We’re still, as a collective football society, getting used to the fact that the Patriots are no longer The Patriots. The seeming effortlessness with which they dismembered opponents with a combination of pinpoint coaching and surgical, mistake-free quarterback play vanished the moment Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s marriage reached its inevitable breaking point, with both men envisioning a far different future for the franchise.
They are going to fumble away games. They are going to play a boring, guard-railed, hyper-conservative brand of football. They are going to plod along for a bit. They are going to lose games, like they did Sunday to the 5-1 Cowboys, that they would have won a few years ago.