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.

As a team with middling to above-average talent, sustaining a season like the Patriots have requires the proverbial little things.

Winning the field position battle. Limiting pre-snap penalties. Mastering clock management. Going for it on fourth down at the exact right places and times.

Since Mike Vrabel’s hiring, the Patriots have evolved from one of the NFL’s most conservative teams on fourth down to one of its most aggressive. That aggression, informed by Vrabel’s feel for the game and his staff’s use of analytical models on game day, has paid off in spades.

No team is better o

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