After Week 8, the Patriots looked as though they were on a fast track to a top-10 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Now, New England is trending in the right direction and still is in the mix for a playoff sport.
The Patriots, who halted their losing streak at four games with a Week 9 victory over the New York Jets, picked up back-to-back wins for the first time this season Sunday. Thanks to a great offensive game plan, a stout defensive performance and a little help from Mother Nature, New England scored an upset over the Baltimore Ravens at Gillette Stadium.
After the game, Cam Newton and Rex Burkhead evaluated the significance of their triumph over Lamar Jackson and Co.
“Not going to necessarily say it’s a turning point,” Newton said, per a team-provided transcript. “We just want to keep getting better each and every week and I think we have been showing that, finding different ways to win, establishing our dominance in the running game, and trying to stop the run as well. Those are all keys to victory for us. And as this season keeps going, we just want to keep transcending upwardly in a way that our team is getting better week by week. We have a lot of young players that have big roles for us and especially myself, learning new things in this offense and getting comfortable. All in all, we just got to keep the ball moving forward and staying focused throughout it all.”
Burkhead added: “It was huge. That’s a great team that we played tonight, give them a ton of credit. I mean, in all three phases they’re very well coached. Offensively, defensively, special teams even. They definitely are a great team and it was huge for us. We were hoping to build off of our win last week against the Jets and we really had a great week of preparation and practice and stacking days on top of each other. So we had confidence going into the game, as long as we executed, controlled the line of scrimmage and were physical throughout the game, we knew we could come out victorious. And that’s what we did.”
The 4-5 Patriots are primed to improve to .500 this Sunday. The Houston Texans have been among the NFL’s worst this season, with both of their wins to date coming over the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars.
