And Just Like That, the Patriots are in First Place in the AFC East

Life comes at you fast. Even when you're an actress who's hotter than magma and married to the reigning MVP of the NFL. What sounds really funny in February can play to crickets by the middle of October once your husband's team finds itself looking up in the standing at a new power rising in the AFC East. 

Via ESPN:

Last week on national TV, they got beaten at home by an upstart Patriots team that has quickly established itself as a playoff contender. Tonight on national TV, a very average Atlanta team had the honors:

This is what the Bills got a unhealthy diet of tonight. Like a foie gras goose being force fed to fatten up its liver for the slaughter (my apologies, vegans), they got more Bijan Robinson and Drake London than they could possible handle:

And it came about six inches from being much worse, when London went for the end zone as time expired in the 1st half and just got knocked out of bounds:

Still, these two were virtually unstoppable any time they touched the ball, which was early and often. Robinson finished with 170 yards on 19 carries for an average of 8.9 YPA, and a touchdown. Then added another 68 yards in the passing game. London had 10 catches on an impressive 16 targets and 158 yards. And those two alone were enough to stampede a Buffalo team (intentional pun, since I watched halftime and am channeling Chris Berman who only gets like 45 seconds now) that has had very definite Super Bowl aspirations, but suddenly looks extremely vulnerable. 

The Bills defense couldn't handle Drake Maye or Stefon Diggs last Sunday night or Robinson and London tonight. Josh Allen struggled to a 15-for-26, 180 yard, 2 TD, 2 INT, 72.6 passer rating night while taking four sacks, his worst game of the season. Meanwhile, his only QB competition in the division right now is coming off this little gemstone:

I mean no disrespect to the Bills, Allen, or his lovely newlywed bride. And like 3-Ring Club member and future Patriots Hall of Famer Devin McCourty correctly pointed out, in New England don't measure success with being in first place in the division in mid-October, only in Super Bowls:

But when you've only played six games, the only way to measure yourself is against your competition. And the team to beat in the division has been beaten. Once at home by the Patriots, and now in Atlanta. The biggest obstacle is the way, as the Stoics say. And right now New England has stepped over the Bills and is sitting atop the division this late in a season for the first time since 2019, when a very different, much more experienced QB than Maye was under center. 

So it's been a minute around here. But the winning is starting to feel familiar again. A fan base could get used to this. Looking at all the 1- and 0-win teams remaining on their schedule, getting used to it might be a good idea:

Dread it. Run from it. The Patriots return to Dynasty form arrives all the same. And for the division Buffalo has ruled since 2020,  it may very well have arrived in the past eight days.