Image courtesy of Charles Krupa/AP Photo

FOXBOROUGH – If you had told a Patriots fan three months ago that halfway through the season the Pats would be tied for the No. 1 seed in the AFC, they probably would have laughed at you.

Well, thanks to a missed extra point from old friend Parker Romo and one big third down conversion from Drake Maye to Hunter Henry in the final minute, the Patriots moved to 7-2 and into a three way tie atop the AFC with a wild 24-23 victory.

With the Colts losing to Pittsburgh and Denver beating Hoston, New England is knotted up with the Colts and Broncos with eight games remaining (don’t worry about tie breakers yet, still a long way to go).

The Patriots offense struggled at times on Sunday against the Falcons – particularly Drake Maye – but good teams find ways to win when they’re not at their best, which is exactly what New England did.

“Sure, but it’s a funny league and we’re going to learn from winning so that we don’t have to learn from losing,” Mike Vrabel said postgame when asked about having things to work on despite winning six straight. “About taking care of the ball and complementary football and how quickly things can change. End of the half, we take a nap, like we talked about the other day. We took a little nap and they scored and made it a one-possession game. Give them a lot of credit, but give our guys credit there for finishing and coming up big when we had to in the fourth quarter with the pressure, the intentional grounding forced them to punt, and then offensively being able to finish with the football was huge.

“Great timing by Drake. Great catch by Hunter, getting a couple extra yards and staying inbounds, all the stuff that we practice in five-minute, and they’re believing in it and they’re buying into it because they see that that’s what good teams do to end the game.”

Unable to get any kind of momentum rolling on offense in the second half, the Patriots still led 24-14 heading to the fourth quarter.

But, Maye (19-29, 259 yards, 2 TDs, 2 turnovers) was picked off by Jesse Bates late in the third and Atlanta turned it into a Romo field goal, cutting it to 24-17 52 seconds into the fourth quarter. New England had to punt soon thereafter and the Falcons took over at their own 15.

A lengthy, 13-play drive followed and ended with a highlight reel eight-yard TD catch for Drake London – his third of the day – with 4:40 remaining. Romo pushed the ensuing PAT, leaving things at 24-23.

The Patriots quickly went three-and-out, once again handing Atlanta a golden opportunity. The Falcons took over at their own 19, but a huge intentional grounding call on Michael Penix on second down forced a 3rd-&-20 and soon forced a punt with 1:53 to go.

On 3rd-&-5, Maye hit a wide open Henry for a 17-yard gain to ice it. Two kneel downs later and the Pats escaped with win No. 7 on the year.

“Yeah, first I’ve got to play better for this team down the road,” Maye said. “I think it’s tough, it’s tough in a game where you win and you can feel in that locker room that these guys know we can play better. I think it’s a good feeling to have, but also at the same time it’s tough to win in this league, so you’ve got to enjoy it. You’ve got to enjoy it. And Hunt made a big play down on the sideline, five-minute. Shoot, we didn’t want to make the defense make another stop for us again.

“And there’s so much things to learn from this game, and I’m just proud of this team for — it doesn’t matter if it’s 24-23 or 3-2. Proud we got the win.”

The Patriots had been talking a lot about faster starts and got one on Sunday.

The defense opened with a three-and-out and the offense quickly followed with a 10-play drive that ended with Maye hitting Pop Douglas (4 catches, 100 yards) for a 16-yard TD with Pop coming out of the backfield. After trading punts, Atlanta tied the game at 7-7 late in the first on a one-yard jump ball TD for London (9 catches 119 yards).

Early in the second, New England went back up 14-7, finishing off a 12-play, 65-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run for Terrell Jennings, the first TD of his NFL career. It appeared New England was in complete control when a 58-yard catch and run for Douglas set up an 11-yard TD for Stefon Diggs, making it 21-7 with 5:11 left in the half.

The Pats followed that up with the defense forcing a turnover on downs at the New England 29. With a golden chance to score before the half and double up coming out of halftime, Maye and the offense moved into Falcons territory, but Maye was strip sacked. The ball was recovered and returned to the New England five-yard line. London secured his second TD from three yards out, cutting it to seven heading into halftime.

The Pats once again had a chance to step on the throat of the Falcons, putting together a 15-play drive that lasted 8:34 to open the second half, but a sack on 2nd-&-goal ultimately forced a 32-yard field goal from Andy Borregales to make it 24-14, setting up the frantic end to the third and fourth quarters.

Now, it’s on to Tampa Bay riding a six-game win streak and thoughts of a real playoff run with multiple home games not all that far-fetched.

Who woulda thunk it?

“Well, we’ve won some close games, and I think that we did kind of learn a little bit about ourselves,” added Vrabel. “You can make mistakes, and you have to be able to come back and finish the game. There’s a lot of snaps still left, and understand what is needed from us. It’s a fun group to coach because I think that they’re going to always want more. They are receptive to the coaching. They give us everything they’ve got. We’re nine games in.

“We practice hard, and we play, beat up, we’re going on the road. I’m glad and appreciative of everything that they’ve given us thus far halfway through the season.”