Your love-hate relationship with the 2020 New England Patriots just hit an all-time high on Sunday.

And you were fine with that, because the Patriots didn’t finish low.

You think you fans had it bad? Try the New England players, who jumped for joy when Nick Folk’s 50-yard field goal attempt as time expired went through the uprights for a 20-17 win.

“It was a whole bunch of back-and-forth,” Patriots defensive back Adrian Phillips said. “You start off the game early, you blink and they’re up 7-0. Then you get the big goal-line stop at halftime, ou come out and you take momentum. And the next thing you know, it’s tied up and they have the ball with a chance to win the game and they miss the kick. And then our offense was on the field. So it was a lot of emotions.”

Were there ever. You loved the fact that the Patriots defense basically shut down the Arizona offense – highlighted by the goal line stand at the end of the half – and held the dynamic Kyler Murray to just 170 yards passing and 31 rushing.

You hated the fact that Patriots quarterback Cam Newton threw for just 84 yards on 9 of 18 attempts, nearly 300 yards fewer than the week before.

You hated seeing Gunner Olszewski’s mammoth punt return for a touchdown called back due to a blindside block by Anfernee Jennings, which certainly looked legal but actually, according to the letter of the law, was not.

But you loved seeing Newton rush for a 14 yard gain and then have Isaiah Simmons flagged for a personal foul after a hit that the officials felt was unnecessary roughness. It was a bad, bad call, because it wasn’t helmet to helmet, and Newton wasn’t out of bounds when contact was made. In fact he was barely at the first down marker. But it made the difference in the game.

“I couldn’t tell,” said Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, who was outcoached on the day. “You know, I just saw the replay like y’all did. Looked like the quarterback was still in play, but I didn’t get a great look at it.”

Translation: Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts, we got screwed. But I’m not paying a fine.

You loved it when Phillips grabbed a tipped Murray pass for an interception to help lead to Patriots points coming on James White’s 1-yard TD run that gave New England a 17-10 lead.

You hated it when Cardinal corner Dre Kirkpatrick picked off a horrendous Newton pass at midfield with 4:27 left.

“It was just a bad throw,” Newton said. “For me, I can’t jeopardize this team and put the ball up for grabs, so to speak. I just got to get Damiere a batter ball so he can compete and contest it.”

You loved it when the Cardinals couldn’t take advantage of it, as kicker Zane Gonzalez missed a 45 yard field goal wide right with 1:52 to play, giving the Patriots the ball.

And, of course, you loved it when Nick Folk for the second time in November booted the game-winner as time expired. He booted a 51 yarder to beat the Jets, and yesterday was perfect on the 50-yarder as time expired.

The whole idea? It wasn’t pretty, but the Patriots are still breathing, now at 5-6, with two games at Los Angeles coming up.

“I said in the locker room, I’d rather have an ugly win rather than a pretty loss, if that makes any sense,” Newton said. “I don’t even know if that even exists.

“We didn’t play our best game offensively, but when we needed it, we got the job done. That’s all the counts.

Love beats hate again.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK on twitter, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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