Perhaps more than any season, they just have to keep coming together. They’ll likely have one more game without Vereen and then the bye week. That should be a great time to get some quality work in. If they get fully healthy, they’re a pretty talented team and should make some noise down the stretch. Offensively, I feel like all the pieces are in place to really put it all together. Vereen, Amendola and Gronk are huge keys to that and all three of them must get back up to speed.
Issues like protection, lack of running attack, etc. can all be worked out and things like that are almost always figured out by mid-November.
Defensively, if you put Talib and Kelly back in the mix and I don’t see how this defense still isn’t better than anything the Pats have had the last three seasons, even without Mayo and Wilfork. For reals.
So I know it’s been sloppy and ugly, but if everyone can just hold on for a couple more weeks, that’s when the season actually starts. Let’s just be happy the Pats are already in a great position in the AFC and barring a huge meltdown, will be back in the playoffs once again.
And as we’ve seen from the average regular season teams that have won recent Super Bowls, it doesn’t matter how you looked in October when you’re playing in January.