Welcome to Season 14, Episode 6 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .

Last week, the Patriots’ challenging task was to prove they could measure up to the Buffalo Bills, the NFL’s last undefeated team, on the road, on “Sunday Night Football,” in prime time and under the microscope.

They did so in a way so fulfilling, so satisfying, that quarterback Drake Maye is now the talk of the NFL , and the Patriots under Mike Vrabel are presumed to be a team to be reckoned with for the first time in a half-decade.

But the tests for an upstart and would-be contender don’t end, they merely change. And so the Patriots’ test this week is this: Can they handle prosperity, and not play down to the level of a lesser opp

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