Patriots put an impressive end to their four-game home losing streak: ‘We all needed that one’

After starting the season 0-4 at home — the first time it happened since 1993 — the New England Patriots put an impressive end to their losing streak on their fifth try. Welcoming the New York Jets to Gillette Stadium in Week 7, the Patriots put together their most complete game of the season en route to a dominant 54-13 victory.

The Jets never really stood a chance, allowing the Foxborough Faithful to see their team win live for the first time in a long, long time: the Patriots’ last non-preseason win in front of a home crowd dates back to December 21, 2019.

Since that 24-17 victory over the Buffalo Bills 674 days ago, New England has won five more home games. However, all of them took place during the 2020 lockdown season that saw the 65,878 seats at Gillette Stadium remain empty throughout.

Now, that chip finally is off the Patriots’ shoulder.

“It was great,” veteran running back Brandon Bolden said after the contest. “Pats Nation showed up, and they got loud when we needed them to. To give them a win, we all needed that one — everybody as a collective, all of Pats Nation, including us.”

New England started its 2021 season with a narrow loss to the Miami Dolphins, followed by back-to-back defeats against the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last week’s game against the Dallas Cowboys again ended in defeat to drop the Patriots to 0-4 at home for just the third time in franchise history.

Now at 1-4 and 3-4 overall, the team is trending in the right direction again. Linebacker Matthew Judon said so himself after the contest.

“Everybody needed a game like this. The locker room was happy,” he said. “I think, honestly, we just needed to win at home. It was our first win of the season at home. We just need to do that. We kind of need to win all our games; we want to win all our games. But a game like this, hopefully, has a snowball effect and everybody can gain confidence through a game like this and it carries on for the rest of the season.”

Playing two straight road games now, the Patriots will have to wait until their November 14 contest versus the Cleveland Browns to be able to add to their home win total. A first step has finally been made, however.