The Patriots Are Fun To Watch, Which Is All Any Patriots Fan Can Ask For

At 3-8 the Pats are where I think any realistic fan thought we'd be at this point. A bad team with no talent that's been belittled with injuries, playing the hardest schedule in the NFL despite coming off a 4-13 season, expectations going into this season were at centurial lows.

At the end of September, however, as the Patriots looked as despairing as any football team I'd seen in years on both sides of the ball, I was struggling to get myself to even watch the games, let alone get up for them. Why not play golf while the weather is still nice? Or watch any other game that's being played in the one o'clock window to see what competent football looks like? I was going on year three of watching unravelling ineptitude and I was sick of it.

Insert Drake Maye.

Hand up, I was wrong. We should've been playing him all along. I couldn't imagine Jacoby Brissett still playing for this team with this peacock on the sidelines frantically waiting to spread his wings. Good call, Jerod. I know, I know, this is why I write blogs and they run the organization.

Since Maye took over, the Pats are 2-4, so this isn't me gloating about how we're the NFL's newest shiny toy. We still stink. We still lose.

But we lose fun. We lose enjoyable. We score points, have chances to win in nearly every loss, and I have reason to spend three hours on a Sunday watching despite knowing the likely outcome before I even sit down.

This is one of the weirder situations I've ever found myself in as a Patriots fan. I root for them to win while expecting them to lose, get excited when anything good happens while expecting nothing good to happen, and get to cope with every loss by watching the team that isn't and never was going anywhere this season climb up the tankathon draft board. This entire season is a win-win at this point.

For years I put as much stock in the regular season as I do Jim Cramer's Mad Money recommendations. Like the Chiefs now, we'd lose the occasional game and watch mayhem ensue as network TV shows overact, proclaiming the team that beat us as the favorites to win the Super Bowl and that we may not be as good as we thought, all the while knowing that our season starts Divisional Weekend. It was fun to win games, yes, but being annoyed about a 10-point win isn't all it's glammed up to be. Seldom are you actually excited or in a good mood throughout the four months, which I know sounds crazy.

I'm currently experiencing one of the more enjoyable regular seasons in a way I'd never thought I'd enjoy. Zero expectations, focusing on the few good things instead of the many bad, hopeful for a prosperous future while not caring less watching the losses stack up. I almost hate how much I'm enjoying it.

But this feeling won't last, it's merely a one season mindset. Next year, assuming the front office does something to improve this roster, my expectations will rise. The mistakes that are made will go from learning opportunities to cautionary trends. The close losses will cease to be draft position losses and become "is this operation working" losses. Us New Englanders can take a one year rebuild, but no one's Family Feud bonus round answer of "We asked 100 people to describe a Bostonian in one word" would be "patient" or "reasonable".

I'm enjoying this while I can. If you're a Patriots fan, you should too.