Just rewatched the condensed game. If anything it made me feel better about the rest of the season from our point of view.
As much as some here won't like to hear it ultimately it will be about our offense finally coming together not the defense because the Rams, Chiefs, Steelers and Saints don't have a better defense either. In fact ours might be better than any of those teams.
If Gronk is able to get closer to his usual self after the break, Gordon fixes the miscommunication issues and improves in conditioning, the OL can get back to the solid unit they were before injuries started to hit and Brady can settle down to actually scan the field + spread the ball then we have a reasonable shot against any of the top teams. And they have shown at multiple times this season how absolutely unstoppable they can look when things are in sync. We just need to see more complete games.
Is it fair to put that much pressure on the offense and grade the defense on a curve ? Nope. But those are the cards that essentially all of the top teams have been dealt. Either way a ****ton of "ifs" in there but I'd rather have them about the offense than the defense.