The New England Patriots opened Week 14's action on Thursday Night Football with a 21-18 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers to push their record to 3-10 on the season. After a dominant first half performance, the Patriots did just enough to sneak out of Pittsburgh with a win on a short week, and they have once again put a temporary pause on all the drama-filled narratives that have surrounded them for much of the year.
Considering the nightmare season this team has endured, it was nice to see the Pats fight for a victory over the Steelers after struggling so mightily to score points in their previous three games. It's not as if this season has been easy for the players and coaches; they are trying to win every week, but have largely failed to do so.
However, given the state of the team, it's fair to wonder whether this was the best outcome for the Patriots. They are playing for draft position at this point considering they still are tied for the second worst record in the league, and every loss counts in the race for the highest draft pick possible. While this win was refreshing, it could have big repercussions on the team moving forward.
Would it have been better if the Patriots lost to the Steelers in Week 14?
Welcome to the cellar of the NFL. After two decades of dominance, the bottom fell out on the Patriots this season, and they have a big offseason of work ahead of them. The 2023 campaign was supposed to be the year where they put everything together and emerged as a true playoff contender. Well, at 3-10, it's pretty obvious that has not happened.
Regardless of your thoughts on Bill Belichick and Mac Jones, there's no debating that, from a team-building perspective, losing out is the best case scenario for this team. New England is going to be in the market for a new quarterback after this season, so losing gives them the best chance to add either USC's Caleb Williams or North Carolina's Drake Maye with one of the first picks in the 2024 NFL Draft.
And yet, while the Patriots potentially hurt their draft stock with a win over the Steelers, you couldn't help but enjoy the football they were playing. Zappe struggled in the second half, but he carved up a top notch Pittsburgh defense throughout the first half, and finished the day with a really solid statline (19/28, 240 YDS, 3 TD, 1 INT). It wasn't perfect, but it was a reminder of what competent offensive football looked like.
And so lies the dilemma of being one of the worst teams in the NFL. Tanking, as much as people enjoy the subject, simply does not exist in professional sports. No matter the stakes, these guys want to go out and win every time they take the field, even when, like in this case, it would probably benefit them more if they added another tally to the loss column.
It makes enjoying this win over the Steelers bittersweet. It was entertaining to watch the Patriots actually look like an NFL team rather than a group of guys who appeared to have no business playing football together. But when you consider the potential ramifications of actually winning this game, it becomes a lot less fun.
Sure, the Patriots and their fans want to win, but at this point, every win makes their quest of rebuilding their desolate roster all the more difficult. Even with this win, they still hold onto the second overall pick in the 2024 draft currently, but their margin for error (or in this case, success) got a lot smaller with this win over Pittsburgh.
Right now, New England's main goal should probably be to just make it through the rest of the season without enduring anymore drama or injuries, two things they have had a lot of through their first 13 games. Big changes are going to be made this offseason one way or another, so why not give yourself the best possible odds in a looming rebuild by losing out?
But then you watch tape of the Steelers game, and you remember just how great it is to win football games. It's a complicated situation, but truthfully, New England doesn't have enough talent to decide on a weekly basis whether they want to be competitive. Beating the Steelers was certainly a reminder of what football can be like when the team you support is good, but the Patriots focus should be on the offseason already, and whether they want to or not, they will likely continue to rack up losses over their final four games of the campaign.
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