Patriots coach Mike Vrabel celebrates a TD with his players during Sunday night's win in Buffalo over the Bills. (AP photo)

The light didn’t blind them.

No, the New England Patriots were ready for prime time, as their 23-20 nationally televised win over the Buffalo Bills showed.

Good thing, because they could possibly have to get used to it. It’s possible – just possible, mind you – that when the Patriots leave Gillette Stadium after their game Nov. 2 with the Atlanta Falcons that they could be riding a six-game win streak at 7-2.

Yes, that’s a long, long way off, but they’ve won back-to-backs for the first time in a few years with their bigget regular season win since, dare we say, their 14-10 win at Buffalo in early Decmber of 2021, also in prime time (Monday Night Football). You may remember that was the game when a tough swirling wind made it almost impossible to pass and then coach Bill Belichick just ran and ran and ran.

Of course a month later New England returned and got crushed in the Wild Card round .

Ahh the memories. Recent memory of a year ago, in comparison, tells us that today the Patriots are in far better hands with Mike Vrabel running things.

You’ve seen the video of Vrabel, as he normally does, greeting each and every player as they walk to the locker room door. Now that’s a players coach.

The victory over the Bills was important because it basically tells the players that the system, atmosphere, etc. that Vrabel has tried to install and create is the way to go.

“I don’t know how you necessarily define that,” Vrabel said Monday. “Just trying to showthem what they’re capable of doing when we can do it together in all three phases and play up to our identity, because it wasn’t great.

I thought we played really hard. I thought we flew around on defense. I thought we tried to hammer the football out. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t….

“I think that we continue to show them those things and what we need to improve the things that we do well. I do think that they are tryng to uphold the style of play that we want to play with.”

That style will vary at times depending on the opposition, but Vrabel had his players prepared for a hard-hitting battle. A physical game in which both teams are giving it maximum effort. They were able to stop the Bills running game from killing them, able to keep it from becoming a track meet, etc.

But back then the Patriots had rookie Mac Jones. This time they had second year QB Drake Maye, whose legend may have been born on Sunday night. Maye established a rapport with the fired-up Stefon Diggs that we hadn’t seen in the first four games. The play that Maye made to start the game winning drive, getting a pass off milliseconds before he hit the ground is certainly one that will be part of Patriots lore if this season and Maye’s career are ultimately a success.

But it was huge for the aura of a football team. Don’t discount it.

“It was an 8-yard loss turned into a 12-yard gain,” Vrabel said. “He’s continuing to grow and gain confidence, and show us, show everyody, show his team and himself the ability to operate in the picket, ability to operate in scheduled, move the pocket plays and then also off-schedule.”

The key words: Show himself. The Patriots showed themselves a lot on Sunday night. They showed themselves that if they execute the game plan, surivive the blips and bumps that will no doubt occur, that they can win football games.

And when they do, Vrabel will be their biggest fan.

“I’m happy for the players,” said their coach, a former player. “I’m always happy for the players. They’re the ones that go out and do it. …

“This is a long haul here. We’re just past the quarter pole here and we’ve got a long way to go.”

But now the Patriots know the route to take.

AFC

1.Buffalo (4-1). 2. Pittsburgh (3-1). 3.Indianapolis (4-1). 4. Kansas City (2-2). 5.Denver(3-2).

NFC

1.Philadelphia (4-1)*. 2. Detroit (4-1). 3. Green Bay (2-1-1). 4.San Francisco (4-1). 5. Tampa Bay (4-1).

*Not Including Thursday Night game