As you know, the NFL trade deadline has come and gone, and the Patriots stood pat.
You know why?
Because they have enough in-house. Certainly there are cornerback issues, but they have a situation where they've got Shaun Wade, who they dealt for from the Baltimore Ravens. He can come up. Myles Bryant was in the secondary the other day. He played well.
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Is that ideal on the back end? Not really. Could they use a slot receiver? Yeah, maybe. But by and large, the 2021 Patriots have enough in-house to get where they want to go. It might not be to Los Angeles and SoFi stadium in February, but playoffs? Yeah, absolutely.
The reason for that: They were who they said they were. A couple weeks ago, the Patriots all piped up when they were 2-4 and said, “You know, we’re better than our record, you know. We’re a lot better than this.” We're kind of used to the Bill Parcells old saw of, “You are what your record says you are.”
It's a little pithy sometimes, and in this case it was. Because when you looked at the fine print on the Patriots record, and you looked at the moral victories that everybody sniffed at, those things were real. Moral victories are this: They are information gained from losses that allows you to believe you might be good enough to get where you want to go in the next three games.
The next three games the Patriots have are against slipping teams. They have Carolina, then they have Cleveland, and then they have Atlanta. Anybody gonna sweat that? I doubt it.
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And the best part about what the Patriots are putting together right now? They're doing it on both sides. Complementary. Because what if Mac Jones starts to hit the wall?
This was a defensive win the Patriots recorded on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Make no mistake. It was a defensive win.
On to Carolina.