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 after 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, with Hutchinson’s right arm reaching 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 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.
Asked his view of the play, Vrabel said he wasn’t going to assume there was any ill intent.
“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 then later walked to the locker room for further evaluation as backup Tommy DeVito replaced him on the next drive.
There was no penalty called on the play by referee Clay Martin’s crew.
In other injury news, wide receiver A.J. Brown, who returned Sunday after missing two games with a knee injury, was ruled out in the fourth quarter after he sustained a hamstring 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.
