ORCHARD PARK - Now it is official. The Evil Empire is dead.
What a glorious sentence to type.
If there was anyone clinging to the belief that the New England Patriots are still a force of nature and a team to be feared, the Buffalo Bills shattered that illusion with a stunning 47-17 pummeling that will reverberate in the head of Bill Belichick for months.
This AFC wild-card game was no contest, as thorough a dismantling of the Patriots as they have ever suffered in the Belichick Era, and the fact that it was performed by the franchise the Patriots embarrassed for nearly two decades made this one of the sweetest beatdowns in recent NFL memory.