Losing to the Raiders in Week 1 was a stone-cold season opener for New England. The experts had them ranked between 24th-27th in the league and it left fans mentally stuck between “Don’t panic, they’re still working things out”
to “Noooo… they suck! It’s 2024 all over again.” Luckily in this region, fans are bred for anguish over their sports teams. If it doesn’t hurt being overly-emotionally invested in a team, can you even call yourself a fan?I’m happy to report that resilience and stubborn support
has paid off. A mere seven weeks later this team is sitting in the top 10 in the NFL, and second place in the AFC. After the Pats’ last sloppy, turnover-filled effort back vs. the Steelers it’s been all uphill. Five wins in a row and these Patriots are growing more confident each week. Watching them play has become fun again and we’re barely halfway through the season.
Up next, the Atlanta Falcons come to Gillette Stadium. The Falcons aren’t feeling good after a horror show of a loss to the Dolphins. They may be looking to the Patriots to get back to .500. The early odds favor the Patriots by 5.5 points and I predict they win easily — especially if they can start out hot. How much fun is this!?!
GO PATS!!
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Around the AFC East:
New England Patriots (6-2) vs. Atlanta Falcons (3-4)
Buffalo Bills (5-2) vs. Kansas City Chiefs (5-3)
Miami Dolphins (2-6) vs. Baltimore Ravens (2-5)
New York Jets (1-7) – Bye Week
AFC Matchups:
Indianapolis Colts (7-1) at Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3)
Denver Broncos (6-2) at Houston Texans (3-4)
Los Angeles Chargers (5-3) at Tennessee Titans (1-7)
Jacksonville Jaguars (4-3) at Las Vegas Raiders (2-5)
Cincinnati Bengals (3-5) vs. Chicago Bears (4-3)
Cleveland Browns (2-6) – Bye Week
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9th – Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports): The Patriots gained 422 yards against a good Browns defense that hadn’t even given up 350 in a game this season. New England is watching quarterback Drake Maye improve every week. The Patriots-Bills matchup on Dec. 14 is going to be a lot of fun. [+1]
9th – Pete Priso (CBS Sports): Drake Maye is showing he is in the MVP mix. The schedule does toughen up a bit over the next two weeks. [nc]
9th – Vinnie Iyer (Sporting News): The Patriots don’t need to worry about Drake Maye starting slow. He can get going in a hurry with Josh McDaniels’ offense full of big plays, even when facing a tough Browns pass rush early. That was a great test to pass toward earning true supremacy over the Bills in the AFC contention picture. [+2]
9th – Nate Davis (USA Today): Seven of their final nine opponents currently have losing records. Not only do the Pats appear to be back, they could be right back to having the No. 1 playoff seed that became so customary during the TB12 years. [+3]
10th – NFL Nation (ESPN): Best offseason addition: HC Mike Vrabel. When Vrabel was hired in January as the 16th head coach in franchise history, he said: “I want to galvanize our football team. I want to galvanize this building. I want to galvanize our fans.” Consider it all galvanized. The Patriots are off to their best start since 2019; Vrabel’s clear focus on team identity and goals have resonated throughout the organization. The Pats play with “effort and finish,” as Vrabel said, and are ahead of schedule on their first goal of competing for the AFC East title, as they hold a half-game lead over the Bills. — Mike Reiss. [+2]
10th – Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk): Drake Maye could be the best quarterback from the 2024 class. [nc]
11th – Conor Orr (SI): Last week this very column was a launching pad for a groundswell of haughty, blindly confident Patriots fandom the likes of which we haven’t seen since … like four years ago when the Patriots’ dynasty was still kind of a thing. [+3]
11th – Eric Edholm (NFL.com): The Patriots settled for three first-half field goals and only led 9-7 at halftime, but they dominated the Browns in the third quarter and won going away. This was actually a good test for Drake Maye, who was sacked six times by Cleveland and threw an interception that could have hurt. But he bounced back and delivered another strong performance in the win, once again burning an opponent with his mobility and attacking the second and third levels of the defense. The sacks are starting to add up for Maye, who now has taken 28 (second-most, behind only Cam Ward’s 34), but the Patriots are rolling. While noting the caliber of opponent, New England’s defense has shown notable improvement in the past three games. [nc]
11th – Ralph Vacchiano (FOX Sports): Putting up 30 points and 422 yards against a strong Cleveland defense is no joke. The only thing keeping the Pats out of the top 10 at this point is their pillowy soft schedule. [+2]
12th – Diante Lee (The Ringer): Good football teams crush the bad ones, and the Patriots have beaten the Panthers, Titans, and Browns by a combined 66 points this year. In some ways, this Patriots season feels pretty similar to what we saw from the Chargers last year. Bringing in a new head coach and extablishing an identity of toughness and physicality stabilized this team, and QB Drake Maye is a major beneficiary of this newfound competence. While I don’t think New England is talented enough to consistently compete with the very best teams in the AFC yet, it has put some real distance between itself and other mediocre teams in the conference. [+2]
AVG RANK: 10.1 [+1.5]
