We have a tendency as human beings to overreact to whatever happened most recently. We can't help it.

So coming off Sunday's imperfect 26-19 Patriots victory over the Jets, you're naturally hearing about a lot of the specifics. A.J. Brown becoming Dr. Droppopotamus, three more injuries to the offensive line, TreVeyon Henderson's and Pop Douglas' fumbles, Romeo Doubs' shoulder injury, a leaky defense -- it's all part of the standard day-of and day-after understanding of the game that just took place. Natural stuff.

Yet with this one coming ahead of a short week, it's worth taking at least one moment to take stock of what the Patriots have done over the past three weeks. Because despite what some might say, it was not easy.

Think back to that shellacking in Jacksonville at the hands of the Jaguars. Drake Maye had turned into a pumpkin, and everyone who claimed the 2025 Patriots were entirely a product of their easy schedule were taking their victory laps. With injuries piling up every week and a trip to Buffalo next on their docket, the Patriots were expected -- rightfully so -- to take their beating at the hands of the Bills and then try to reevaluate their plans after starting the year 1-3.

Yet of course, they went into Buffalo in Week 4 and beat the Bills, something no other team has been able to pull off this year. Drake Maye was back and in a number of ways, the season was saved.

They then went into a matchup with the undefeated Raiders without their two starting cornerbacks plus two backups. They won by 28 points.

And that set the stage for Sunday, where if not for the aforementioned drops and fumbles, they would have won via blowout yet again. To be sure, they were fortunate to be facing an inferior opponent like the Jets, or else those miscues likely would have led to this one flipping from a W to an L.

You could harp on that reality of what almost was, or you could recognize that the past three weeks as a whole have been pretty impressive. The Patriots, despite their dastardly and daunting schedule, are 4-2. Meanwhile, the Superteam Rams™ are 2-4 and can't even beat the Cardinals. The rejuvenated Chargers, who are pairing mastermind Mike McDaniel with wunderkind Justin Herbert, are 0-6. The reigning-champion Seahawks are 3-3. The entire NFC East is a massive disappointment.

All of which is to say, we all had expectations and predictions and beliefs about what would happen in the 2026 season. Some of them were dead wrong. Meanwhile the Patriots, despite making it a bit iffy through the first three weeks of the year, remain on track to fulfill even the more optimistic expectations laid out for them. They won't be raising a banner for that, but through a little more than a third of the season, that's at least one accomplishment worth recognizing.

With the big picture covered, here's what we learned from Sunday's win over the Jets.

-- A.J. Brown's drops were nothing short of stunning. He was moving well (great news) and getting open (better news), but he ... couldn't catch. Nobody saw that coming. Depending on whichever stat site you might see, he was credited with two or three drops. But five passes hit his hands without resulting in a catch (the oddly overturned-on-replay one, the deep shot up the right sideline that grazed his fingertips because he misread it, the back-to-back drops on third and fourth down in the third quarter, the slightly off-target but still catchable end zone pass), and an All-Pro receiver should be expected to handle most, if not all of those.

Nevertheless, rust, discomfort, or any other explanation there is reasonable. Fair enough. The one play where none of that should apply is on the mishandled onside kick. He should have simply handled the football, but with safety Dane Belton bearing down on him, he shied away from contact and booted the ball. It happens. Yet instead of looking up and trying to recover the ball, Brown simply buried his head into the turf in disappointment. The ball rolled right past where his outstretched arms could have recovered the football.

Not even trying to recover the football is something that would get a lesser player benched the next week. That won't happen with Brown, but it was perhaps an indication that he doesn't have the right spirit to be on the hands team.

-- P.S.: A.J. Brown also fumbled on one of his three catches.

I assume Brown -- who's caught 577 passes in the NFL -- will be fine, and that this was a combination of having his timing off, getting comfortable with his ankle, and trying to do too much in his first home game with the Patriots. The man described Foxboro as being close to heaven earlier this year, so don't discount that last part.

But he might have used up a season's worth of gaffes in this one game. And once again, he and the Patriots are fortunate that they came against the Jets.

-- It's not Romeo Doubs' fault that he injured his shoulder while catching a 42-yard touchdown in the first quarter. It did, however, continue the trend of Doubs doing a one-step-forward, two-steps-back routine just about every week this year.

It was noteworthy that Doubs fell to the turf while hauling in passes a lot during training camp, so it was a bit surprising to see him suffer an injury doing exactly that.

This injury is significant enough for Doubs to land on IR, which means he will miss at least the next four games -- at Chicago, at Miami, home vs. Green Bay, and in Germany against the Lions. The bye week follows that game, so he'll be eligible to return in Week 12 in L.A. against the Chargers.

Notably, the Patriots have already used up three of their eight slots to return players from IR. One would assume that Mack Hollins will definitely account for another, and Doubs would be a fifth. Considering the crisis on the O-line, Greg Van Roten would be an obvious selection when/if he's healthy again. That means the Patriots might have to make a decision on players when they get healthy, as they may need to save a spot or two for activation for later in the year.

