DENVER — The scoreboard, as it often does, said it all.
Patriots 23, Bills 20.
But what Eliot Wolf saw that night in Buffalo, what he heard, told him even more.
Unlike years past, the Patriots were no longer shrinking from the moment. Anxious uncertainty had been replaced with firm belief. Immediately after the Bills had tied this primetime battle in the fourth quarter, Drake Maye led the first game-winning drive of his career.
Later, a newfound confidence and joy permeated the visitors’ locker room, where players began to think they might be on to something greater than a middling season. A surprise playoff run, perhaps. Maybe a sprint to the Super Bowl.
Wolf agreed.
“It was seeing some of the guys that have been here and been through some of the rough times the last couple of years switch from ‘Oh no, something bad’s gonna happen,’ to, ‘I’m gonna go make a play,’” Wolf told the Herald.
That night, the Patriots won a big game, yes. But what beating the Bills gave them was more than victory. It was proof of concept for an ongoing culture shift under Mike Vrabel.
“I’ve been really impressed with how quickly Mike’s been able to get the guys to buy into that (belief),” Wolf said.
Just as Maye had out-dueled Josh Allen, the league’s reigning MVP, Vrabel and his staff out-coached a Bills team that had lorded over the Pats in the post-Brady era. They had also given players the tools necessary to beat any team on their schedule, confidence included. It was now time to raise the bar, preseason projections be damned.
“We’re all victims of our own expectations. And really, once the game starts, it’s all about what these guys do in between the white lines. So it doesn’t really matter what the expectation is. It matters what you actually do,” Wolf said. “And I’m just so proud of this group for what they’ve been able to accomplish, particularly today. Obviously the defense, but the offense made enough plays to close it out for us at the end.”
Specific to the defense, Wolf suggested that unit best exhibited one of the qualities Vrabel asked his front office to prioritize when rebuilding the roster: play demeanor. A combination of toughness, ferocity and relentlessness. Just like in October, when the Pats first flexed by pinning Allen and the Bills, they out-muscled the Broncos in the biggest game of their season Sunday, the last checkpoint on their Super Bowl journey that began all those months ago.
“Our defense was playing their ass off. And it’s not just the playoffs,” Wolf said. “They have been for a number of weeks. And as the opponents are getting better, I feel like that’s ramped up a little bit. So it’s been pretty cool to see.”
