It’s all so unfamiliar, isn’t it? Disconcerting. Strange. Jarring. Go ahead, pick your own adjective to describe the state of the Patriots after their messy 33-6 loss to the 49ers last Sunday, their third straight defeat.
For the past 20 years, it’s been rare to witness even a single Patriots game in which the offense played as though the end zone were 1,000 yards away and the defense got outmuscled and outhustled. We’ve now seen it happen twice in two weeks, including the previous Sunday’s 18-12 loss to the subpar Broncos.
And so now the Patriots, 2-4 and already a long distance behind the 5-2 Bills in the AFC East, face not only a must-win matchup at Buffalo, but perhaps an official crossroads for the franchise.