TAMPA, Fla. -- Mike Vrabel was brief in his postgame speech after yet another win for his New England Patriots. Everyone was tired after a hot and muggy afternoon spent facing one of the NFL's top teams. A short week looms before the next game, so the coach's message was simple.

"The most important one is the next one," Vrabel said in the locker room.

That was the message he wanted to convey after the Patriots knocked off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-23 in this stadium, where the Bucs have visions of hosting playoff games in January. Vrabel didn't want to make too much of the latest win, his team's seventh in a row, and made clear that this one meant no more than, say, recent victories over the Browns or Titans.

But the unavoidable reality is that this was supposed to be the game where the Patriots fell off. Where, for as far as this team has come since its four-win season a year ago and for as much as it has improved, it'd be sent back tumbling into reality, foiled by a team that's truly one of the league's best. That the Pats' weak schedule would finally catch up to them.

Instead, what became clear Sunday here is this: The New England Patriots are one of the best teams in the NFL.

They're not just one of the most improved teams or one of the great stories of the season -- though they are both of those. With another win over a Super Bowl contender, the Pats sent a message. Yes, their schedule is full of cupcakes. But also, they can go on the road and beat an excellent team without their A game, which they've now done twice this season after knocking off the Bills in Buffalo last month.

At a minimum, after the Broncos and Colts struggled this week and the Bills lost to the Dolphins, there's a case to be made that the Patriots are the best team in the AFC. And what an outrageous thought that would've been three months ago.

"I'm just so proud of this team," quarterback Drake Maye said after another big day that included 270 passing yards and two touchdowns. "What a complete game."

Maybe most impressive about this win, which boosted the Pats' record to 8-2, is that they didn't play their best -- or at least things didn't always go their way. They let up another touchdown on the opening drive. They struggled to run the ball, save for two long touchdown bursts from rookie TreVeyon Henderson. Maye threw an uncharacteristic interception in the end zone, which gave the Buccaneers life in the fourth quarter. Injuries piled up to the point that Vrabel joked he was tired from jogging onto the field so many times to check on players.

And yet New England played well enough that it never trailed in the second half and had more yards (and more yards per play) than Tampa Bay.

"It was a long game, it was warm, tough place to play, and they're good," Vrabel said. "Our guys played hard, and they earned being tired, and they are tired. We'll have to get them back. We have a short week, and I'm excited to move on."

There are still fair critiques of this team. The running game without Rhamondre Stevenson has been an issue, at least in terms of consistently finding rushing lanes and battling boom-or-bust tendencies. The passing game has taken a hit with Kayshon Boutte out.

But on Sunday, the Patriots' offseason moves paid off handsomely.

They drafted Henderson in the second round because they wanted an explosive back to complement Stevenson, and while Henderson didn't have consistent success, he broke free for touchdown runs of 55 and 69 yards on his way to a career-high 147.

They drafted Kyle Williams in the third round because they wanted a deep-threat receiver who could add speed to the offense. Sunday, in his first game with meaningful playing time because of Boutte's hamstring injury, Williams hauled in a 72-yard reception for his first NFL touchdown.

Even when neither got off to a great start this season, Vrabel kept insisting they were developing and that it would show soon. Sunday, it did.

"If they get going, you're not catching them," Maye said of Williams and Henderson. "I'm just proud of them for stepping up."

There's always a risk in looking too far ahead in the NFL, given how quickly things can change. But here's another reason this win was so important: The Patriots' next three games are against the 2-7 Jets, the 3-6 Bengals and the 2-8 Giants. After that is their bye week.

There's a real chance that the Patriots, cellar dwellers the last two years, could sit at 11-2 entering an off week. There's a real chance they get a first-round bye as the top seed in the AFC.

Without this win over the Bucs, it would've been easy to point to their soft schedule as the reason for success. But the Patriots did two things by beating one of the NFC's best teams on the road. They validated all of their earlier success. And they showed that this franchise, after all the turbulence of the last few years, is back in a familiar place as one of the best teams in the NFL.