Ultimately, it does feel as though the onslaught of injuries will be too much to overcome. For the time being, though, they're staying afloat.

-- Perhaps you disagree, but for my money, the most remarkable part of the Patriots' performance came when they ran it down the Jets' throats while utilizing a fourth-string guard on one side, a third-string guard on the other, a rookie at right tackle, all while the free-agent fullback is on IR.

I don't know how they did it. I've watched it twice. They just did it.

I will say this: Corey Kiner moves decisively and fast behind the line of scrimmage. He hits the holes hard and has enough wiggle to at least avoid getting squared up, which allows him to at least gain positive yardage -- which he did on all 11 of his carries, including eight straight runs in the fourth.

The real perplexing part was that they didn't give Kiner a ninth straight carry. Instead, they gave the third-and-3 handoff to Rhamondre Stevenson, who came up a yard short. You have to feed Kiner! Everybody knows that.

-- Box score watchers won't be impressed by Drake Maye, but he was the difference in this one. When the Jets only rushed three, Maye patiently waited for Doubs to run himself open for the long TD. When the Jets again rushed three, dropping Will McDonald as a spy, he ran around and waited for Douglas to spring himself free.

When the Jets continued to send pressure from Maye's left side, he calmly rolled right and threw on the money along the sideline. When the pocket collapsed, he blasted up the middle, gained 21 yards, and slid to avoid damage. (Though he's still not a great slider. Gotta work on that.)

Maye's numbers were whatever, thanks in large part to Brown's drops, but watching this game, it was evident that the Patriots still have their difference-maker.

Also, you'd think that someone -- including Tom Brady himself -- would have thrown at least 3 TDs in three straight games sometime between 2014 and 2026. Alas, Maye accomplished what turns out to be a rare feat for Patriots quarterbacks.

-- Christian Elliss has been playing big all year, and he had a massive showing against the Jets. Admittedly, New York was gashing the New England defense for much of the first half. But in gotta-have-it moments, Elliss and Robert Spillane stepped up to put an end to it.

When the Jets went for it on fourth-and-2 early in the second, Spillane made the initial contact to wrap up Braelon Allen at the line of scrimmage, but Elliss came in and drove the running back backward to force the turnover on downs.

On the next New York drive, Allen and Isaiah Davis ran three times for 23 yards. On a second-and-1, Elliss worked back against traffic to fill a gap, find Davis and drive him backward. On the next play, a third-and-1, Elliss rushed along the line of scrimmage from the left edge and barreled into Davis, stopping him for no gain.

Glenn Gleason-NBC Sports Boston

Glenn Gleason-NBC Sports Boston

Geno Smith couldn't convert the QB sneak, leading to the Patriots' field-goal drive that put them up 10-3.

-- Defensively, the Patriots got tons of contributions, with Christian Gonzalez being one key element and the pass rush being the other. With Gonzalez, it's kind of expected at this point, but he locked down Garrett Wilson, thus removing the Jets' biggest (and only?) real game-breaking threat.

The pass rush, though, continues to be the surprise of the season. This time, the big fellas were involved, with Christian Barmore and Milton Williams each recording a sack on back-to-back plays to force a Jets punt. Elijah Ponder also recorded a third-down sack, bringing his season total to 5.5. Only Will Anderson Jr. and Greg Rousseau have more sacks than him. That's in the entire NFL. Will Anderson. Greg Rousseau. Elijah Ponder. (And two other guys.)

Will Ponder remain on pace for 15.5 sacks, which would tie him with Matthew Judon for third-most in Patriots history? Probably ... not? At some point this season, that answer seems like it might flip, as Week 1 remains the only game this season that he hasn't laid hands on a quarterback.

-- Pop Douglas had, by many standards, a very effective game. One of his best. He tied a career high with seven receptions, he recorded his third-most single-game receiving yards with 86, and he scored the ninth touchdown of his career. Very good.

Yet any time people watch you on the field and immediately say, "Oh no, he's doing the Brandin Cooks thing," then you've got to get back to basics.

Silver lining to that play: Look at that protection. All the linemen held up. Stevenson got "beat" to some extent, but he kept Will McDonald out of the pocket long enough for Maye to launch downfield.

-- As mentioned earlier, the offensive line is a crisis. The Patriots were prepared to lose a tackle for a spell this year, thanks to drafting Caleb Lomu in the first round. That alone is no guarantee that Lomu would be able to play, but he can. That's going to be a comfort if Morgan Moses is out for a long time, but it's also still a tenuous situation, with Will Campbell battling his own knee injury on the left side.

Inside though, it's a mess. From starter Mike Onwenu, to Greg Van Roten and Ben Brown, the team had to move to the fourth string with Matt Pryor on Sunday. And Alijah Vera-Tucker's hamstring injury led to Walter Rouse filling in, after Rouse had been passed over by Pryor on the depth chart. They ran out of healthy linemen by the end of the game.

How they play a 60-minute, real, live NFL game on Thursday night, given the state of that O-line, is anyone's guess.