Some hopefully coherent thoughts on an early Monday morning after the Patriots' upset of the Bills on Sunday Night Football...
• I almost feel sorry for Bills fans who were watching that. Not only did their team self-destruct in the first half with penalties and dumb turnovers — maybe Buffalo was watching too much Patriots film from earlier this season — but they had to watch Drake Maye one-up their savior, Josh Allen, by doing a lot of Allen things — often better — right in front of their faces. For a fanbase that had to endure four failed Super Bowl trips and Tom Brady stomping them for two decades, now they might have a rival QB in the division that is capable of giving them fits twice a year? Man, that has to hurt.
I mean, the Bills had to go through the QB desert for 12 years before they found the successor to Jim Kelly, and even Allen didn't become Allen until his third season.
Maye just started his 17th game on Sunday night. Congrats, kid. Now you're not a rookie anymore, in more ways than one.
• By the way, this is the sixth year since Brady last graced the field in a Patriots uniform. You would have thought it was 26 the way some people reacted to two four-win seasons. You guys really need to get out more and see what 75 percent of the league goes through.
• Yes, Maye has officially arrived after last night. Sure, Mac Jones was the quarterback twice when the Patriots beat the Bills and Allen, including once at Highmark (yes, it was the wind game). Jones even authored a game-winning touchdown drive (TD pass to Mike Gesicki with 12 seconds left in 2023). But there's a difference in winning games, and the quarterback being the reason the team wins a game. If the Patriots just had a game-manager quarterback on Sunday night, there's no way they win that game.
Maye should have been sacked for a 10-yard loss on the first play of the final drive, which likely would have led to a punt and a Bills win. Instead, he shrugged off 320-pound DaQuan Jones and completed a 12-yard pass. That's a superhuman play. There's like a half-dozen QBs in the league that could pull that off. Patriots have one now.
• Probably the thing that impresses me the most about Maye is his almost daily improvement, and his resiliency in game. He admitted he didn't play well in the first half, took a couple of needless sacks. That would linger for a lot of guys. Maye came out in the second half, had Allen coming at him, and basically played flawlessly. Going to have to come up with a new word because he's already played close to flawless twice: Dolphins and Panthers.
• It's fun to watch Maye play like this, but this style isn't sustainable for anyone — including Allen — over the course of
• Stefon Diggs looked like he stepped into a time machine last night, which probably had to do with the adrenaline pumping in making his return to Highmark. Hope it wasn't just a one-off, because the Patriots need that Diggs as often as possible. Let's just say the coaches maximized the efficiency with Diggs because he only played 50 percent of the snaps. Have to preserve those legs.
• Don't ask me — looking at you, Mark Dondero — if I'm going to change my expectations for this team. I don't do that. I tell you what I think before the season, and I grade each week as it comes. It ends where it ends. That stuff is for talk show hosts. The only thing I expect is for this team to improve over the course of the season. With a new staff and a lot of new players, I figured we'd start to see it start to lift the nose right around the Week 5-8 range. This is a little ahead of schedule, especially for Maye.
• It took until Week 5 — maybe it had to with extended preseason, Christian Gonzalez's late return, and Jahlani Tavai being back on the field — but the Patriots' defense finally arrived with a real gameplan that gave the Bills fits in the first half. Putting out a beefier defensive line and more linebackers bottled up the Bills' vaunted run game, and then the coverage was sticky to give Allen problems. Now keep doing it.
• That being said, the Bills were complicit in their own demise. Listening to Allen and Sean McDermott after the game, it was hard not to think that they believed their own poor play, penalties and turnovers (one happened on a fake end-around exchange) was more to blame than the Patriots. We'll see what the film says.
• One thing to keep in mind before getting too far ahead of yourselves (I know the schedule is tempting) ... there's a distinct lack of film and tendencies on these new-look Patriots. Teams are going to try to take away Maye rolling to his right, like the Patriots did with Allen for a while. And the defense will be a little easier to figure out the more Gonzalez plays, and opponents see how they are utilizing him. Oh, and the Patriots haven't suffered a serious injury — Antonio Gibson isn't nothing but ... — to a starter at this point.
• Christian Barmore and Milton Williams are becoming a problem. And Robert Spillane has been terrific the last three weeks.
• Get ready, especially with the porous Saints and Titans coming up, for people to get bored and start talking about the trade deadline, with his 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4. A lot can happen over the next four weeks — to the Patriots and other teams. Let's see where they are a little closer to the deadline, and how things shake out. Of course, they're probably going to need to go get another back soon because Gibson's injury didn't look good. Expect a lot of tryouts on Tuesday.
• Can't wait for the rematch, which is sure to be flexed to SNF or 4:25 p.m. Think Gillette will be back to jumping for that one in early December?
• Enjoy the day after. The Patriots are one game out of first place and improving on a weekly basis. Oh, and you officially have A Guy. Not too shabby.