New England Patriots
A win next Sunday against a banged-up Broncos team would punch New England’s ticket to Super Bowl LX.
COMMENTARY
FOXBOROUGH — The flurries that fell down on over 60,000 at Gillette Stadium weren’t as unwavering as the bands of snow that blanketed Foxboro Stadium in January 2002.
The optics of a fired-up Mike Vrabel clanging skulls with his players along the sideline stands in stark contrast to the stoic scowl put on by Bill Belichick during New England’s two-decade dynasty.
But as The Outfield’s “Your Love’ blared across Foxborough on Sunday evening amid a playoff win over the Texans, the results felt all too familiar for the Patriots and their fans.
With New England now just one win away from a 12th trip to the Super Bowl, the good ol’ days are back. And far sooner than anyone could have expected.
It’s a reality that still feels rooted in surrealism — with Mike Vrabel and the Patriots going from a four-win team destined for a long rebuild into a legitimate AFC juggernaut in record time.
It’s for that reason that New England’s accelerated turnaround — orchestrated just six years after Tom Brady left Foxborough for Florida — has also been buoyed by a sense of resigned acceptance for most fans of this season.
For most fans, the 2025 Patriots have been operating with “house money” for weeks, if not months, to this point.
Amid all of the hope rooted in Vrabel’s arrival as a proven helmsman offering a steadying hand to a rudderless franchise, few expected New England to be a playoff team this winter — and especially not a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
For even the most glass-half-full fans in the region, a successful season was likely going to revolve around eight or nine wins.
Granted, those who preached double-digit dubs were likely met with plenty of eye rolls from pragmatists who — for all of the promise found in Drake Maye’s game — were staring at a Patriots depth chart still seemingly pockmarked with several vacancies.
Sure, the 2025 Patriots were poised to build off of last season’s miserable four-showing season.
Maybe if the cards fell their way and a playoff berth was clinched, Maye and Co. could gain some valuable experience via a brief postseason appearance — offering up hope for greater returns in 2026 and beyond.
Then the goal posts started to move.
Instead of looking like a promising second-year QB, Maye — working in tandem with Josh McDaniels — seemingly had gained the answers to the test overnight.
As Maye ascended into an MVP candidate, offseason pickups like Stefon Diggs, Milton Williams, Robert Spillane, and others carved out key roles — validating an aggressive offseason approach for New England’s top brass.
Vrabel’s arrival — and his vision of a galvanized locker room interconnected with an identity of relentless effort and total buy-in — represented a breath of fresh air.
The wins started to pile up.
But as the Patriots stacked victories and proved doubters wrong with primetime triumphs in Baltimore and Buffalo, there still remained the sense of inevitability of how this season would wrap.
Could it have been the byproduct of New England’s softer regular-season schedule?
Or maybe it was Vrabel’s own musings about the need to “build a program” after New England stood pat at the trade deadline?
Perhaps it was the fear of what awaited in the postseason when matched up against the boogeymen in the AFC like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson.
Whatever the case may be, the achievements gained this postseason were seemingly going to be the cherry on top of what was already a miraculous turnaround season.
Even if New England took its lumps in a wild-card or divisional-round matchup, it’d be easy to spin the positives.
After all, the Patriots were already well ahead of schedule from what was once thought to be a multi-year rebuild. They have their franchise QB in Maye, and an elite head coach in Vrabel.
That duo already offers plenty of hope for the future, as does the boatload of cap space at New England’s disposal this offseason to fix whatever roster deficiencies plagued them .
Most of that outlook still remains unchanged.
Maye and Vrabel represent the foundation that all franchises yearn for in hopes of building a sustainable contender. New England’s defense has alleviated their porous play from 2025.
Without a doubt, the Patriots’ future looks bright in 2026 and beyond.
But now — against all odds — 2025 is ripe for the taking for Vrabel and his squad.
And with a trip to Super Bowl LX just a win away — talk of “house money” needs to be snuffed out as the Patriots brace for an AFC championship game against Denver.
“A work in progress, we are not finished,” Robert Spillane said of how he’d characterize this season thus far.
The Patriots are no longer just “happy to be here”, not in a season where the path to Levi’s Stadium has seemingly been paved from Foxborough to Santa Clara.
For all of the discourse and barbs doled out by national media pundits about New England’s soft schedule, the Patriots had no control over the opponents put in front of them.
Instead, they seized the opportunity — pummeling just about every opponent that got in their way en route to a 14-3 record and home-field advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Along the way, the Patriots’ presumed roadblocks like Mahomes, Jackson, Joe Burrow, and others were all cast aside.
Come the playoffs, New England feasted against a patchwork Chargers offensive line in the wild-card round — pummeling Justin Herbert via eight sacks in a 16-3 victory.
On Sunday, New England’s defense put Houston QB C.J. Stroud in a blender — picking him off four times in the first half as part of a 28-16 win in the divisional round.
Even in an evening where Maye was rendered mortal (four fumbles, two lost), the Texans weren’t able to capitalize with Stroud doing his best Nathan Peterman impression.
Elsewhere across the NFL landscape, the stars aligned for Vrabel’s crew.
On Saturday, Josh Allen — the NFL’s presumed final bastion against New England making it back to the big game — faltered on the big stage in Denver.
And now, the only thing standing between the Patriots and a spot in Super Bowl LX is former New England backup QB Jarrett Stidham — now pressed into service next Sunday for Denver now that Bo Nix is out for the season.
Yes, the Broncos’ stingy defense could still make life miserable for Maye and Co. in Denver, while Stidham could transform into Nick Foles against all odds. “Any Given Sunday” and all that.
“We know the stadium is going to be loud,” Vrabel said of next Sunday’s opponent. “So the louder the better. Every opportunity — I think what we’ve done is we’ve asked them to embrace the preparation, embrace the strain and also enjoy every minute of this. … But mostly enjoy the execution.
“We’ll keep doing that, and we know we’ve got to go on the road to a No. 1 seed in the AFC, and it’s not going to be easy.”
But make no mistake. The Patriots — a battle-tested team already steeled by way of multiple crunch-time triumphs this season — should win in Denver next week.
And after a dreadful drought of just seven years, the Patriots should be back in the Super Bowl next month, with the Lombardi Trophy within their grasp once more.
Few could have expected such a scenario to be tangible back in August.
Granted, August was a long, long time ago. Expectations have changed for this Patriots team.
Yes, it feels like the good ol’ days once again.
Because anything less than a Super Bowl appearance now — amid this opportunity — feels like a waste.
“I like our chances with those guys in the locker room,” Maye said. “It’s fun to be with those guys, fun to show up here and just glad the season keeps on going. Hopefully it goes for a good while longer.”
Do you think the Patriots will make it to the Super Bowl?
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