That's what I'm talking about.
I don't even care, really, that the Patriots ended up beating the Jets on Rhamondre Stevenson's do-or-die 4th-and-goal plunge from the 1-yard line with 22 seconds.
That was a bonus — and a pretty sweet one — considering it was at the expense of the Jets, and represented the first victory in front of the diehards at Gillette Stadium in 372 days.
I would be writing the same column even if the Patriots were stuffed on the goal line and fell to the increasingly pathetic Jets.
Because this season was never really about wins and losses for the Patriots. It was about displaying competence, Drake Maye's development and the evaluation of everyone, starting with Jerod Mayo and an inexperienced coaching staff. Sure, you want to get at least a few victories because when you put in the work the players and coaches do, they deserve that. But even if the Patriots finished 0-17, as long as they were competitive in just about every game and continued to show buy-in throughout the season, that would mean better things were ahead for this franchise with Mayo at the helm.
All that was in question since the second game of the season. They lost by 21 to the Jets, 17 to the Niners, five to a terrible Dolphins team, 20 to the Texans and 16 to a bad Jaguars team (in which New England took a 10-0 lead and were outscored 32-6 the rest of the way).
Each week was seemingly worse, on and off the field. You started to wonder if the Patriots might lose out and be mentioned in the same breath as the 1-15 1990 squad. It seemed only a matter of time before Je-Rod Rust jokes became commonplace.
That's why Sunday was so important. Even if it ended up in a loss.
This is why you play the games. This is why you don't make blanket excuses like the personnel is bad, too many injuries and they don't have the personnel to allow less than 190 yards rushing (so is the personnel ok now, they don't have to get run over every week? ... I'm not sure how this works).
Because that just ain't true, never has been, at least not in the NFL.
There's no question the Jets are waaaay more talented than the Patriots. But the Patriots found a way to hang tough, even with more adversity thrown at them, namely the concussion that knocked the talented Maye from the game, and some spotty officiating.
Why? Sure, a lot of it was because the Jets are truly a wretched outfit (three timeouts ... in the first quarter?!) and Aaron Rodgers looked 60 years old and not wanting to get hit. But that's not even most of the story — ok, maybe for the win but not the way the Patriots played.
For the first time in weeks, Mayo and his coaches put their players in position to succeed and the players executed.
That's the essence of football. That had been lacking around here previously — and there were legitimate questions about whether it would ever transpire with this group, with the Dolphins' and Jaguars' losses the most glaring examples.
But on Sunday, Mayo, coordinators Alex Van Pelt, DeMarcus Covington and Jeremy Springer, and the rest of the coaching staff did their jobs, so kudos to them.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
I especially loved what the Patriots did on defense. They stopped trying to fool everyone with pre- and post-snap looks. They just played physical man-to-man coverage for the most part, which freed up more defenders in the box. They were aggressive and dared the Jets to beat them with all their weapons. They took it to the Jets, instead of being punching bags.
“Really, we stopped all the cute shit and we got back to the basics," said eloquent nose tackle Davon Godchaux. "We played knock-back football, played our assignments and knew our calls. We stopped the run. I thought we did a pretty good job in the run game. ... For the most part, we did well.”
Said linebacker Christian Elliss: "It really came down to everyone doing their job. For us as linebackers, we have to have good eyes, good keys. If you have your eyes in the wrong place, then you’re going to be all over the field. You’re never going to be where you’re supposed to be. I would say that’s what I took from the last few games I’ve played, is I’ve got to lock in my keys, on my eyes, and then the pleasure comes from not trying to do someone else’s job. Do my job.”
On offense, Van Pelt's script was again pretty good in the first quarter and while I didn't love how they finished the first half and that the receivers were trying to catch the ball with oven mitts on, they kept plugging away. The run wasn't working again (2.2 average for the backs), but Van Pelt continued to run Stevenson like the physical battering ram he is. That's about playing with a mentality, and delivering body blows to a Jets defense.
On special teams, the Patriots allowed one long punt return but they delivered a bigger one with Marcus Jones' 62-yard scamper to set up a touchdown that got things going in the second half.
And then you had Jacoby Brissett, of all people, leading two fourth-quarter scoring drives to pull the final upset.
Complimentary football in all three phases. No turnovers on offense. Patriots held the Jets to a respectable 4 yards per carry and tackled. They played sticky coverage. They made plays when they needed to on offense.
The Patriots looked like a competent NFL outfit.
"It shows if we do the little things and do them right, like not turning the ball over, getting off the field on defense, not giving up big plays, special teams; you have an opportunity, an opportunity to win and make the plays when it counts," said veteran cornerback Jonathan Jones.
The Patriots had that formula in the first two games, and you could excuse a frustrating loss to the Seahawks because they're just better. It had been missing during the last five games, and you wondered if the Patriots would ever rediscover that.
That ended on Sunday. Everyone did their jobs - coaches and players - and they got what they deserved, their first victory in six long weeks.
Now it's time to build on that, and start to stack — not even success, just competency — week after week. And then Mayo and Co. may have found something: a program that is actually building and not regressing.
That's all anyone ever wanted or expected. And it wasn't too much to ask.
