Curran: Are the Patriots 'good'? No, but at least they're interesting originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Beating a hated division rival that’s one game ahead of you in the standings? That’s sweet enough.
Doing it at the buzzer? On a punt return? When said rival thinks you suck and promised revenge after its previous embarrassing loss to you three weeks earlier? And then seeing their head coach describe his team’s second half offensive output as "dogs---," the rookie first-round wide receiver question the effort of everyone on offense and the out-of-touch, would-be franchise quarterback say, "Who? Me?" when asked if his offense squandered an amazing defensive performance? That’s heaven.
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Are the Patriots entitled to luxuriate in the warm bath of Jets tears after their 10-3 win? Yeah. For a few minutes, maybe. The weekly goal is to perform better and beat the other team. And despite their still-appalling inability to get into (or near) the end zone offensively, the Patriots did those things Sunday.
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They are nestled nicely at sixth in the AFC’s seven-team playoff field. The Jets are eighth. The Bengals (6-4) are right behind the Patriots and with a Christmas Eve matchup against Cincy at Gillette, New England’s in prime position for a Wild Card if they can just keep bobbing along and avoid their annual post-Thanksgiving swoon.
We had a VERY SPIRITED postgame debate on the telly as to whether the Patriots are a "good" team or not. I say they’re a flawed team with a good record.
You can’t be as inept offensively as the Patriots are -- two touchdowns in their past three games; eight touchdown drives under the guidance of Mac Jones in the six games he’s played -- and think that’s something any objectively "good" team has ever been associated with.
But my longtime friend Michael Holley says any team with a record that qualifies it for a playoff spot is, by definition, "good," since only good teams make the playoffs.