Call it a movement game.

Call it a checkpoint game, as my friend Tom E. Curran did on Patriots Pregame Live.

Call it a truth-serum game, the kind where you find out what a team really is, as my friend Michael Holley suggested.

Whatever you wanted to call it, Sunday’s matchup between the Patriots and the Buccaneers represented an opportunity. It was an opportunity for Mike Vrabel’s club to go from being considered a good team — a team contending for a division title, a team contending for a home playoff game — to something else.

By beating the Bucs as they did, 28-23, they now have to be entered into the conversation of championship-contending teams. Call it like you see it. All they’ve done over the course of the last seven weeks is beat everyone in their path. At home. On the road. Good, bad and in between.

And make no mistake about it, the Bucs are good. 

They came into the game at 6-2, leading the NFC South with the help of one of the league’s best defenses. Even after a bye, even in the heat and humidity of Raymond James Stadium, even with a late turnover that nearly flipped the outcome, they couldn’t stop the Patriots.

Unbelievably, the Patriots are playing like one of the best of the best in football. Time to acknowledge them as such. That’s movement. That’s the truth.

Let’s get to this week’s What We Learned…

Speed kills (Part 1)

The Patriots racked up three touchdowns of over 50 yards to take down what was the third-best defense in football coming into the week, based on EPA per play. All three scores came from rookies who had been waiting for true “breakout” moments.

The first came from Kyle Williams, a third-rounder out of Washington State, who caught a crosser and outran the Bucs for 72 yards. He hit 21.78 mph, per NextGen Stats, which made him the fastest rookie ball-carrier of the season.

“It was sensational,” Williams said. “I don’t think words could really put an explanation on that feeling. We got the look that we wanted. Shout-out to Drake [Maye] for making an alert on that play. He gets to pick one or two, and he picked me, and then once the ball was in my hands, I [saw] green grass. Then it was bon voyage after that.”

For Williams, his moment to end the first quarter was the culmination of a great deal of work behind the scenes. After having spent most of the year focused on all three receiver positions, having received reserve reps in practice, he got more volume this past week and was able to zero in on one position.

With fellow wideout Kayshon Boutte — the team’s top explosive play threat this season — out with a hamstring injury, Williams stepped up and provided a big play of his own.

“Kyle got out the back door,” Maye said. “He’s fast. You’re not going to catch him. You know, him and 32, TreVeyon [Henderson], if they get going, you’re not catching them.

“I’m just proud of him for stepping up. He only got maybe one target and made it count. Just proud of him for getting in there. He got a lot of reps this week, and there were some times on the tape where he was probably more open, and I’ve just got to look his way.”

“I think Kyle’s play early — we really needed that one,” Vrabel added. “That was the one that we were talking about, just needing one play and he hit it, and it was great to see him have that success.”

Speed kills (Parts 2 and 3)

Williams wasn’t able to hold that title of fastest rookie for long, however, as second-round rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson blasted through the line early in the third quarter for a 55-yard score that saw him reach 22.01 mph.

That figure was enough to make him the fastest ball-carrier of Week 10 headed into Sunday Night Football, and one of the 10 fastest ball-carriers in the NFL this season.

“Just making my regular reads for that run scheme,” Henderson said of the play. “The guys up front, they made it easy for me. They opened it up, really. My biggest thing is to be decisive and hit it once I see it. I thank the guys up front for taking care of the dirty work.”

Henderson nearly matched that feat (21.38 mph) late in the fourth quarter when he scampered for what functioned as a game-sealing 69-yard score.

As impressive as that run was on its own — he followed defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga as a fullback on the play — it was made even more so given that Henderson shook off a knee injury that required Patriots medical staffers to visit him on the field and help him back to the sideline at the end of the third quarter.

With Rhamondre Stevenson (toe) inactive for the game, and with Terrell Jennings (knee) injured early in the game, Henderson and newcomer D’Ernest Johnson were the lone running backs in uniform and available for the majority of the contest.

For Henderson to push through whatever ailed him, hit 20 mph late in the game, and score? He had his head coach — who visited him on the field while injured — lauding him after the fact.

“With Rhamondre being out, led [to] more opportunities for TreVeyon,” Vrabel said. “He battled through on that. I got worn out running out there to see how our guys were doing as many times as I did. But I’m proud of the guys that battled and competed and laid it on the line.”

Maye is the MVP favorite

During Sunday’s game, the DraftKings odds for the MVP race changed.

Josh Allen and the Bills were struggling against the Dolphins. Maye continued to do what he’s done, and he leapfrogged the incumbent as the odds-on favorite (+275).

His touchdown throw to Williams, in the face of the blitz, was placed on a dime while he was getting hit. He later beat a Bucs blitz down on the goal line, on fourth down, to find Stefon Diggs for a score in the back corner of the end zone.

In the first half, against Todd Bowles’ blitzing scheme, Maye went 4-for-6 for 120 yards and one touchdown, giving him a quarterback rating of 149.3 versus the blitz.

