Wow. And here I thought we’d be getting a nice, relaxing bye week. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. Morale couldn’t have been much higher coming out of Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Sure, the defense wasn’t great (more on this later), but the offense looked flat out unstoppable with Brady continuing to light the world on fire every 7 days. Plus, save for a handful of teams, the quality of play in the league is down (Exhibit A: AFC East). As nit-picky as we can be, and as flawed as we perceive them, the reality is the Pats are the most well rounded team with the greatest top to bottom talent in the game. Locally, Chris Price (WEEI) summarized the Patriots first half of the regular season in his “What We Learned Sunday” piece:
“It’s still pretty early, still,” cautioned Tom Brady when asked about reaching the midway point with a 7-1 mark. “We’ve got a long way to go.”
Yes, but with apologies to Yogi Berra, when it comes to the AFC East, it’s getting late early. The Bills are starting to fade. The Dolphins are wildly inconsistent and the Jets are just lucky to be 3-5.
In other words, rinse and repeat. Don’t be the guy that picks against the Pats in the AFC East before the season starts. Until proven otherwise, the division goes through New England, no matter what the circumstance.