New England Patriots: Studs and duds from Week 12 vs. Cardinals

Stud: Grabbing an impressive victory

The ultimate stud that took place for New England in Week 12 was the outcome of grabbing an impressive win against a team in Arizona which has looked dominant at times throughout the 2020 season to this point.

Things have been very up and down for the Patriots so far this year, but on Sunday, they looked to be on the up and took care of business on their home field which has been a rare occurrence thus far in the regular season.

Moving forward, New England still has its work cut out for it, but the Week 12 performance against Arizona was certainly a bright spot in what has been an odd year in Foxborough.

Dud: Slow start to the game

New England did end up storming back and making up for it in the second half of the game, but the slow start from the team was a glaring issue that put the Patriots behind right out of the gate.

Arizona opened the game up with scoring 10 unanswered points to grab an early lead on the road against New England, with the Patriots managing to just record seven points in the second quarter to have that serve as the only points put up on the board in the first half.

In the second half, of course, the Patriots made up for it by starting that half out strong and holding off the Cardinals long enough to put themselves in a position to win late. But moving forward, New England needs to try and take an opposing team out of things right away rather than the other way around.