None of that matters. Right now, today, the 3 best teams of this early season are in the NFC. Green Bay, Philadelphia and Dallas are all playing much better football than the Patriots. They'd crush New England if they were playing this week. O'Neal doesn't have the defense down yet, Rodney is still struggling with the elite tight ends and Mayo is still learning the game. It's not as if the defense could have kept either Philly or Dallas to 10, or even 20, points last night. As fr the offense, we all know it's a work in progress. Let's not kid ourselves: the Patriots aren't ready to face the NFL elite right now.
Fortunately, New England has time to get its offensive house in order before it plays the tougher games on the schedule. The Patriots should be 4-0, and have had a bye week on top of those four wins to prepare for the tougher games to follow. We know the Patriots aren't going to be bottom feeders, and we'll start to see where this New England team really fits in the NFL hierarchy starting with the Chargers game.