The longtime New England Patriots slogan has always been “Ignore the noise”, but it was hard to ignore the sounds coming from the New England Patriots locker room late Sunday afternoon.

Joyful noise.

The Patriots certainly had a lot to cheer and shout about on Sunday after beating the New York Jets 25-22 by inches on Rhamondre Stevenson’s 1-yard TD with 22 seconds left. They were basically challenged by their coach, Jerod Mayo,a week ago and answered it. They didn’t look like world beaters, but they certainly didn’t look “soft”.

More like resilient.

They lost their prized rookie QB to a concussion after an apparent helmet to helmet hit late in the first quarter that everyone could see had him dazed except the NFL spotters whose only job it is to see just that. But in any event, that led to the return of much maligned veteran starter turned backup Jacoby Brissett, who didn’t exactly get a warm reception from the fans upon coming in.

“He got into the huddle and said ‘All right, everybody take a deep breath,'” tight end Austin Hooper said, “All right, let’s go to work.”

Brissett did just that, and led the Patriots to three second half scores,the final one on game-winning, 70-yard drive that spanned 2:35 beginning with just under three minutes to go. His biggest pass a laser as he was being taken down that another outspoken Patriot, Kayshon Boutte, made a diving grab at the Jet 9 with 1:14 left. Pretty much the game’s biggest play.

“Jacoby’s a vet,” Patriots corner Christian Gonzalez said. “It’s not like he’s never been put in that situation. … We rallied behind him.”

“I don’t look at it as no redemption,” Brissett said. “I think this is a testament to me believing in myself and not y’all. I’m very aware of that. I was very fortunate to have this opportunity. To go out there and get a win with our guys, it was sweet. You can’t put it into words.

“I’m not trying to, like, be arrogant or nothing, but I’m very proud of myself today.”

Much more so than the future Hall of Famer down the Gillette tunnel, Aaron Rodgers, who threw for 233 yards and two TDs,but who did not look like the QB who could throw on the run, and be, well, fully engaged. Sure, we all figured he was on the 18th fairway, but yesterday he looked like he was already on the green.

That’s the other thing about this win — it likely buried the Jets for the season. They’re a complete and utter mess. Like the Patriots at 2-6 — but with 10 times more talent and even less leadership, not to mention a trigger-happy owner, Woody Johnson, who keeps shooting his team in its collective foot. Jets coach Jeff Ulbrich called the day “a moment of darkness.”

“Yeah, I’ve been in the darkness,” Rodgers said, and of course we all harken back to his foolish retreat a couple years ago. “You’ve got to go in there, make peace with it. Offensively, our goal has just got to be to score 30. Doesn’t matter what the other two sides are doing. We have trust in our defense and teams, but if we’re not scoring 30, we’re underachieving. This offense can do that every single week.”

But they didn’t, and the Patriots certainly had something to do with that. When at times it looked like they would fade and be talking later about a nice-but-not-good-enough try, they turned it into one of the few wins they’ll get this season. Heck, even another may come next week at Tennessee, which got steamrolled by the Lions 52-14.

But Mayo can now feel that there may have been a method to his madness, that what he preached resulted in the favorable noise heard late yesterday.

“When you preach something and it shows up in the game, it’s always going to be more impactful “ he said. “I would say there comes a point in time where everybody in the stadium knows you got to run the ball. On defense or offense, there comes a point in time where they know, everyone knows, the fans know, it’s a run play. You got to really just defeat the man across from you. Look, fortunately our guys got movement and we scored, so it was great.”

And thus ended one of the more well, talked about weeks of the season in which the Patriots were scrutinized by everyone around the NFL world, more attention than a 1-6 team that was really expected to be 1-6 should get. And all were waiting for the response.

“We responded good, I guess,” Stevenson said. “We won.”

Tom King may be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow King on X (@Telegraph_TomK).