Bill Belichick made it clear he was proud of the way his team “battled” on the road in Houston for Sunday afternoon’s comeback 25-22 win. As he should be.
One thing is obvious through five weeks of NFL work, New England is indeed going to have to battle for everything it gets this season. There will be tough-luck losses and moral victories. Maybe even a few escapes, like turning a surprising 22-9 third-quarter deficit to the supposedly-dismal Texans into an exhale-worthy victory.
At 2-3, New England is still looking up many teams. And with the Dallas Cowboys headed to Gillette Stadium next Sunday afternoon, things aren’t getting any easier for the Mac Jones-led rebuilt band of Foxborough footballers.
But in the bottom-line business of the NFL, New England found a way to pick up an ugly win in a must-win situation. It may not have been the “get right,” feel-good kind of win the Patriots wanted, but it was very much the win they needed. That, for this team at this time, is all that matters.
As Jones said on Wednesday, “You can play well or play not well, but you just need to score one more point than the other team.”
New England did a little bit of both in all three phases of the game in Houston, but in the end actually scored three more points than the Texans.
“We just outcompeted, I don’t know if we outplayed the other team, but definitely outcompeted and that’s all we can ask ourselves to do,” Jones said Sunday evening. “Sometimes you just have to find a way to win.
And it feels better to not play as well and win but learn at the same time than play OK and end up losing. So the win feels good.”
Certainly better than last Sunday night’s oh-so-close loss to the Tom Brady-led, Super Bowl champion Bucs, that’s for sure. Heck, the Patriots may have played better that night against better competition but it was all for naught. Not this time, though.
“Man it felt great,” Matt Judon said after his two sacks helped the Patriots snap a two-game losing streak. “It was a tough week. We’re coming off a tough loss Sunday night. We came together as a team.
“We’re juiced up! It felt good to get that win.
Especially when you feel like you’ve been playing some good ball and just some things weren’t going your way. Just to fight back like that. It’s hard to get wins on Sundays in this league. You cherish every one you can get.”
Especially when you are, if we’re being honest, clearly one of the teams bunched up in the middle of the NFL pack of mediocrity. New England is neither a great team nor a bad one.
There was plenty for Belichick to work to improve on this week in practice.
The offense drove the ball early, but also gave it away with a Damien Harris goal-line fumble (which was rather debatable on replay) and Jones interception in the first half.
The defense couldn’t get off the field on third or fourth down in the first half, allowing three scoring drives of 75 yards or longer, two of 15 plays or more.
But things came together a bit on both sides of the ball after the Texans took the 22-9 lead on a flea-flicker 37-yard touchdown in the third.
The defense forced three punts, a long field goal and a fumble from that point out, with no more points hitting the scoreboard.
And Jones and company scored on four straight possessions, a touchdown and three field goals, the last Nick Folk’s 21-yard game-winner with 15 seconds to play.
New England won. Both sides of the ball made plays to secure the tenuous victory after both sides did things to dig the hold on the scoreboard.
Both sides were left wanting more.
Judon said the offense kept the defense in the game early.
Jones said the offense must score more so games aren’t so close, relying on the defense to make so many stops.
Both, though, were happy to offer critiques via victory.
There is work to be done for a Patriots team that very much needed a win on Sunday and got just that.
“Great team win,” said center David Andrews, the man sandwiched between four backup offensive linemen on Sunday. “What a great win for this football team. We needed it.”