Bob George's Archive:

As this season has played out, it has been the defense that has carried this team, and it has been the defense that has been disappointing and taking the Patriots out of possible Super Bowl contention.

Buffalo will be hell bent on revenge, so if the Patriots can beat the presumptive division champs twice, that will put some salve on Saturday’s loss.

The Patriots are now by themselves as the top team in the AFC, as well as the AFC East, with a 9-4 record and a seven-game win streak.

Bear in mind that not one, but two Tennessee Titans running backs eclipsed 100 yards rushing, and neither of them were named Derrick Henry.

The final score was 25-0, but the game felt like it was 45-0 during Thursday night’s Patriots vs Falcons match-up.

Bill Belichick loves to beat the Jets more than any other NFL team. The Cleveland Browns might be number two on that list.

Former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold was picked off three times, one for a long touchdown, and was harassed and hurried all game long by the now-fantastic Patriot defense.

Nick Folk was perfect on field goals all afternoon, and his 30-yarder with 3:16 left gave the Patriots a winning cushion. The Patriots wound up holding on for a 27-24 win over the Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Mac Jones threw for over 300 yards for the first time in his career, both Damien Harris and J.J. Taylor had two rushing touchdowns each, and the Patriots won their first home game of the season with a 54-13 clobbering of the awful New York Jets on Sunday at Gillette Stadium

Dallas outlasted the Patriots 35-29 on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, and the losing continues for this Patriot team that expected much better than this.

The Patriots cannot be faulted for making a business decision to let Brady walk away as a free agent.

The Patriots suffered a tough loss at home to the Saints on Sunday.

Other than SoFi Stadium, which will usually be counted on to have more visitor fans than home fans, the NFL offered its live fans something to really squawk about this week.

The nice thing is when the Patriots figure this out, they will be downright scary once again.

For those of you who never thought that 16 games was not enough, this year you get 17, the first time in 43 years that the NFL extended the length of the regular season.