They're not flunking any eye test I can administer, other than that I haven't seen them against any real live juggernaut teams (and by the way... who would really qualify right now, offensively speaking?)
You can look crazy good for a quarter season because you had a better camp (and granted, had the talent.) You look crazy good, even against questionably decent opponents, for a half season, and narratives start forming... but you can still just be "really good."
We're looking at success based on the opposite of "the usual" Pats D - much more man D, with the personnel to get it done. Zero blitzes (i.e., super effective coverages, freeing up guys to eat quarterbacks alive.) Football smarts out the butt, run by talented guys in their prime, a lot of them on the second tour with the team.
I am ready to crown they *** too, but more than anything I am pumping the brakes in the usual sense, not in the sense of pumping the brakes on my own pessimism. My pessimism is me pumping my brakes on my own over-the-moon tendencies.
It's just beautiful after all those years of "bend but dont break" to have teams come in and put up goose eggs.
My only thing is, crown they *** and you've got half a season to defend the crown. Screw that. One game at a time... Sunday they can give up 40. Hate to say it of course, but it's true. Find the weakness on this team and I don't want to be on suicide watch here the next day - it's just adjustments, if you don't get too high or too low. So I just tend to adopt that as a fan, I guess.