Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports Notes, musings, and observations from the New England Patriots’ 26-23 victory over the Denver Broncos. Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all find yourselves somewhere great, with someone great — even if that means you’re all by your lonesome this year. Last night found me at the in-laws, enjoying some prime rib and sipping on some holiday cheer, so I wasn’t able to sit down and fully pay attention to the New England Patriots’ game against the Denver Broncos the way that I usually do. And it’s Christmas today, which will see me hit the road in a few hours to head to my folks house to enjoy some more prime rib and sip some more holiday cheer. So I hope you’ll all forgive me for giving some more general thoughts as opposed to any real analysis this morning. 1. I know that there are some folks out there who see this win as a massive lump of coal in their holiday stocking, as it knocked them down two spots in the draft order and are currently picking fourth overall. Which, as every single online draft expert knows, completely ruins their chances to land a generational, world-altering, 20-0-for-the-rest-of-eternity quarterback and the Patriots are now doomed to decades of suckitude. But for me, that was a great way to cap off my Christmas Eve. 2. Because the Patriots losing on Christmas Eve or right around Christmas seems to have become a holiday tradition around these parts. Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled at the goal line to cost the Pats a playoff berth against the Bengals last Christmas Eve. The Bills beat the 2021 Patriots at Gillette Stadium on the 26th, and the Bills beat the crap out of the 2020 Patriots on December 28th. The 2019 Patriots blew the chance at a playoff bye with an upset loss to the Dolphins on December 29th. So I’m going to take last night’s little holiday miracle as a nice present that I haven’t gotten in a while. 3. And maybe it’s because they won that this was such a weird game. It was 7-3 at halftime with two fumbles and missed kicks and extra point attempts. Nobody on either side really did anything memorable. The game barely ended and I can’t really for the life of me remember any one particular detail about it (though to be fair, that bottle of Booker’s Small Batch with the bow around it waiting for me under the tree might have something to do with that). But New England scored 20 third quarter points and then the rookie who missed from 46 and then missed a PAT crushed one from 56 yards out on the road as time expired to send the Patriots home victorious. 4. Looking at individual stat lines, there’s really nothing that stands out. Pop Douglas and DeVante Parker both had long, contested grabs, but no receiver eclipsed 70 receiving yards. The leading rusher on the day put up less than 30 on the ground. But the offense generated a few solid scoring drives and the defense did what it has done all season. 5. Christian Barmore better get a giant, Santa-sized bag of money this offseason. Eight tackles, four QB hits, three sacks, and two TFLs. Scut Farkus himself couldn’t have been any more of a terror if he tried. 6. It took until Christmas Eve of 2023, but the Special Teams unit finally scored a touchdown. All it took was a re-enactment of Chris Harper’s muffed punt and Cody Davis falling down on the ball in the end zone. 7. For the record, a re-enactment of Harper’s Muff sounds like something that a bunch of middle-aged men would do on the weekends under the guise of “reliving history,” but in reality they just wanted to get hammered and dress in vintage Civil War fatigues. 8. I for the life of me don’t know what to make of Bailey Zappe. He has made some throws this season that I would put up against any other quarterback in the league, and he has made some absolutely horrendous decisions. Shows pocket presence one snap, misreads the coverage and gets strip sacked the next. 9. Well, I guess by “the next,” I actually mean “the very first.” 10. But on his 40 yard throw to Douglas in the third quarter - that’s right, folks, the third quarter. You, know, the first of two consecutive quarters in which the Patriots don’t generate a drive longer that five plays - he sold the play fake, looked off the safeties, felt backside pressure, stepped up, and threw a laser on the run that Douglas high pointed and brought in. He then recognized soft line coverage and threw a simple flat to Zeke who hurdled in for the score. 11. You know it’s the holiday season and magic in in the air when Mike Gesicki registers on the stat sheet. 12. The biggest win, for me at least, is that Bill Belichick would have been 10-11 career against Denver if the Pats had lost that game. The Broncos would have been the only team that he had a career losing record against. But somehow, and for whatever reason, the Patriots pulled it out and all but knocked the Broncos out of the playoffs. Feel free to wallow in the pettiness of feeling kind of good about that. 13. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: screw tanking. This team isn’t one to tank. They want to win and I love them for that. This season didn’t go the way we all wanted, but they’re still getting after it and I’m here for it all. 14. The NFL Draft is a complete crapshoot. There are first overall picks who are complete disasters and 199th overall picks that are the greatest to ever do it. Nobody knows anything. Having a high pick doesn’t mean a damn thing beyond maybe you’ll get lucky earlier. So give me all the wins. 15. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t flipping back and forth between this game and NBC’s annual airing of It’s a Wonderful Life, which I have watched every single Christmas Eve without fail since I was a very small boy. There are a lot of things that are more important in life than Patriots football, and watching that movie every year is, for me at least, for sure one of them. 16. And I almost made it to the end this year without looking like I’d been pepper sprayed - I really did. It was right there. For the first time since I don’t even know when, I was going to make it through the whole movie without melting into sobbing puddle of man-tears. 17. But then Harry Bailey, that son of a bitch, who dropped everything the second he got Mary’s telegram and flew straight to Bedford Falls in the middle of a blizzard, had to go and quiet the room, raise his glass, and say “a toast, to my big brother George. The richest man in town,” as Auld Lang Syne started up on the piano. And that was a wrap for your boy. 18. Even now, I couldn’t even type that without wiping my eyes. 19. And I will never, under any circumstance, stop using this platform and this time of year to state with unflinching adamance that the single greatest moment there has ever been, or will ever be, in the history of film, is George Bailey stopping to kiss the broken newel post on his way up the stairs to hug his children. Whatever it is you celebrate, I hope you all have a great one. Source: https://www.patspulpit.com/2023/12/25/2 ... -christmas
