Image courtesy of ESPN

If you didn’t believe the Patriots were a contender, you should now.

With so many different big moments – for both rookies and veterans alike – in the 28-23 win over the Buccaneers on Sunday, it’s hard not to think this team can do some special things in 2025.

The Patriots are now 8-2, winners of seven straight. More importantly, the win allowed them to keep pace in the AFC with Indianapolis and Denver, who also moved to 8-2 with wins this week.

“I always love the fight. That’s why I love coaching them, is that they fight and they compete,” said Mike Vrabel.

“It’s not always perfect, it’s never going to be perfect. But, I love the way they compete. You’re going to have some time…if you strike out, you gotta go to the dugout and be pissed for a couple seconds and then you gotta play the rest of the game. So, we tell them ‘take 30 seconds, be pissed, but we gotta go play’ and it was a long game. It’s a tough place to play. It was warm and they’re good.”

In a matchup billed as two MVP quarterbacks against each other, both Baker Mayfield and Drake Maye were good, not great against two very good defenses.

Maye finished 16-31 with 270 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Baker was 28-43 for 273 yards and three touchdowns.

Instead, it was the TreVeyon Henderson Show.

Henderson had 147 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns in his breakout game, including a game-sealing 69-yard TD run late in the fourth quarter.

“It was a really tough game and we knew it was going to be tough going into it,” said Henderson.

With the Patriots leading 21-10 late in the third quarter, things got pretty crazy.

Mayfield bought time on 3rd-&-10, rolled right and eventually threw a 10-yard dart to Tez Johnson for a touchdown, cutting it to 21-16 after a failed two-point conversion.

On the ensuing drive, Maye showed why he’s been in the MVP conversations with a ridiculous swim move around Vita Vea on 3rd-&-7 before finding Mack Hollins for a first down. On 4th-&-5 moments later at the Tampa 42, New England turned it over on downs with 1:16 left in the quarter. The Pats had gone for it on fourth down twice already in the game and converted.

Early in the fourth quarter, Tampa was faced with a 4th-&-3 at the New England 40 with just under 13 minutes left. A huge catch and run for Cade Otton down to the Pats’ 15 was negated with an offensive pass interference call on a pick play, forcing a punt.

Maye and the offense took over at the 20 after a touchback with a chance to put the game on ice. Instead, they quickly punted.

The Bucs responded with a terrible punt of their own, giving the Pats the ball at their own 41 with 8:00 left.

One snap after taking a shot right to the chest from Vea on a deep incompletion, Maye stepped up and launched another 54-yard bomb on the opposite side of the field for Mack Hollins (6 catches, 106 yards) who was dragged down at the eight-yard line.

Maye then scrambled right and took an eerily similar shot to the one Drew Bledsoe took 24 years ago, drawing a flag that put the ball at the two. Two plays later though, he made a poor decision, tossing an interception in the end zone while rolling right with just over five minutes remaining.

With 2:00 left, Robert Spillane nearly picked off a pass on third down at the New England 27 with the Bucs driving. On 4th-&-3, the Pats sent a blitz at Baker Mayfield and seemingly converged on him all at once. Two plays later, Henderson took off down the Bucs sideline 69-yards for a touchdown to seal the deal, despite Tampa adding another Johnson TD catch with 33 seconds remaining.

“Great call, great execution if we stopped them. If we don’t stop ’em it was a bad call,” Vrabel joked on the blitz call.

“Specifically during those tough moments (in the game), I just tried to lean on God to pick me up and give me the strength to keep going,” added Henderson.

Just two plays into the second half, Henderson ripped off a 55-yard touchdown run to put the Patriots up 21-10. That score came just minutes after New England capped off a drive spanning 7:16 to end the first half with a toe-tap one-yard TD for Stefon Diggs on 4th-&-goal.

The drive was master manipulation of the clock by Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

“Huge, huge,” Vrabel said of the end of half touchdown. “I mean, obviously…no points…I made a decision. I trust our players and they came through. They made me look good.”

It was another slow start defensively, as the Bucs casually waltzed 65 yards in six plays to open the game. A 21-yard TD catch for Emeka Egbuka quickly made it 7-0.

It didn’t take long for rookie Kyle Williams to take advantage of some extra reps this week with Kayshon Boutte out.

On the very first play of the ensuing drive, Maye hit Williams running left to right across the field and he did the rest, sprinting up the Pats’ sideline for a 72-yard touchdown. It was his only catch of the day, but was obviously a big one.

“Kyle’s play early, we really needed that one,” said Vrabel.

“It was sensational,” added Williams when asked how it felt for him to finally get in the end zone and have an impact.

With 7:16 left in the half, the Bucs went back up 10-7 on a 36-yard field goal. From that point on, McDaniels, Maye and the offense worked the clock with the 14-play, 78-yard drive. The biggest play was a 3rd-&-7 dart to Pop Douglas over the middle for 26-yards down to the Bucs’ 14 with 2:37 to go.

A nine-yard completion to Hunter Henry and a five-yard run by Henderson soon set up 1st-&-goal at the 1. Maye snapped the ball with 1:44 left and seemingly just sort of went down right where he was instead of trying to plunge ahead. Henderson was stuffed up the middle and then again on a toss to the left.

Vrabel called timeout with eight seconds left.

On 4th-&-goal, Maye lofted a ball for Stefon Diggs in the back left corner. Diggs (5 catches, 46 yards) leapt up, adjusting his body to pluck the ball against his defender, then toe-tapped to make it 14-10 heading into halftime, also setting up the old school ‘double score.’

“It was a huge play for us on fourth down,” added Vrabel. “I have confidence in our guys. So, to be able to have confidence in them at that moment and for them to come through, that’s about players and not necessarily plays.”

So now, New England will have a primetime game in their new uniforms on Thursday nights against the still-terrible New York Jets.

It should look and feel a lot like it used to around here with Mike Vrabel suddenly having fans (and his players) believing this could be a stunningly special season.