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Yesterday’s 24-17 Patriots win over the Bills was pleasantly different from so many of their games this season, but it was also reminiscent of the Patriots we have come to know.
What was different is that, for a change, they actually looked good, they actually looked like a team that might contend for a Super Bowl. Tom Brady, for the first time in several weeks, was not only accurate but calm. Perhaps this was because he was pretty well protected against a pass rush that was supposed to give the Patriots trouble.
What was different is that N’Keal Harry was actually a part of the game plan, even if that unfortunate fourth down jet sweep didn’t pan out. (Note to Mohamed Sanu: With even a half-decent block on that play, the first half would have played out so much less disastrously.)
What was different was that the run game actually looked good. After so many disappointing performances from Sony Michel, he really looked like the back these Patriots drafted out of Georgia two years ago. Add a dash of power and speed to a pinch of tackle-breaking ability and we have a recipe for a run game. Was this just a one-game phenomenon or a glimpse of a promising future?
What was different is that while Julian Edelman was attempting to prove to the local neurologists that his head was still on straight, Brady actually looked for and found Jakobi Meyers, who’s really not half bad when given the chance.
So what was the same? Well, for one, the result. When you put the Patriots on the same field as those brutes from Buffalo, when the game really means something, and when the two quarterbacks are Tom Brady and whomever the Bills throw out there, the Patriots win. Call it discipline, call it strategy, call it karma, in the end we just know that the good guys from Foxborough will find a way and the pretenders from Orchard park will not.
What was the same? How about our friend the Squirrel, the indomitable Julian Edelman. The guy is under six feet tall, weighs less than 200 pounds, but he runs through brick walls and he’s capable of delivering punishment to people 50 pounds heavier. If the game were called “Who’s tougher,” and you were picking sides, you’d have to be totally insane to pick anyone else first. Laid out in the third quarter, back in the fourth for crunch-time receptions, he is the man.
Both the same and different was the re-introduction of the much maligned Marshall Newhouse. Let’s face it, he’s not going to make anyone forget Matt Light or Bruce Armstrong. He’s not anywhere as good as Isaiah Wynn Or Marcus Cannon. The fact that he’s playing for his eighth team in ten years should tell us something. But he’s the best we’ve got, and when Cannon went down with an ankle injury and the good Mr. Newhouse lumbered onto the field, the offense continued to function at a high level, especially in the fourth quarter.
This is a team that inspires neither admiration nor fear, it’s a team for whom ambivalence is probably the strongest and most appropriate emotion. It starts with the quarterback. If Tom is given a moment’s time to stand in there and if he’s on, there’s always a chance. But if the man’s off–for whatever reason, who knows, maybe Gisele or his kids are giving him a hard time at home—we’ve got no shot. Like the stock market, like the mood swings of a manic-depressive, things could be up or could be down, could be good or could be bad. Here’s hoping for the permanent emergence of the good TB12.
