There has been a feeling watching the Patriots early this season that they are hanging on by their fingernails, surviving and advancing through a series of clunkers, waiting for the holes in their roster and in their attack to be stitched up and for the seamlessness to arrive. Maybe it will never come, not even when a physically compromised Gronkowski finally returns. Still, the Patriots were able to stun the New Orleans Saints 30-27 on Sunday — not with dazzling talent, but with relentless resourcefulness. [X]