It wasn't pretty, but the New England Patriots left State Farm Stadium on Monday night with a much-needed win over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Patriots defense took advantage of a Cardinals offense that lost quarterback Kyler Murray to injury after three plays, while also forcing two turnovers (including a fumble return touchdown) in a 27-13 victory.
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The offense didn't show much improvement for the Patriots, but there were a few positives, including the offensive line giving up only one sack and the run game averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Patriots quarterback Mac Jones completed 24 of 35 pass attempts for 235 yards with zero touchdowns and one interception.
New England now sits in the AFC's third wild card spot with four games remaining, setting up what should be an exciting and chaotic end to the regular season.
The Patriots will remain on the West Coast as they prepare for a Week 15 matchup with Josh McDaniels and the Las Vegas Raiders. Before we look ahead to that game, here are four takeaways from Patriots-Cardinals.
New England Patriots
In a playoff spot
It's kind of hard to believe because of how poorly they have played over the last few weeks, but the Patriots will enter Week 15 in a playoff spot.
The Patriots are 7-6 and occupy the third wild card playoff spot as the No. 7 seed in the AFC. The Jets and Chargers also are 7-6, but New England owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over New York and the win percentage in conference games tiebreaker over Los Angeles.
FiveThirtyEight's predictive model gives the Patriots just a 39 percent chance to reach the postseason as a result of Monday's win.
The Pats have a pretty tough schedule to end the regular season. Their easiest matchup -- at least on paper -- is next week's road game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The final three matchups are all against likely playoff teams: Week 16 versus the Cincinnati Bengals, Week 17 versus Miami Dolphins and Week 18 at Buffalo Bills. Those three opponents have a combined record of 27-12.
The Patriots probably need at least two more victories to secure a wild card playoff berth, which makes Sunday's showdown against the Raiders a must-win matchup.
The good news for the Patriots is they control their own destiny at this juncture.
Injuries, injuries and more injuries
The story of the first half was several players on both teams picking up injuries that knocked them out of the game.
Just three plays into the night, Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray suffered a scary-looking non-contact knee injury and had to be carted off the field. Early reports indicate Murray likely has a torn ACL.
Patriots wide receiver DaVante Parker (head), running back Rhamondre Stevenson and cornerback Jack Jones (knee) all got banged up in the first half. The Patriots announced in the second quarter that Parker and Jones would not return. Stevenson returned to the game in the second quarter but was eventually ruled out in the third quarter.
Cardinals running back James Conner also suffered an injury in the second quarter but returned to the game before halftime and scored a go-ahead touchdown to put Arizona up 13-7.
Cardinals cornerback Marcus Wilson (stinger) left the game in the first half and didn't return.
The last thing the Patriots needed with a short week to prepare for Week 15 was a bunch of injuries Monday night. Unfortunately for the Pats, they will leave Arizona with several key players nursing injuries.
Josh Uche plays key role on defense
The Patriots desperately needed one of their young linebackers to step up and be a difference maker this season and long term, and Josh Uche is filling that role.
He gave an excellent performance Monday night, tallying five tackles, three sacks and four QB hits. His pressure on Cardinals quarterback Colt McCoy on a late third quarter throw resulted in an interception by rookie cornerback Marcus Jones.
Uche now has 10 sacks and he's played in 11 of the team's 13 games this season. All 10 of those sacks have come since Week 8, which is the most in the league over that span. He entered 2022 with just four sacks in his first 21 career games.
Uche's improvement this season has been one of the most encouraging developments for a Patriots defense that's played pretty well through 14 weeks.
Rookie running backs show potential
The Patriots went into Monday night with Damien Harris (groin) inactive, and then they lost Stevenson (ankle) for the entire second half. Without their top two running backs, the Patriots turned to a pair of rookies, and both of them played pretty well.
Kevin Harris ran for 26 yards on eight carries, including the Patriots' first touchdown on a 14-yard run in the opening quarter.
Pierre Strong Jr. played a huge role on the Patriots' first drive of the second half. He caught a pass for 16 and ran for 44 yards to help set up a game-tying field goal by Nick Folk.
Strong found the end zone in the fourth quarter as the Patriots opened up a two-score advantage.
Harris and Strong combined for 116 total yards and two touchdowns on 15 touches.
We don't yet know the severity of Stevenson's ankle injury. Harris has missed four of the team's 13 games so far. The Patriots might need to play these rookie running backs more than expected over the final four weeks of the season. And after how well they played Monday night, both Harris and Strong should have plenty of confidence in their abilities going forward.