Who are the New England Patriots?
Are they the team that was the only squad this year that the Las Vegas Raiders earned a victory against? Or, is Mike Vrabel’s team the one that handed the Buffalo Bills their only loss of the season last Sunday night?
They are both … and for good reason.
The first-year Patriots head coach has begun the process of rebuilding the Patriots team that dominated the NFL for two decades while Bill Belichick held his job on the sideline and Tom Brady directed the action on the field. The cast around Belichick and Brady shifted like the revolving door at the entrance of a hotel allowing people checking in and out to pass through.
But, while it was this player then, and that player later, the excellence directed by the coach and quarterback had the Patriots win their division every year and collect six Super Bowl victories beginning in the 2001 season. The excellence continued until Brady’s departure after the 2019 season. As expected, once Brady was gone, just like when John Elway retired from the Denver Broncos, the team took a dive from Super Bowl aspirations to second tier status.
Once Elway was gone, Denver Broncos Head Coach Mike Shanahan never led his Mile High team back to the playoffs. Once Brady was gone, Belichick never won another playoff game. He did guide the Patriots into the playoffs via a Wild Card berth in 2021 but were blown out in their only postseason game by the Buffalo Bills, 47-17.
The past two seasons, the Patriots have finished in the cellar in the AFC East Division. That represents Belichick’s last season as head coach and the one-year disappointment with Jerod Mayo his successor. This year, another former Patriots player, as was Mayo, was handed the reins of Robert Kraft’s team.
With experience as a successful head coach with the Tennessee Titans, where Vrabel served six seasons beginning in 2018 and compiled a record of 56-48 while leading Tennessee to the playoffs three times and a pair of division titles, he was fired in 2023 after a pair of losing seasons. Last January, he was hired by the Patriots to replace Mayo, who had guided New England to a second straight last place finish in his only year on the job.
Both Mayo and Vrabel were players on Super Bowl winning teams during the Belichick/Brady era. The quest to capture greatness again with a former player after Belichick’s retirement missed with Mayo and started poorly with Vrabel. In his first game as New England Head Coach, Vrabel and his Patriots lost at home to the Las Vegas Raiders. That game still represents the Raiders only win of the season.
But, after that inauspicious start, the Patriots have come together and appear a threat to crack the playoff field. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye is among the leaders in most statistical categories and last week’s victory over their primary division rival, the Buffalo Bills, provided a national audience an opportunity to see that the Patriots could again be a force in the NFL.
So, who are the Patriots?
On our charts they are a perfect team. A squad good enough to win when the motivational factors bend their way, and not good enough to overcome a negative situation.
Last week, against the Bills, the situation was positive for the Patriots. This week, when they travel to New Orleans to meet the Saints, not so much.
Over the past two Sunday’s the New Orleans Saints, also under the direction of a new head coach with Kellen Moore, beat the point spread against the Buffalo Bills and earned their first win of the season against the New York Giants. The victory over Jaxson Dart and company was also the first professional win for Saints signal caller Spencer Rattler, who had lost his first ten NFL starts.
Now, New Orleans hosts the Patriots who are coming off their huge primetime win with thoughts they are ready to compete with the big boys.
Not yet.
And not here are they even ready to compete against the little boys.
Qoxhi Picks: New Orleans Saints (+3½) over New England Patriots