The New England Patriots won their 5th straight game Thursday night with a dominant win over the Atlanta Falcons, 25-0. The win improves their record to 7-4 on the season.

The defense did the heavy lifting for New England, pitching the shutout. They picked off four passes off of three different quarterbacks, including a 35-yard interception returned for a touchdown by linebacker Kyle Van Noy.

On paper, it looked like a complete dismantling, but in hindsight, there are still some things New England will look to fix heading into their next game. Overall though, it was a mostly clean game. Here are three key takeaways from the Patriots victory.

New England might have the best linebacker core in the NFL. They are led by Pro Bowl Dont'a Hightower, who is easily the most recognizable name in the group. Hightower was one of the Patriots players who opted out last season due to COVID-19. He looked a step slow to start the season, but has come on strong of late.

Then there is off season acquisition Matthew Judon. Judon was a Pro Bowler in 2019 in Baltimore when he recorded 9.5 sacks and was one of the feared members of the vaunted Ravens defense. He is putting together a career year in New England this season.

Judon picked up another sack against Atlanta Thursday, and now has a career best 10.5 sacks. That is 3rd in the NFL and there are six games left to play. Needless to say, he is looking at another Pro Bowl selection this year.

That leaves Kyle Van Noy. Van Noy started his career with the Detroit Lions, barely playing his first two seasons before being traded to New England in 2016. He played well at times for Belichick, but was more of a complementary piece. After spending 2020 with the Miami Dolphins, Van Noy is back home with the Patriots and is proving his worth.

Van Noy has become one of the leaders on defense and was flying all around the ball Thursday night. He finished with a team high 8 tackles, a sack and the interception returned for a touchdown. He had such a great night, the NFL had to drug test him afterwards.

Another key takeaway from New England's victory over the Falcons is that the writing is on the wall. The message is very clear on how they want to play the game. Offensively, they want to run the ball down hill and play physical. The Patriots have two running backs that are proving to be very effective.

Damien Harris leads the team in rushing with 603 yards with seven rushing touchdowns. He consistently runs with power, just ask some of the Falcons defenders he ran over Thursday night. Then there is rookie running back Rhamondre Stevenson.

Stevenson was the Patriots' 4th round pick out of Oklahoma. in the 2021 NFL Draft. It was thought that at some point he might be able to contribute, but that has come much earlier than expected. He has over 300 yards rushing with a few touchdowns to boot. But also has good hands coming out of the backfield.

Bill Belichick does not ask too much of rookie quarterback Mac Jones. There are a lot of three and five step drops, and get the ball out. He is very accurate with the football, as seen in his completion percentage. Jones is 3rd in the NFL, completing 70.2% of his passes. He is on pace to break Dak Prescott's rookie record by a few percentage points.

This team wants to run the football efficiently, stay ahead of the chains, put themselves in 2nd and medium and 3rd and short situations, and allow Jones to work off of play action. Until a team figures out how to slow this running game down, they will continue to be difficult to beat.

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The final takeaway from this game is that AFC East leading Buffalo Bills have been put on notice. This division is far from over. Following last season, it appeared like there was finally a changing of the guard in the division. Tom Brady has left New England and the Patriots had their first losing season in 20 years.

Meanwhile, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills made it all the way to the AFC Championship game. Allen is a young star quarterback with an improving defense and one of the best wide receivers in football to throw to in Stefon Diggs. It was believed it was their turn to rule the division.

Not so fast. After the win over the Falcons, the Patiots are only percentage points behind the Bills for the division lead. The teams have yet to play each other. They will square off in Week 14 in Buffalo before matching up again two weeks later in New England.

We have seen Buffalo shrink when teams play physical with them. Look at the loss to the Jaguars two weeks ago. It's difficult to move the ball against the Bills defense in general, but they also have not seen a rushing attack like New England's. Bill Belichick has owned the AFC East for two decades, but particularly against the Bills, posting a 35-5 record against them.

Buffalo, and the entire AFC should take notice. New England is here to stay.