Welcome to the Friday Five!

Each week during the NFL regular season, I’ll drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.

Ready, set, football.

In past years, the Patriots would downplay games like Sunday’s.

They would minimize the stakes of facing a playoff-caliber team on the road. Sunday would just be another game, an opportunity to win and grow. Blah, blah blah.

Not anymore.

Drake Maye confirmed the obvious Wednesday when he acknowledged that playing teams like the 6-2 Buccaneers will prepare the Pats for the second half of the regular season and a virtually guaranteed postseason run.

“I think it’s kind of a start for (the) games that we may have down the road,” Maye said, before adding: “It feels like a game that’s

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