Game balls all around, as far as I'm concerned. This was another team effort, and coming off that absolute shit beating they gave to the Bengals last week, I don't know how anyone can't be excited about the Pats prospects. If they come out and stomp on the Jets on Thursday the way they should (which never seems to happen unfortunately), they are going to have a nice 9 days to rest up for what is a brutal stretch (vs. Chicago, vs. Denver, Bye, @ Indy, vs. Detroit, @ Green Bay, @ San Diego). I don't think there is a game in that entire stretch that the Pats should be favored by more than 4 points in, if they are even favored at all. However, that bye week comes at a great time. They have to get the job done on Thursday. It's about as close to a "must-win" as a 4-2 team can possibly have, IMO. After that stretch of 6 games, they finish with their last 3 against their division rivals. I'll be happy with this team being 8-5 going into those last three games.
I'd like to point out this team's ability to cause turnovers. This is something that was a staple of the great Patriots teams of the early 2000's. 3 more turnovers today, makes 14 through 6 games, to only 5 giveaways. If they keep protecting the ball, and taking it away at opportune times, they'll be able to mask a ton of deficiencies that they have. That strip sack by Chandler today was absolutely fucking huge. 5 more sacks today, gets them to 15 on the season and top 10 in that department, although if you read the game threads around here, you'd think we haven't even laid a finger on an opposing QB this year.
This team really, really reminds me of the early 2000's Pats teams. Game management on offense, opportunistic defense, and doing all of the little things (hello Matthew Slater) better than their opponents. Penalties at bad times might be the one thing I think we need to really work on, but I'm not so much sure that's a function of the way they are playing, or just how shitty and inconsistent the NFL officiating has been to this point in the season.
