After failing to close out wins early in the season, the Patriots buckled down and delivered when it mattered Sunday.
We've questioned their heart and criticized their inability to slug it out in games where the points and yards aren't flowing. But Sunday, on the final drive of a 23-16 win over the Miami Dolphins, the New England Patriots strapped in, played like grown men and silenced the last of the doubts lingering from the early part of their season.
The drive was without question New England's best of the year. Miami hit a field goal to make it 20-13 with 8:28 remaining, and the Patriots responded by grinding 7:18 off the clock during a 16-play drive that resulted in a field goal. When the ball split the uprights, the Pats were all but assured the AFC East title.
It was exactly the kind of game New England would have blown or made far too interesting early in the year. Miami suffocated the running game and created enough pressure to keep Tom Brady off balance. The quarterback was able to get the ball to Wes Welker early on, but Welker was limited to two catches in the second half.
Undeterred by the Dolphins' defensive effort, on the final drive Brady put the ball in running back Stevan Ridley's hands and hoped for the best. The first-year starter showed renewed patience, allowing his offensive line – which was without guards Logan Mankins (calf/ankle) and Dan Connolly (back), and employing injured tackle Sebastian Vollmer (back/knee) – to open up holes for him so he could methodically go to work.
Ridley carried 10 times for 46 yards during the drive, and somewhere in the middle of it carried the ball to the right side of the field for an 11-yard gain that put him over the 1,000-yard mark and restored faith to a fan base that once questioned if New England could win ugly.
And make no mistake, the Patriots also needed to prove to themselves they could win in this manner. While fun, it doesn't take much to hang 49 points on a confused Jets team that, to the astonishment of all involved, stood in middle of the field Thanksgiving Day and repeatedly punched itself in the mouth like Edward Norton's character in "Fight Club."
Not that the Dolphins are the class of the AFC. They're more like the boxer you enlist as a tune-up for the fights that actually matter. Just in this instance, the mark had a solid left hook and hung around until the 12th round before going down.
But now that we know New England has heart, we'll soon find out just how strong it is with the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers on the horizon. If form holds, those games could potentially serve as previews of the AFC Championship and Super Bowl.
It will take everything the Patriots have to get through those tests unscathed, plus a lot more guts than what was displayed in Miami. And with tight end Rob Gronkowski (forearm) injured and wide receiver Julian Edelman potentially out with a foot injury suffered Sunday (he was seen leaving the stadium on crutches), they'll have to dig even deeper.
A banged-up cast means earning a first-round by is even more important, so in some ways, the playoffs are starting early in New England.
But now there's a little more reason to believe the Patriots will get the job done.