FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots win streak has now reached five games.
Only one other team in the NFL – Denver – is riding that kind of streak at the moment. And, only one other team in the NFL – Indianapolis – has more wins than the 6-2 Patriots.
“It’s amazing. Winning is amazing. I talk about it all the time. Everything comes with winning,” star cornerback Christian Gonzalez said following the 32-13 win over the Cleveland Browns. “You want to go out there and win, and it’s awesome to come out and give the fans something to be excited about.”
As Gonzalez observed, Gillette Stadium was “rocking” for the 1 o’clock kickoff. And it was rocking throughout.
Now for the fly in the ointment.
Of the five straight wins, only one has come against a winning team.
It’s a legitimate concern, but that shouldn’t diminish what the Patriots have accomplished to this point. Beating the teams you’re supposed to beat is never a given.
As it is, every week, you half expect them to turn into a pumpkin. Or, stumble in some way that reminds you of the past two years of bad football teams.
Instead, the Patriots are not just beating bad football teams, they’re crushing them like a bug.
The clock certainly hasn’t struck midnight on this team. Don’t hold your breath expecting that it will.
Here’s why:
The quarterback
It’s gotten to the point with Drake Maye, that even if he’s under seige, getting sacked six times, making a few mistakes, it doesn’t matter.
He was so good against the Browns, that the one first-half pick he threw, and the one ball he put on the ground turned out to be nothing more than a footnote.
Up 9-7 at halftime, with Myles Garrett attached to his hip, Maye went 6 for 6 for 85 yards and three touchdowns for a perfect passer rating in the third quarter.
He just continues to grow exponentially and do things that are outrageous for most quarterbacks, much less one in his second season.
Said Garrett: “I think he is a good quarterback who is soon to be a great quarterback.”
He’s certainly on the doorstep. And that, more than anything, is reason to believe the Patriots won’t fold up like a tent any time soon.
Maye is playing at a level that almost guarantees wins, and he’s been that way since Week 1.
The coach
Ask any player, and Mike Vrabel’s name pops up almost immediately when asked how the Patriots have managed to pull off five straight wins.
“It starts with the coach,” said safety JayLinn Hawkins, who had a spectacular one-handed interception in the win. “The message he comes in with every week. It’s everything he’s doing every week … it’s the culture. It’s our identity.”
It’s Vrabel’s leadership, his smarts, and the tone and culture he sets.
On Sunday, he wasn’t afraid to discipline one of his stars, as he benched Christian Barmore for the first quarter for an undisclosed reason.
“I had to make a decision,” Vrabel said after the game. “My job is to protect the team, so when there’s actions that I don’t feel like are commiserate with what we want to do here, I’ve got to make a decision, and we move on.”
They moved on, just the way they’ve moved on the past month and change – with a win.
The attitude
The team just came off a stretch of three road games. They won all of them. There was an expectation the Patriots might suffer some type of letdown coming home, allowing the Browns to sneak out a win.
That didn’t happen. The players will tell you that scenario isn’t remotely on their radar. Some of that goes back to Vrabel. But the players play, and execute on the field.
“Our thing is, we know that we want to keep stacking ‘Ws’ – that’s our main thing. Just going 1-0 each week,” Marcus Jones said. “So we don’t look too far into the future, but we know that we can do something special.”
Added Hawkins: “We just have to keep leveling up, if we want to be, where we want to be at … there’s people all over the building who want to hold that standard.”
The defense
Their biggest flaw in recent weeks has been an inability to stop teams from scoring on the opening drive.
Outside of that, the unit gets the job done. It’s hard to totally trust it, but the results can’t be ignored.
They can’t be run on. And having Christian Gonzalez back, and now playing more like himself, has been a huge difference in the secondary.
On Sunday, he locked down Jerry Jeudy. No catches. Two targets.
“That’s what I want to do and what any corner wants to do. You want to take away who they want to go to and today it was [Jerry] Jeudy, so that was my assignment,” Gonzalez said. “Just going out there and executing, playing team defense.
“Shout out to the front seven, they’re getting back there and making it hard for the quarterback to throw the ball. It all works together, it’s not just one person covering one person. It’s all of us coming together and making plays.”
The receivers
While the Patriots might not have an elite receiving corps, they have still managed to produce big-time points.
They’ve put up 213 points in eight games, which has them averaging 26.8 points per game.
Last year, they scored 289 points the entire season. They averaged 17.0 points per game, so with Maye and this cast, they’re scoring nearly 10 points per game more.
Having Stefon Diggs as the No. 1, setting the tone, often drawing the opposing team’s top corner has had the desired result. Everyone has benefitted not having to play up a weight class.
And Maye has established a chemistry with just about everyone.
The touchdown passes against the Brown went to three different receivers: Diggs, Hunter Henry and Kayshon Boutte.
“The team is only going to be as good as the receivers and the quarterback are,” Boutte said after the win. “We’re not going to sit here and run the ball 50 times a game, you have to balance the offense up. I think what’s important is just being there when they need me.”
That mindset has also worked well for Mack Hollins and DeMario Douglas, who continue to deliver when Maye throws their way.
The ability to adjust
The defense has adjusted to a new play caller, with Zak Kuhr taking over for Terrell Williams, who is battling prostate cancer.
While Williams remains a presence, making visits while awaiting treatment, Vrabel, Kuhr and the defensive coaches have kept the ball rolling.
The offense?
Josh McDaniels is pulling all the right levers. After settling for three field goals in the first half, McDaniels dug into his bag of tricks.
The first drive coming out of the half – a 7 play, 77-yard beauty – set the tone for the rest of the game.
Instead of having the running backs grind out yards with inside runs, McDaniels got the ball out on the edge, utilizing TreVeyon Henderson’s speed to gain big yards on outside runs.
“That first touchdown drive, Josh really dialed it up,” center Garrett Bradbury said. “It was unbelievable by him, and then the execution by the players. It felt like every play was working. It didn’t matter what we were calling. That was a defining drive for us.”
Maye also spoke about how McDaniels continues to put them in advantageous situations.
“He’s just dialing it up multiple times and getting guys open and really making it easy for me,” Maye said after the game. “He’s done it his whole life, and I feel like he was put on this earth to be an offensive coordinator. It was fun to be in the headset with him.”
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