In the days following the Patriots’ 35-29 overtime to defeat to the Cowboys on Oct. 17, an unsurprising number of voices in NFL media questioned if Bill Belichick’s team was good enough to compete in 2021.
The team’s record had fallen to 2-4 at that point, and even pundits like former Patriots receiver Julian Edelman were unsure of what they were seeing.
“The Patriots just aren’t the Patriots right now, and it hurts me to say this,” Edelman said on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” that week.
Yet Edelman was merely representative of what appeared to be an obvious truth at the time: Close games that New England had spent the preceding two decades generally winning were now slipping through their fingers.