It looked like Drake Maye and the Patriots were about to run away with another uncompetitive victory.

Maye had just completed his 10th and 11th pass attempts with Mack Hollins coming through on third-and-4 and DeMario Douglas resetting the chains one play later. The offense was at midfield with more than enough time to get into field goal range or, as Patriots fans have seen before, score a late-first-half touchdown. The first slice of bread for the double-score sandwich, right? After all, Maye threw for 173 yards and two touchdowns in 29 minutes against a Falcons secondary which limited opponents to 149 yards passing in 60-minute games.

Then Maye committed a costly fumble and Atlanta recovered. The Falcons gained 44 yards of field position from where New England snapped the ball. Two plays later, Falcons wideout Drake London scored his second touchdown of the game to turn a possible three-possession lead into a seven-point game in the blink of an eye.

It remained tight throughout the next 30 minutes, despite the position the Patriots had put themselves in early on.

 “I look at this game and I think, the Patriots actually manhandled them,” Tom E. Curran said on the Patriots Talk Podcast after a 24-23 victory at Gillette Stadium. “And the only reason this was close was because of the mistakes they made.”

There are positives to draw from it, Curran believes.

“This shows how good the team is,” he continued. “They can play bad and still win against a capable — not a good team, but a mediocre team in Atlanta.

“I look at this game and you had a couple of mistakes, you had some injuries, you had spectacular individual plays made time and time again by Drake London and Bijan Robinson. And I’m looking at it like, ‘Yeah, the Patriots didn’t play bad. They kind of boat-raced them, and this is an apparition that they’re this close here at the end.'”

Ted Johnson echoed similar sentiments on Patriots Postgame Live, noting that Mike Vrabel’s Patriots showed they have a larger margin for error after winning a game in which they lost the turnover battle (2-0), gave up six sacks on Maye and allowed the skillful Falcons to go 3-for-3 in the red zone.

It further proves their lofty potential.

Also in this episode of the Patriots Talk podcast:

Drake Maye showed resiliency despite mistakes

Should we be worried about the hits Drake Maye is taking?

How the Patriots’ injuries could shape their trade deadline plans