Patriots remain among NFL's best when it comes to winning close games

Through eight games, there’s one thing we know for sure about the 2017 Patriots: they like to give people their money’s worth.

Sunday’s win over the Chargers was the fifth game of the season that came down to the final two minutes for New England, and fifth game of the season that was decided by one score or less. It wasn’t truly over until Jonathan Jones picked off Philip Rivers on the goal line as time expired to allow the Patriots to escape with a 21-13 win.

Another week, another narrow victory.



Through the first two months of the 2017 season, no other team has won more one-score games (contests that were decided by eight points or less) than New England, which is 4-1 in those types of games this year. One other team has won four one-score games (Miami). A handful of teams have played in as many as five. And a bunch of teams (including the Bills, Steelers, Eagles, Packers, Panthers, Falcons, Seahawks and Cardinals) have three wins in one-score games.

But when the margin for error is razor-thin, no team has had the sort of success than New England has enjoyed, at least to this point in the season. The Patriots beat the Texans (36-33), Bucs (19-14), Jets (24-17) and Chargers (21-13) by eight points or less, while only dropping a narrow decision to the Panthers (33-30), a game they could have won if not for some key errors late in the game.

Ultimately, their ability to convert in close games (particularly in the late going) is one of the primary reasons, despite the fact that they’ve lost key contributors like Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower, is one of the reasons they’re heading into the bye week at 6-2 and in first place in the AFC East.

Safety Duron Harmon made a bold statement after the win over the Chargers: When asked about the secret to succeeding in close games, he said it was because this group is “probably the most prepared team in the NFL,” which comes in handy when things get dicey.

“Mental toughness (is the key), and coach (Bill) Belichick just doing a good job just preparing us for situation,” Harmon said. “He always tells us, ‘A lot of times, games in the NFL come down to the last score.’ That’s what it’s going to be, and we just need to be prepared situation wise when we encounter all different type of plays and situations. I really believe that we’re probably the most prepared team in the NFL, and that helps on game day.

“(Against Los Angeles), we gave up the long touchdown, something we don’t want to do. And then the shot on the fringe. Those types of plays we don’t want to give up. And if we don’t give those up, maybe it’s not the one-score type of game we’re talking about,” he added. “We just have to find ways to put these teams away and times when we have the opportunity. (Sunday) we had an opportunity and we didn’t do it. But we still got the win, and that’s what matters.”

Of course, there are two schools of thought here. In some instances, the feeling is that close games provide a good test. After all, it’s important to get callused up and become familiar with what it takes to win close games. It matters when you have a team consistently rise to the occasion when each game is in the balance. That pedigree of mental toughness that’s achieved by winning close ones can only help when the postseason rolls around.

But there’s also the flip side — the one that many Patriots hold — which says that the only reason this team is playing so many close games is that they haven’t been able to put teams away. There have been bad penalties, and a lot of self-inflicted wounds. It’s tough to win a footrace if you keep shooting yourself in the foot.

“It’s great. It definitely shows mental toughness and being able to fight through adversity,” said running back Dion Lewis when asked about their ability to win close games. “But the games are close because of us. Offensively, we still have a lot of room to improve. We have played nowhere near as close as we know we can play. Winning close games is definitely tough. It’s the NFL. Every game is a tough game to win. Every team has great players. But we’ll take the 6-2.”

In truth, you could argue New England has been its own worst enemy in many of those close ones this year. Against Tampa Bay, the Patriots committed a whopping 12 penalties. After a slow start against New York when they fell behind by two touchdowns in the first half, they struggled to put the Jets away. And on Sunday, red-zone woes (1-for-4) again meant the Patriots’ offense had to settle for three instead of seven on far too many occasions. As a result, they had to manufacture another late defensive stand to insure the win.

“We haven’t played 60 minutes of our best football yet,” said running back James White when presented with the stats. “We’re going to try and continue to improve. We know we can play in tough games. But we definitely know we have a lot of things we can improve on.”

Ultimately, only time will tell if so many close games end up benefiting the Patriots. The one thing we do know? The wins — close or otherwise — have been a worthy reward for a 2017 team that has certainly shown more than its share of mental toughness over the first eight games of the season, according to Belichick.

“I ask these guys to come in every day and put in a hard day of preparation, practice, training, film study and so forth. I’d say I’ve been impressed with the way they’ve done that and have been able to grind it out day after day,” Belichick said after Sunday’s game. “Those guys are working hard and it’s paying off. But they’re working hard. They’re grinding it.”