The New England Patriots won a thriller in Baltimore on Sunday. Despite falling behind 11 points in the early fourth quarter, they managed to fight back and ended up beating the Ravens 28-24 on prime time to improve to 12-3 on the season.

Let’s get into the lessons learned from the game.

Drake Maye silences the critics

After the Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills last week, there was a lot of pointing at Drake Maye never having led his team to a come-from-behind victory in the fourth quarter. Those narratives ended on Sunday night.

Maye turned in a phenomenal performance with the game on the line. In doing so kept the dream of the AFC East championship and the No.1 seed in the conference alive.

(This also was, of course, the second time in two attempts that he has led a fourth-quarter scoring drive to win a game this season; the first came in a tie situation against the Bills in Week 5.)

Maye certainly wasn’t perfect, and he made some huge mistakes that he’s going to have to clean up moving forward, but it’s hard not to walk away impressed with his performance on Sunday night, especially when the Patriots needed him the most. His 37-yard touchdown throw to Kyle Williams was absolute perfection, and the one to Stefon Diggs on fourth down later in the game was just great offense beating great defense; it is almost impossible to play the out better than Baltimore did on that play, but Maye just made a perfect throw for the first down.

Finishing the night with his first career 300-yard passing game, and his first career fourth-quarter comeback made for a pretty good night.

Defense makes the stops when it matters

The Patriots started off the season as one of the best run defenses in the league; they didn’t allow a 50-yard rusher in a game until Week 10 against Tampa Bay. Unfortunately, the next game against the Jets, Milton Williams went down with an injury and was put on IR. Since then, New England has allowed a 100-yard rusher in three out of four games, and, outside of the Giants game, have allowed at least 4.5 yards per carry to their opponents.

Sunday was more of the same. But even though they were porous against the run most of the night, the Patriots defense got a stop, and forced a turnover, to let the offense complete the comeback in the fourth quarter.

They did get some help with the Ravens inexplicably not playing Derrick Henry at all in the final two offensive drives, but they pride themselves on taking advantage of bad football, and that’s what they did. Like it’s quarterback, the defense certainly was not perfect either, and might not have even been good, but they made the stops when needed, and helped the Patriots get the win.

The depth is in rough shape

The Patriots have been a bad drafting team for at least the last five years, and where you can see that the most is in their depth. With some of their starters going out Sunday and in previous games, a lack of depth is starting to rear its ugly head.

Football is a game of attrition, and, for the Patriots to survive in the playoffs, they’re going to either need to get healthy or have some of their depth options step up. They are going to have to ensure their depth in the future, but they are going to have to lean on what they have right now to make a run in the postseason.

Not only do the Patriots lack depth, but injuries to their starters and backups keep piling up. On Sunday night, the list of injuries included the likes of TreVeyon Henderson, Kayshon Boutte, DeMario Douglas, Morgan Moses, Khyiris Tonga and Carlton Davis, among others. Some of them were able to get back in the game, but there are obvious concerns.

The Patriots making it through the next two weeks without losing any more players would go a long way toward ensuring they are in the best possible shape entering the playoffs.

Kyle Williams is trending up

The Patriots didn’t get a lot out of Kyle Williams at the start of the season, but he is starting to come along. His ball-tracking skills have shown up in the last few weeks, and he’s been making big plays because of it. His 37-yard touchdown on Sunday was one of the team’s biggest plays en route to overcoming its deficit.

His speed, combined with the ball tracking skills we’ve seen in some of these games, could make Williams a lethal threat for this offense moving forward. Given the uncertain injury statues of Kayshon Boutte and DeMario Douglas, the Patriots might have to rely on his development down the stretch.

Stefon Diggs comes up big in prime time again

Stefon Diggs has been a terrific leader for the Patriots this season, but his statistics the last three games were the worst of any three-game stretch since his rookie year. That all changed on Sunday night.

Just as he did the last time the Patriots played on a Sunday night — Week 5 against his former team, the Bills — Diggs had a massive game. With that aforementioned fourth-down grab as his biggest play, he finished with nine total receptions for 138 yards.

The veteran wideout has now gone over 100 yards receiving four times this season, and three of those games have been in front of a national audience. Simply put, he just keeps coming up big in the brightest spotlight. Having someone like him elevates the entire team, and gives Drake Maye a guy who he can rely on in the biggest moments.

Andy Borregales looks good kicking in the cold

The Patriots special teams didn’t have a great night, highlighted by a very questionable fake punt, but their kicker had a solid night. There were a lot of questions about whether or not he would be able to kick in the cold, but he has shown an ability to kick in the cold when he has been given the chance. If the Patriots host a playoff game, he’s going to have a few more opportunities to show off his ability to kick in the cold, but he’s passed every test that he’s had so far.

Officials make some questionable calls, again

The NFL having an officiating problem is nothing new, and it was on full display again Sunday night.

Kayshon Boutte was on the receiving end of two bad calls Sunday, one an OPI that was called on 3rd-and-5 when it was simple hand-fighting 5 yards downfield. Then, of course, there was the play where he was tackled on a deep pass late in the fourth quarter. The broadcast couldn’t believe that such an obvious call was missed, and, as it resulted in Boutte getting injured, it was even worse for the Patriots.

Luckily, they were able to score on that particular drive anyway. Still, the level of ineptitude we see from the refs on a weekly basis is unbecoming for a multi-billion dollar league.

With the win on Sunday night, the Patriots officially clinched a playoff spot. Even if they were to lose the next two games, they would still make the postseason. Of course, if they win those two games, they will also win the division, which would be important for morale and give them their first home playoff game since January 2020.

Regardless, after winning just eight games in the last two years combined, and being in the first year of the Mike Vrabel era, making the playoffs is a big deal that should be celebrated. How far they can go is something that we will have to see, but making it at all is an achievement that I did not think they would be able to do this year.

So, they are already playing with house money.

Next game looks fully winnable

The Patriots start their quest for the AFC East crown next weekend in New Jersey against the Jets. Gang Green has nothing to play for, is starting Brady Cook at QB, and was just blown out by the equally-lowly Saints. The Patriots should be able to win this game pretty easily, but the Jets are probably going to be supremely motivated to spoil New England’s postseason plans.

They have to be ready not to fall into any traps, and not give the game away.