OK, well there has been a HUGE debate for the past decade about what is the Patriots secret sauce. I've always maintained it was Belichick, and been in a distinct minority, with most people saying it was either a combo of Brady and Belichick or that it was all Brady. It's still way too early to tell ... but IMHO, the Patriots aren't even missing a beat. In contrast, Brady has a very good coach in Arians, exceptional WR's in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and to complete that embarrassment of richest receiving he has TE's such as young stud OJ Howard and All-Pro Gronk out of retirement! He's behind a good OL. He scored 23 points and lost with a passer rating of 78.4.
I fully expected the Patriots to win this game, and frankly, I'm pleasantly surprised we made it that close. I fully expect and predicted that the Patriots will win the AFC East. So yeah ... the New England Patriots are good.
Coach Flo is still squarely in the building phase here, and half-way decent pass protection from our OL is nearly a miracle of improvement. If we can keep that up, there's a lot of reason to rejoice. So let's not get down on losing at New England ... let's look at the positives upon which we can build. People thinking the Patriots were dead when Brady left are simply buying into the brainless media hype. Belichick was always the secret sauce ... not his coaching staff, not his players--Belichick himself.
Losing stings, but making it a habit is what crushes careers. Time to put this behind us and build.