages you to go harder, and that’s what we want as a unit: for everybody to give their best foot, because clearly he is.”

Maye’s legs were the greatest — and, for long stretches, only — asset for the Patriots’ offense in Sunday’s game. He scrambled eight times for 95 yards and five first downs, far outpacing the meager rushing totals posted by New England’s running backs. Stevenson, Antonio Gibson and JaMycal Hasty combined for 12 carries for 15 yards and one touchdown.

Despite missing the second half of the Jets game, Maye has more rushing yards over the last three weeks (159) than the entire Patriots’ running back room. His 209 rushing yards on the season already is the third-highest total by any New England QB in the last 30 years, trailing only Matt Cassel’s 270 in 2008 and Cam Newton’s 592 in 2020.

No Patriots signal-caller had rushed for 95 yards in a single game since Steve Grogan in 1976.

As a passer, Maye went 29-for-41 for 206 yards and one score behind an offensive line that struggled to keep Tennessee’s pass rushers at bay. One week after being knocked out of a win over the New York Jets with a concussion, the 22-year-old was sacked four times and hit nine times, not including the contact he absorbed while scrambling.

“(I saw) mental toughness and the ability to make plays with his legs, which he has shown before,” head coach Jerod Mayo said. “He gave us a chance to win the game.”

As encouraging as Maye’s latest outing was, it was not flawless. The young quarterback turned the ball over three times with two interceptions and a strip-sack. Maye’s first two giveaways gave Tennessee the ball deep in New England territory, with the second setting up a go-ahead Titans touchdown with 4:27 remaining. The third — an underthrown deep heave to Kayshon Boutte on first-and-10 overtime — ended the game.

“Look, he’s a guy out there trying to make a play,” Mayo said. “He’s trying to make a play. And I think sometimes, as well as he has played, sometimes we forget how young he is. He’s going to continue to develop, and he’ll be a good quarterback in this league. We’ll all learn from this, myself included.”

Maye focused more on his miscues than his highlight-reel touchdown when speaking with reporters postgame. He called his final pass “a dumb decision” that he wished he could have back, “especially in that situation.”

“I made some bad decisions, like that one at the end there,” he said. “We had a chance to go down there and at least tie it up on our own 40, and I think it was first down. So I’ve just got to be better. Some decisions that I made throughout the game impacted the outcome. I take that upon myself. … We found a way at the end of the fourth and just came up. So we’ve got to go back and learn from it — especially me.”

Asked about the touchdown, Maye praised Stevenson’s ability to uncover and make a contested catch.

“But we ended up coming up short,” he added, “so that play doesn’t really matter at this point.”