The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are set to square off in the Super Bowl this Sunday. The Seahawks are 4.5-point favorites at this point, but there are a lot of people who are betting on New England this year.

The main reason some people are so high on the Patriots is Drake Maye. In his second year in the league, he’s an MVP candidate and took his team from four wins in 2024 to 14 wins in 2025. He was virtually unstoppable this year, but he hasn’t looked like himself during the playoffs.

That’s because of one man: Sean McDermott. You may be asking yourself how the Buffalo Bills’ ex-head coach is the reason Maye has been struggling this year, and that’s because he formulated a game plan in Week 15 that worked to perfection, and other teams have been copying it ever since.

Sean McDermott’s plan to stop Drake Maye

In Week 5, the first time the Bills and Patriots met this season, Drake Maye carved them up, completing 22 of his 30 pass attempts (73.3 percent) for 287 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass, but he and Stefon Diggs were able to consistently move the ball down the field and get in position to score.

Nearly three months later, the Bills got their chance at revenge. They went to Foxborough with a unique game plan that McDermott schemed up to slow down Maye, and it worked.

Cover 6 isn’t a popular defense in the NFL. According to Warren Sharp, NFL teams use cover 6 on 9.8 percent of their snaps, but McDermott upped it to 50 percent in their Week 15 matchup, which was the highest rate of any team in a single game this season. It completely threw Maye for a loop and helped the Bills come out with a massive victory.

Drake Maye’s struggles vs cover 6

In that Week 15 game against Buffalo, Maye struggled immensely against cover 6, averaging just 4.3 yards per attempt and -0.34 EPA per attempt while throwing a pick and taking a sack. After completing 73.3 percent of his throws for 270+ yards in their first meeting, Maye went 14-for-23 (60.8 percent) for 155 yards, no touchdowns, and a pick.

But that might’ve just been a one-off, right? Well, the following week, Baltimore doubled the amount of cover 6 they called, and Maye struggled again, going 2-for-8 with an interception and two sacks.

According to Warren Sapp, during the course of the regular season, Maye ranked top-five in EPA, yards per attempt, and success rate against man coverage, and all other zone coverages. Against cover 6, he ranked 31st in EPA, 33rd in success, and 32nd in yards per attempt out of 36 qualified QBs against cover 6.

This wasn’t a fluke. Maye has struggled against cover 6 all season, and in the playoffs, we’ve seen Los Angeles, Houston, and Denver all up their cover 6 rate. Obviously, they didn’t win those games, but Maye’s playoff numbers have taken a drastic hit. His completion percentage has dropped from 72 percent to 55.8 percent, he’s averaging 81 fewer yards per game and 2.0 fewer yards per attempt, and his TD to INT ratio went from 3.8:1 to 2:1.

The Bills have given everyone the blueprint to slowing down Maye. Now, Seattle has to execute it.

The Seahawks don’t have to change much

The good news for Seattle is that they don’t have to change a whole lot. During the regular season, they played the third-highest rate of cover 6 (21.6 percent) of anyone in the league. That rate is also the highest of any playoff team and any team the Patriots have faced this season, according to Sharp.

Will the Seahawks take advantage of Maye’s weakness? Playing cover 6 does open some things up in the run game for your opponent, so there is some risk involved, but if they can strike the right balance, the Seahawks could be on the verge of winning their second Super Bowl in franchise history.