PFT on Yahoo sports Peter King Mike Florio all the biggest
stories in the National Football League in the biggest
theme this year has been unpredictability no dominant
team and don't look now but here are the Patriots
technically atop the AFC East by half game they played
one more than the bills at 7 for a surprise are you that
the Patriots are currently leading the division and how far do you
believe they can go
Mike I'm probably a little bit more surprised of the mini
Swoon by the Buffalo Bills I think entering this year we all
thought that the AFC East was sort of deeded to the Buffalo
Bills and they've been quite frankly in the last month or so
pretty
mediocre and the Patriots are they intended I believe to
build an awful lot like they had a decade ago really good
really versatile tight ends the same way they had with
Gronkowski and
Hernandez and now it's obviously Johnny Smith and
Hunter Henry and and play the offense at I-10 Centric offense
with a good and accurate quarterback and have
an excellent defense
with this team right now and look Mike a couple of weeks ago
an NFL head coach and he said I think the Patriots one of
the things he said is I think the Patriots are the best team in
the AFC
rushing about it and they have just been methodically carefully
taken care of their business one week at a time and
meanwhile five straight wins with an average margin of 35 to
10175 250 the defense has gotten better something that
Chris has pointed out on PFT live the defense is
sufficiently versatile that they can come up
with a game plan that will match any offense that they may
see and their offense run-based Mac Jones gradually coming
along gradually maturing operating that offense the way
that they want to be operating almost robotic at time and they
just start checking the boxes one of
the time and they're not going to continue to stay off radar
it to the extent that they ever really do Titans and bills over
the next two weeks big games coming up we will learn a lot
about whether or not they're going to be a high-end
Contender come January when we see what they do against game
against team that will create a playoff-type I think of a Vibe
over the next two weeks especially that Monday night
game coming up at Buffalo that is a huge huge game
well you know they've got the Patriots twice in 21 days in
December and that obviously is going to tell who's going to
win this division but Mike you look at the bills over the next
five weeks starting with the Thanksgiving game in New
Orleans they have
really really tough schedule every one of those teams that
they're going to play could be a playoff team this year in so
look I have got to be right now in crisis mode in a very short
week after losing by 26
at home to Indianapolis that's no matter how they were playing
that's something nobody expected
yeah and that's the thing they were dominant early in the year
dominant and then it all just started to fall apart and right
now the Patriots as much as we don't want to admit it and
I think there's a reluctance to embracing the return of the
Patriots is a high-end Contender but we saw what they
did to the Falcons I-90 at the Falcons and they've gotten
blown out by the Cowboys a few days earlier but they had won
four games somehow this year the Patriots are just taking
care of business one
at a time and we'll see what they can do against these
better teams but Peter you get the talent compress the way it
currently is that makes the Patriots even more dangerous in
a single elimination setting where they've got a coaching
staff led by Bill Belichick
that knows a thing or two about thriving in that setting words
winter go home
they've got five or six players on defense the latest Kyle
Dugger it can be the best player on the very very not
impossible and crazier things have happened that's it for now
thanks for some of your time we'll see you for more PFT on
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