FOXBOROUGH — The hoots and hollers from the New England Patriots locker room cut through two double metal doors and a concrete wall. You could hear it from half a football field away as the cheers carried down the tunnels inside Gillette Stadium.
Patriots players were doing something they hadn‘t done in over a calendar year: celebrate a win at home.
Elsewhere in the concrete arteries that lead from the field, it was a much different picture for the visitors. Jets players walked back to the visitors’ locker room. Some hung their heads while others quietly discussed what had just happened in the closing minutes.
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Patriots players? They sounded like they were about to tear the house down. For a regular season win, it was about as that locker room has sounded in years.
“It was ecstatic in the locker room. I think we’re all hungry for more now,” linebacker Christian Eliss said.
The Patriots gave a glimpse into the postgame locker room scene, posting of video of Mayo giving game balls to Jacoby Brissett as will as the team’s safeties.
For the past two decades, beating a two-win Jets team in late October was rarely the cause for much celebration. But that’s the way things stand right now.
The Patriots hadn’t won a game in Foxborough since beating the Bills on Oct. 22, 2023. As tight end Hunter Henry put it, getting back to winning at home was “huge.”
“It‘s a great feeling, especially the way the season‘s gone so far,” Henry said. I mean, six straight weeks of tough locker rooms. So when we finally break through and have a big win for us — especially here at home — it‘s just what we needed. The locker room reacted how it should.”
Jerod Mayo’s team had lost six in a row and was winless at home. Then they lost stud rookie quarterback Drake Maye to a head injury. On the other sideline was a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers.
Still, the Patriots won was Jacoby Brissett and the offense gritted out one last drive in the closing minutes, punching it in on 4th-and-1 with the game on the line.
This all comes after the Patriots faced heavy criticism in this past week, especially after Mayo’s comments that the team was playing “soft.”
“He said, ‘That wasn’t a soft win,‘“ defensive end Keion White said. ”He joked about it because we didn’t really take that much offense to it. We didn’t take offense to it for real.”
On paper, the win only marks the Patriots going from 1-6 to 2-6. But it’s a win in the NFL — and clearly one that meant a lot to these players.
“It’s exciting. Winning in the NFL is hard. I know y’all don’t think that, but it’s hard,” Brissett said.“ The guys have worked hard throughout the season, going back to training camp. We’ve been in a lull. Things haven’t been going our way. But today the ball bounced our way.”
Brissett noted that a win like this provides an opportunity to celebrate with the team’s younger players and help build toward the future.
It‘s a sentiment that was reflected by New England’s younger generation. Much like Brissett, they reflected on the team’s recent struggles and how big it was to have it pay off with a win like this.
When asked about the postgame celebration, cornerbacks Christian Gonzalez and Marcus Jones both responded with the same three-word phrase: “It felt great.”
“We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears whenever we come down to practice and training camp and everything,” Jones said. “It‘s hard to win in this league. Some people take it for granted. But it‘s definitely hard to do. So we’re happy to get a W.”
