Even after a playoff win, the Patriots can’t escape their most annoying label

If you ask NFL insider Dan Graziano, Sunday night was another championship-level performance by The Schedule out in Foxboro.

Seriously. The New England Patriots just won a playoff game over the Los Angeles Chargers by 13 points as 3.5-point favorites, and the national media remains unimpressed.

Just wait for the snide remarks next week, if the Patriots are able to get past the fifth-seeded Houston Texans, who could be without No. 1 wide receiver Nico Collins after he was carted off the field from the sideline with his second concussion of the season.

Drake Maye came up huge when it mattered most, posting a perfect passer rating in the fourth quarter to help the Patriots salt away their 16-3 win. Mike Vrabel’s defense, meanwhile, looked like a championship unit as it smothered QB Justin Herbert and an offense that came in leading the NFL in time of possession.

In ESPN’s weekly overreactions piece during the NFL season, Graziano called the Patriots’ performance a “stinker” and said it “did not scream ‘No. 2 seed/Super Bowl contender.’”

The Patriots have lost only once in their last 15 games, that loss coming to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills after leading the game 21-0. And somehow a gritty, double-digit playoff win against a good head coach and QB constitutes a stinker? Here's what Graziano had to say for himself:

“So what happens now? Did quarterback Drake Maye & Co. get their stinker out of the way early and survive it? Do they learn from this and play better next week against the Steelers or Texans? Or does this advanced level of competition do them in, the way their critics feared all season that it might? …

This is the survive-and-advance time of the year, and the fact that the Patriots won ugly doesn't disqualify them from winning it all. It just adds a little bit of strength to the arguments of those who continue to believe this team is playing over its head.”

The 2025 New England Patriots might have to win it all to get the respect they deserve

To say that Patriots fans and the national media aren’t seeing eye-to-eye this year… would be up for 2025 Understatement of the Year.

It extends beyond “The Schedule” as well. The MVP conversation is very much a part of this, with Patriots fans on a social media crusade against Dan Orlovsky — another ESPN gem — and others who refuse even to acknowledge Maye at this point when compared to Matthew Stafford.

Schedule talk, at this point, is an objectively terrible take. The Patriots were the only team in football to go 8-0 on the road this season. They just improved to 15-3 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. They continued to win games week in and week out over the second half of the season without their starting left tackle, middle linebacker, and $104 million defensive tackle.

Yet the asinine Patriots STILL haven't beaten anybody good label is “not an overreaction,” according to a typically coherent insider and journalist in Graziano. Yeah, OK, Dan. 

As Bill Belichick would say, it is what it is. No one but Patriots fans has been glued to every single snap of every game, at least since the Week 5 win at Buffalo that sparked this whole run. The stats and metrics around the schedule are undeniable, but unless you’re fully immersed in games and all things Patriots, you have no clue how bought in and galvanized this team has become.

You’re left questioning it — like, “How are they doing this?” — rather than just trusting what your eyes tell you: The Patriots aren’t only a legitimate Super Bowl contender, they have been for months.

It’s really just a national media thing. Peter Schrager, the excellent and personable sportscaster formerly of Good Morning Football on NFL Network, and now with ESPN (shocker), had his own slip-up on Monday night, shouting out defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr for stepping up as the Patriots play caller against the Chargers — when Kuhr has been in that role since Week 2.

It’s definitely time to retire “The Schedule.” That one’s lame, overplayed, and proven completely false at this point. We need our new, “Hate us ‘cause they ain’t us,” type slogan, to steal one from ex-Patriots Super Bowl champion Jermaine Wiggins.

“Stay on that side,” maybe? Something like that, under the put-some-respect-on-my-name umbrella. But until Vrabel and Maye are up on stage hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, the national media ain't buying in. They haven't been paying attention to the Patriots all season, and it's foolish to expect that to change now.