Maye took his share of punishment over the course of the afternoon, though he was sacked only once. There was a sequence in the fourth quarter when Maye missed a throw deep to Williams and was drilled in the chest by defensive tackle Vita Vea. He was hit again when he hit Mack Hollins down the field for a 54-yard gain on the very next play. One play later, Maye scrambled when pressured and was hit high while going out of bounds.

“I think you know with Coach Bowles and what he does, they do a great job defensively,” Maye said when asked about the pressure he faced. “They were playing a little bit more in a spy on third-and-long. We have to do a better job getting to third-and-manageable. We’ve got to do a better job of getting third-and-short and making plays.

“But when we were in third-and-long, I was going to try hanging in there. There were times on first or second down [where] I probably could’ve hung in there more.”

All good things come to an end

Maye might have tried to hang in there a little too long on his lone interception of the game. On the goal line, up five points, Maye rolled to his right and tried to hit Hollins in the scramble-drill situation. His pass was undercut by a diving Tykee Smith.

Maye said later he didn’t lament his decision, just the placement of the throw. He wished he’d thrown it closer to the boundary, where it might’ve been beyond Smith’s reach.

“I’m not changing my approach,” Maye said. “I wouldn’t change the throw. I had Mack (Hollins) earlier. Just got to make it him or nobody out there, out wide. You’ve got to be mad at yourself, but you know that you have a chance either to go into a two-minute drill to win the game or go in a five-minute scenario to win the game.

“That’s this league, just bouncing back from it, flipping the page. You want to throw things on the sideline, but guys are watching me, and I think the biggest thing is just to get back out there and to show these guys we’re ready to go for the next play.”

That pick, as well as Maye going 16-for-31 (52 percent), took a chunk out of Maye’s quarterback rating for the day. He finished with a rating of 89.4, ending his streak of eight games with at least a 100.0 rating and 200 yards passing. That stretch placed him a group with Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning as the only players with a streak of at least eight games with those two statistical markers.

Diggs the go-to guy early and late

Stefon Diggs’ seven first-half targets led to three first downs — including a defensive pass interference penalty — and a touchdown. He went into the locker room with five grabs for 46 yards and was a major catalyst for the Patriots offense through the game’s first 30 minutes.

He didn’t see another offensive touch in the game.

He did, however, come through with one of the key special-teams plays of the game. With less than a minute left, Diggs was on the field for Tampa’s onside attempt, reeling in a high-bouncing kick — and taking a hard shot in the process — to secure the victory.

“Game on the line, I definitely want to be the guy out there putting us in a good position to win,” Diggs said. “I play receiver. I should catch the ball.”

Defense cool under pressure

Robert Spillane has been at the center of the Patriots defense all season. He’s been a key reason why they rank near the top of the league in points allowed. And he was in the middle of things again when he and his teammates got a fourth-quarter turnover on downs that helped them win the game.

“I’m really proud of the guys, of how we got some stops — crucial stops — late down the stretch,” Spillane said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we knew it was going to take four quarters, we knew Baker [Mayfield] loves to fight back in these games. I’m just proud of how we finished.”

That crucial drive started slowly for New England. The Bucs picked up three first downs on their first five plays. But after the two-minute warning, the Patriots got a stop on third-and-3 and then on fourth-and-3 to regain possession.

On third down it was the secondary — Craig Woodson and Christian Gonzalez in particular — that rose to the occasion with a sandwich hit on tight end Cade Otton to force an incompletion. On fourth down, it was K’Lavon Chaisson and Milton Williams up front who got to Mayfield and hit him prior to his circus toss to Rachaad White, who was stopped by Jaylinn Hawkins.

“I always love the fight,” Vrabel said, “that’s why I love coaching them. They fight and they compete. It’s not always perfect, it’s never going to be perfect, but I love the way that they compete.”

Contributors of all types

Part of the reason the win in Tampa had to mean a lot to Vrabel and the rest of the Patriots locker room? The positive contributions came from all up and down the roster. It wasn’t all about the quarterback. 

There were rookies who wouldn’t qualify as stars who starred in key moments.

Woodson’s crunching third-down hit was a big play. Williams’ touchdown was the spark they needed. Henderson’s breathtaking scores gave them breathing room. Undrafted rookie pass-rusher Elijah Ponder came up with a sack while working on All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs that resulted in a fourth-quarter three-and-out for Tampa.

Then there were vets, many of them role players and journeymen, without whom the Patriots couldn’t win.

Hollins, on his sixth team in the last seven seasons, led all pass-catchers with six receptions for 106 yards. Chaisson, who signed a one-year contract this offseason, picked up another sack to give him a team-leading 6.5 on the season.

Defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga, one of the most unheralded and best players on the Patriots defense, played several snaps offensively where he bodied defenders as a fullback — including on Henderson’s 69-touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Linebacker Jack Gibbens, seeing more time with Christian Elliss (hip) out injured, led the team in tackles. Backup linebacker Marte Mapu absorbed forcible contact over the middle to draw a painful offensive pass-interference penalty that forced an early fourth-quarter punt. 

“We’re going to need everybody throughout this season,” Vrabel said. “We’re going to need everybody as this thing goes on.”