Yikes.
You're going to be one sad, sad panda around week 11, week 12.
The Patriots don't need to blow teams out of the water by 30 points to win football games. They only need to win by 1. They may have lost some offensive production from last season, but they did fine without Hernandez last year, still have Gronk, have Amendola, Edelman, a top 5 rushing game, a very strong offensive line, Tom Brady, the new kid Aaron Dobson, etc.
In other words, they have plenty to out score other football teams. They may not have games locked up by the end of the 1st half like last season, but they're still going to out produce pretty much every other AFC team on the offensive side of the ball.
The real kicker though is their defense. Last season they were #9 in points allowed with a +25 turn over ratio (+25 is crazy). This was without Talib and without their new safety Rodney Harrison has a boner for (don't remember his name). This was also with Chandler Jones injured for a lot of the season.
The Patriots defense might honestly be really good this year for a change, and if that's the case they'll in the very least be back in the AFC Championship game and better than they were last year.
The only team I can see that could stand in the way of the Patriots this year would be Denver, and Belichick has Denver's number lately. Everytime they play the Broncos, the Broncos get buried. That and Peyton isn't a reliable quarterback in the play offs. The Texans, the Bengals, and everyone else that is looking to step forward is going to have to prove it on the field before I'm willing to believe it, especially after what happened to Houston last year.
Even if you were right, which I don't think you are for even a second, it wouldn't be us that steps up to take the division - it would be the Phins.
Until Brady retires, these threads are just off season *********** material that go up in smoke once post-Thanksgiving football rolls around and they're crushing everyone. The guy is still the best QB in football and makes fools out of every defense in the league except Baltimore's, which no longer exists.
