Late last week, Bill Belichick gave an unusual interview to his former a sistant coach, Charlie Weis, on SiriusXM NFL Radio. It was unusual in its candor and unusual in that it sounded as if Belichick was offering up a series of excuses -- tight salary cap, opt-outs, COVID-19 disruption -- for a New https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/j-t-realmuto-jersey England Patriots season that has devolved to the point where the division torch is not being pa sed by the Patriots so much as it is being dropped and kicked into the gutter like a discarded https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/martin-prado-jersey soda can.Whatever the reason -- the lack of quality skill-position targets that so frustrated last season is high on the list and the absence of Brady himself is paramount -- the AFC East is finally emerging from its two-decades-long Patriots-induced slumber. New England has won the division 11 straight years, but Buffalo and Miami are now in position to make the Pats afterthoughts. To be clear, no team in the division looks as dominant as the best of the Brady-led behemoths https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/neil-walker-jersey did, but then again, this version of New England bears very little resemblance to those teams, too. After losing to the Bills in a game that featured the stop-and-start offense that has plagued them for the last month, the Patriots have dropped four games in a row for the first time since 2002, which just happens to be the last time they failed to make the playoffs with a healthy Brady. That leaves them at 2-5, four games behind the Bills in the win column and two games behind the Dolphins. The last time the Bills won the division was 1995; https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/lewis-brinson-jersey the Dolphins won it in 2008, when Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 1."Frustration level is definitely high," said Patriots running back , who rushed for 102 yards in the lo s to Buffalo. "Moral victories mean nothing in this organization."That's too bad, because New England could use a pick-me https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/nick-wittgren-jersey -up and the offense did show some life in the second half. But maybe that's the bad news, too: The Patriots looked better on Sunday than they did in lo ses to the Broncos ( ) and 49ers ( ), but they still lost. That's the kind of pain New England used to inflict on opponents. Now it is the Pats grasping for something to build on from the ashes of another game.That the single best unit https://www.prideofmarlins.com in the division this weekend might have been Miami's defense -- which made 's debut by forcing two fumbles and two interceptions of his Rams counterpart, -- only amplifies the Patriots' i sues. The Bills and Dolphins have improved -- in Miami's case, while still in the middle of a rebuild -- while New England is substantially worse, suffering from the accumulated lo ses of players who opted out of the season, like , and, of course, the departure of the quarterback who annually papered over a whole https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/curtis-granderson-jersey lot of roster holes. There is distance now between the Bills and Dolphins and the Patriots. Just as daunting for the Pats: There is space between them and other conference contenders for three wild-card spots. There are 10 teams in the AFC with more wins than the Patriots, and two others also have two wins. Seven AFC teams will https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/jose-urena-jersey make the playoffs.It is tempting, with the season near the halfway point, to a sume the Patriots are dead and buried. That is folly. No coach is better at shape-shifting his team to suit its strengths than Belichick, and we have seen New England build in a second-half crescendo for years. But it is obvious that Belichick has little confidence in his offense right now -- https://www.prideofmarlins.com/miami-marlins-jersey/jarlin-garcia-jersey the Patriots opted to kick a field goal on third-and-1 from the Bills' 15-yard line with 12 seconds remaining at the end of the first half, rather than take a shot at the end zone first. Belichick said after the game that he didn't take the chance because it was a "low-percentage play."