The National Football League is a week-to-week league, and oftentimes, you don't know how a game is going to shake out. Not very many experts had the New England Patriots beating the Bills in Buffalo on Sunday night on their bingo cards, but the biggest win of the Drake Maye era proved the Patriots are heading on an upswing.
Talk of the Patriots making the playoffs has resurfaced among fans and media alike. In the wake of the team's victory in Buffalo, the excitement is growing louder, given the Patriots' next three games are against one-win teams in the Saints, Browns, and Titans.
But if there's anything we've learned over the years in the NFL, it's that short-term focus is the key to success. Mike Vrabel likely assured his players that the focus was on the Saints as soon as the team's plane touched back down in New England after the win in Buffalo.
Mike Vrabel won't let his players have a letdown in the Big Easy
Vrabel was riled up after the final gun sounded in Orchard Park. He greeted every single player at the top of the tunnel, exchanging resounding high fives. The Patriots are clearly buying into his system and philosophy, and Sunday's win was a product of that.
But Vrabel and the Patriots know this is a process, and the Bills' game has to be put to bed. The focus needs to shift to the Saints, who are riding high themselves after a win over the New York Giants that gave Kellen Moore his first victory as a head coach.
On paper, New Orleans is a bad team that is clearly in tank mode. But don't tell that to Vrabel. Like the Patriots, the Saints get paid too, and the Superdome can be a tough place to play when it's rocking.
Drake Maye continued to stamp his arrival towards being one of the league's elite quarterbacks, and a game like the one in New Orleans is somewhat reminiscent of the Week 4 contest with the Carolina Panthers, in the context that if the Patriots want to be a great team, they need to take care of business against the bad ones.
This is a big part of the culture change in New England, building off a signature win against a league superpower by not letting down against a team closer to the first pick in the draft than the playoffs.