Redemptive Pigskin

I think I forgot just how good it feels when your team wins.

That's on me.

Maybe it's just me, but towards the end of Brady's run in New England, there wasn't so much joy as there was relief when the Patriots won. Everyone was coming for the king. Every sub-.500 team playing New England was playing their Super Bowl. Nobody west of the Connecticut River wanted to see the Patriots win. The pigskin pundits and bobbleheads were standing poised at the gravesite with a shovelful of dirt, with their "end of a dynasty" pieces they'd been working on for a decade ready to post. 

I forgot how good it can feel to win, when your team is the underdog, 1-5-0, and every snap has held the ominous import of doom, and yet somehow they take the win against a division rival with aspirations to a Super Bowl run. 

It also feels good knowing that Bills fans somehow feel worse this fine Monday morning at 4-3-0 than Patriots fans feel with their team at 2-5-0, still in the basement of the AFC East.

It feels even better having seen a classic Bill Belichick game plan used to secure the Hoodie's 300th win as a head coach in the NFL. They held the Bills to just 81 yards rushing, managed to keep Buffalo QB Bruce Banner, er, Josh Allen from going all Hulk on them, and except for the teaching tape on how not to tackle on his TD, were able to minimize the damage done by All Galaxy WR Stefon Diggs. 

Belichick's now on a list that has no Top 10; that doesn't even have a Top 5. Just a Top 3 of NFL head coaches with 300+ wins. Don Shula, George Halas, Bill Belichick. 

That's it. That's the list.

Not that he cares (we're on to Miami).

While this game had all the hallmarks of a classic Patriots win, it was hardly what we expected, not with the 2023 New England roster decimated by injury, and their early season performances riddled with far too much gunfire aimed at their own toes. Not that there wasn't far too much self-inflicted adversity in this game, either. Once again, we saw big plays called back thanks to truly boneheaded penalties. 

And yet, when Buffalo took the lead, late in the 4th quarter, the Patriots didn't fold, didn't screw up, didn't accept the fate they didn't make.

It may be the Patriots have figured something out. 

Shifting Mike Onwenu to right tackle certainly didn't hurt.

Getting Demario Davis back on the field was a plus.

Not throwing the ball 40 yards downfield in the vain hope DeVante Parker can still win a 50/50 ball was a definite plus.

But give McCorkle his flowers. 

Mac Jones authored a 25/30/268/2/0 slash line and engineered a last minute, game-winning TD drive. He made good decisions. He was accurate. He made plays under pressure. He danced the Griddy with Mike Gesicki after the winning TD pass. Not well, but sometimes you just got to dance like millions of people are watching and you just don't care.

What does it all mean?

Maybe nothing. 

The Patriots dug themselves a very deep hole over the first six games of the season but at least it appears they've realized the first thing they needed to do was to stop digging.

They have to travel to the franchise's own personal house of horrors (at Halloween, no less) in Miami next Sunday to face a very good Dolphin's team that sits atop the AFC East at 5-2-0 and is coming off a missed opportunity for a statement win in Philadelphia yesterday. 

Maybe a week from now Patriots Nation will be sharpening our pitchforks and lighting up our torches. For now, though, the Patriots are Shroedinger's pigskin cat. Are they still alive? Are they dead? We'll have to wait and see. 

Go Pats!