Mike Vrabel has the Patriots off to a blistering start this season, improving to 9–2 after a 27–14 win over the Jets on Thursday night. / Erick W. Rasco/ Sports Illustrated
After Thursday night’s win, Mike Vrabel was doing something which has become familiar this season: standing in the tunnel and congratulating his players on a job well done.
With his team now 9–2 after beating the Jets 27–14 at Gillette Stadium, Vrabel was beaming. He should have been. The Patriots look like a team coasting toward the playoffs and perhaps the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
New England is a half-game ahead of the Broncos and Colts in the race for the top seed, something the Patriots haven’t enjoyed since Tom Brady led them to those heights in 2017. They also have the benefit of a ridiculously easy schedule the rest of the way, starting with the Bengals next week before hosting the Giants on _Monday Night Football_ in Week 13.
After a late bye, New England will host the Bills before visiting the Ravens, the only difficult stretch of the remaining docket. To finish up, the Patriots visit the Jets, before hosting the warm-weather Dolphins the first weekend in January.
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Unless Buffalo can run the table—which would mean wins over the Patriots, Eagles, Buccaneers and Steelers, among others—New England will win the AFC East should it beat the substandard teams mentioned above. If that happens, the Patriots will be guaranteed at least one home playoff game and potentially more. However, a tiebreaker right now with Indianapolis would go the Colts’ way due to a better conference record.
So it’s easy to see a path where the AFC playoffs don’t go through Kansas City, Buffalo or Baltimore as so many expected coming into the season, but a place that used to haunt the imagination of everyone in football: Foxborough.
Of course, despite New England’s gaudy mark, there will be some who argue the Patriots are a paper tiger. Through 11 games, they have beaten teams with a combined record of 30–54 (.357).
Patriots rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson (32) scored three touchdowns in a breakout game. / Eric Canha-Imagn Images
Still, the Patriots can hang their proverbial hat on a few things.
Going forward, the biggest challenge for a young New England team is to avoid looking ahead. The Bengals are 3–6 but have one of the league’s top tandems on the perimeter in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who have combined for 1,262 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. The Giants have been in almost every game this year, winning two and losing late leads to the Broncos, Cowboys and Bears in close defeats. With [coach Brian Daboll fired](https://www.si.com/nfl/giants-top-head-coach-candidates-daboll-fired), New York knows everyone is coaching and playing for their jobs.
Then there are the obvious tests in the rematch against Buffalo and a road trip to Baltimore, drawing a reenergized Ravens team on a three-game winning streak. If there’s any doubt about how good the Patriots are, or how much resistance they can put up come January, those two games should answer plenty of questions.
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But for now, there are a pair of games that demand attention before New England gets thrust into the fire of December football against contending, desperate teams. The Patriots can put themselves in elite position by focusing, something we see a lack of on a weekly basis in the NFL. Just ask the Bills how their trip to Miami went last weekend.
For the Patriots, everything is in front of them. Whatever this year holds, as well as what appears to be a blindingly bright future with Maye and Vrabel at the controls.
Yet for New England, the next goal is the next game, and the Patriots hope it ends with Vrabel standing in the tunnel, grinning with satisfaction.