Bedard: Belichick and coaches had beer muscles vs. Jets - will they turn them loose again vs. Chargers?

FOXBOROUGH — It was such a good day at the office on Sunday for Bill Belichick that he gathered with a few friends and their significant others — you bet try-hard, hanger-on Matt Patricia was there as well — in a field-level box after the game to kick back and enjoy a few beers.

Nothing, it seems, is more satisfying in life for the former HC of the NYJ than a victory over Gang Green. Wins over the Jets are lifeblood for Belichick. He could coach for years doing just that (we will refrain from making a joke that Sunday's triumph made Belichick 4-7 since Week 13 last season ... and three of those four wins are over said Jets so, yeah, can they be on the schedule a few more times?).

Look, Belichick, the coaches and the players deserved it. For the first time in a long time — probably the 36-20 win over the Raiders on Sept. 27th last year — a Sunday at Gillette was stress-free, satisfying, and not an all-out slog. 

The 54-13 victory over the Jets was a job well done by all involved. The offense put up over 500 yards, including Mac Jones' first 300-yard day. Damien Harris continues to look like a top-end running back. All Hunter Henry continues to do is catch touchdown passes. Kendrick Bourne got behind a defense for a long touchdown again. The Patriots didn't fumble the ball once! The defense got a couple of picks and got the Jets off the field. Special teams didn't allow a blocked punt.

All seemed right in Patriots-land for one afternoon, and that calls for a few cold ones.

Yup, there's a "but" coming ... a couple.

But it was the freaking Jets, a 1-5 trainwreck of a team that lost top pick Zach Wilson to injury early on and made some plays with someone named Mike White (sure he looked better than Wilson ... give White a few weeks behind that Jets line and see how good he looks).

And here's one more "but" ... But it won't mean anything if they go to Los Angeles next week and revert to their same tired script against Justin Herbert and the Chargers.

"Proud of the way the team has bounced back here," said pre-suds Belichick. "Hopefully we can string another good set of days together and head out to LA."

What we saw out of the Patriots across the board was something completely different — and I'm not talking about execution, although that's what matters and what was missing in all their losses before Sunday.

It started with the head coach, went through Josh McDaniels, and into the players.

The Patriots, instead of playing not to lose or just to stay close like they have (failingly) every other week, took the field with some swagger and some aggression, on both sides of the ball.

The first offensive drive was moving the ball this way and that way, until it ended with Kendrick Bourne tossing a touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor.

Gone was run, run, failed pass, no-shot fourth-down play.

Jones threw six passes beyond 20 yards including a dime 46-yard toss to Bourne.

Compare that to the tentative, scared, peashooter outing against Tom Brady and the Bucs where the Patriots were obviously afraid of making a big mistake that would key a blowout on national television.

Then there was Belichick's decision, with 1:55 to go before halftime, to open up the passing offense to score points, and it resulted in an 11-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to go into the break leading 31-7.

Wait a minute, I didn't know that was legal. You don't have to take three kneeldowns, like the Patriots did one week ago with 1:31 left and a four-point lead over the explosive Cowboys? Somebody should have sent a memo.

The point here is, the Patriots can't do what they just did on Sunday and then go out to California and revert back to their shy-high-school-freshman-talking-to-a-girl-for-the-first-time persona. Nobody likes that guy, certainly not the girls. Good luck spending Friday night with the 'rents, bud.

As Sean Connery put it so well in The Rock ... "Your best?! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and (play Parcheesi with) the prom queen."

Everyone wonders why the Patriots were making so many mistakes in the first six games. Well, when you coach tight, your players play tight. And the Patriots were a snare drum the first six games. Everything had to be just right, or all hell broke loose. And most of the time hell broke loose, especially on defense late in games. Third and 25 ... did that really happen?

On Sunday, it was like the Bizarro Patriots. Down was up, up was down, and the Patriots actually won a game on home turf for the first time in a very long time.

We all know the difference. We know why Belichick freed things up and why McDaniels unloaded every single trick play the Patriots have ever created (I, personally, was waiting for the fumblerooski and I'm offended a trick play did not involve an offensive lineman ... come on, Steady Teddy Karras as The Fridge ... do it).

They had beer muscles — green-colored Jets beer muscles. They knew they were playing the Jets, knew that team couldn't keep up and as soon as they got a lead, they just kept pouring it on. They were even throwing deep off playaction with Brian Hoyer (28 yards to N'Keal Harry ... you know things are going well when that happens) up 47-13 with 3:45 left. Gotta get that 50-burger on NYJ, with beers afterward to wash all those points down.

That's awesome, but it doesn't mean squat if Belichick puts on his pocket protector next week and tries to measure every play and situation with a protractor.

Just like Dak Prescott and Brady before him, Herbert is coming at some point. You might be able to hold him down for a while, but at some point he and those weapons — going against the likes of Jalen Mills and Myles Bryant — are going to get loose. Are you going to have a lead to give yourself some room for error, or are you going to be content to kneel down three times, hoping and wishing that your over-the-hill defense is going to hold up for the first time ... in a very, very long time?

We're glad Belichick had bravado against the Jets and turned his guys loose. It showed the players that the coaches, for the first time all season, actually had some confidence that they could ride the bike by themselves without training wheels and mom holding the seat while they pedaled.

They were free, and they played free.

Now the coaches need to let them do that again vs. the Chargers. Yes, the Patriots might fall down and scrape the whole side of their leg. But they also might just start pedaling and take off toward the postseason.

You never know until you let go for good.

Cheers to that.