The New England Patriots aren't off to a great start in the post-Tom Brady era, locking up their first losing season since 2000 and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2008. Monday night's 38-9 loss to the Buffalo Bills demonstrated how far the Patriots have fallen, as the 29-point defeat was the worst loss for New England under Bill Belichick since Week 1 of the 2003 season -- when the Patriots lost by 31 points to the Bills.
This was the second-worst loss for the Patriots -- in terms of point differential -- under Belichick. Even in Belichick's first losing season with New England (2000), the Patriots' biggest loss was by 25 points. The Patriots haven't lost double-digit games in a season since 2000, which they will achieve if they lose to the New York Jets Sunday.
In typical Belichick fashion, he gave a basic answer toward why the Patriots were blown out by the Bills. This certainly wasn't the season he expected.
"It was obviously a good performance today by Buffalo. They have a good team. They're well-coached. They played well tonight," Belichick said to reporters after the game. "Yeah, we just weren't able to do much in any phase of the game. They outplayed us across the board, outplayed us and out-coached us. They did a good job. They're a very good football team. We can see why they're the AFC East champions this year. They deserve to be.
"They're certainly the better team tonight. Better than we were in all phases of the game: offense, defense, special teams, playing, coaching, fundamentals. They did a better job than we did."
Belichick continues to worsen his record without Tom Brady, certainly a stain on his resume he'd like to eliminate. Belichick is 219-64 with Brady as his starting quarterback -- and 60-72 without. The last time the Patriots had a losing season was 2000, when Brady was on the roster but played one game as a backup behind Drew Bledsoe. Belichick and the Patriots haven't had a losing season until Brady departed.
The Patriots are in the midst of a rebuild and Belichick deserves every opportunity to get them back to the top of the AFC East. This task will be a lot tougher with the emergence of the Bills and Miami Dolphins in the AFC East, something the Patriots have always have a stranglehold on in the Brady years.
