Dallas outlasted the Patriots 35-29 on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, and the losing continues for this Patriot team that expected much better than this.

The Patriots cannot be faulted for making a business decision to let Brady walk away as a free agent.

The Patriots suffered a tough loss at home to the Saints on Sunday.

Other than SoFi Stadium, which will usually be counted on to have more visitor fans than home fans, the NFL offered its live fans something to really squawk about this week.

The nice thing is when the Patriots figure this out, they will be downright scary once again.

For those of you who never thought that 16 games was not enough, this year you get 17, the first time in 43 years that the NFL extended the length of the regular season.

Mac Jones began his Patriot career with an exceptional, not perfect, performance on Sunday at Gillette Stadium in front of live fans for the first time since January 2020.

Cam Newton took some reps and looked great. Mac Jones took some reps and looked great.

The Patriots have a strong name, and now once again seem to have a strong football team to go along with it.

What actually happened was somewhat comparable to Vince Wilfork falling to 21 in 2004.  Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, who grabbed a ton of national spotlight as he led the Crimson Tide to still another national championship three months ago, somehow was available at 15.  The Patriots wasted very little time in drafting Jones, thereby immediately invigorating all of Patriot Nation. 

It took only 55 years for the NFL to get its first Super Bowl team to be playing in its home stadium.

The Patriots at times looked beaten down and dispirited.  They were mostly in zone defense packages and didn’t show a lot of zeal in playing the Buffalo receivers tight, especially after falling further and further behind. 

The most disappointing element of Sunday’s loss at Miami was that the game was winnable until the very end, and the Patriots didn’t have the material to pull it off.

The Patriots are not eliminated from the playoffs, but their chances certainly don’t look good after Thursday night’s loss.

The 2001 Patriots were 5-5, and came up with a rallying cry:  It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.