Patriots remain contender, but no longer favorites
The New England Patriots came into the season with many believing they could challenge for a 16-0 record. Of course, the only other team to ever accomplish that feat was the Patriots a decade ago, when they ran the table to Super Bowl XLII before suffering a stunning defeat against the New York Giants.
The dreams of perfection emanating out of Beantown were crushed early and swiftly by the Kansas City Chiefs, who humbled the Patriots in their own building, and on national television, 42-27. With the loss, some began jumping off the bandwagon, citing injuries and a 40-year-old Tom Brady.
Predictably, Brady and the Patriots have bounced back. Brady has already thrown eight touchdown passes over the last two weeks and leads the league in yardage, being the only quarterback with more than 1,000. While the defense does rank dead last in points allowed (31.7) and yards allowed per game (461), New England has won each of the last two games by scoring 36 points in each, taking down both the New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans.
With that in mind, the Patriots are tied for the lead in the AFC East and should win the division by Thanksgiving. They are clearly better than anybody in the AFC South and look to be better than anybody in the North, although the Pittsburgh Steelers will stand up and be counted at some point.
However, there is no logical argument for New England being better than the Kansas City Chiefs at the moment. One could certainly say and reasonably believe that if the foes meet in January, the Patriots will win. They are much more experienced, have five Super Bowl rings and the best head coach-quarterback combination of all time. The Chiefs are the more complete roster that also boasts an elite head coach and a punishing defense, but it’s largely a group of unproven players come the postseason.
All that said, the Chiefs manhandled the Patriots in their building. s things look, Kansas City has a real chance to earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. If that happens, and that’s a long way off, any team would be hard-pressed to beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead. While Kansas City has been poor there in recent postseason forays, those teams didn’t have a healthy Justin Houston to go with the trio of dynamic weapons currently employed in Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt.
Perhaps by January, the Patriots will once again be the team to beat. Maybe the road to Minneapolis will go through Foxborough, but that’s no guarantee at the moment, especially considering how well the Chiefs have played against tough competition in September.
What once looked like an easy sail through the AFC is now a match race.
