On Bye Week, Patriots Gain Ground On Just About Everyone

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- The NFL season is halfway over, and the New England Patriots are sitting atop the league standings.

With a 7-1 record, the Patriots are tied with the Cowboys for the best mark in the league. The Patriots own a slight edge in point differential over Dallas, with New England's plus-85 just barely besting Dallas' plus-83. The next-best team in terms of point differential is Philadelphia, all the way down at plus-53, and the next-best AFC team in that department is Denver, at plus-48.

But, stats and history aside, the Patriots emerged from Week 9 of the NFL feeling even better about their Super Bowl goals. And they did so without even playing a game.

Looking around the NFL, one could count on one hand the number of teams that looked well-coached and well-composed. The Dallas Cowboys, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Oakland Raiders all looked good on Sunday. Going back to Thursday, you can add the Atlanta Falcons to that list.

And you can stop it there.

Even in those positive performances, there was nothing overly inspiring in the games themselves.

The Cowboys played the Browns, so that was as close to a bye week as possible. Dallas essentially played well against air.

Andrew Luck threw two picks and the Colts benefited from a kick return touchdown as well as a Jeff Janis drop of what should have been a game-changing bomb up the left sideline.

The Raiders offense played well, but Trevor Siemian's utter incompetence leaves the Oakland defense with an incomplete grade.

There's not much negative to take from the Falcons' road thumping of the Bucs this week, as Atlanta does appear to be a very legitimate contender in the NFC.

But as far as the Patriots are concerned, the picture of the AFC at this moment looks like a circus sideshow.

The Broncos mustered just 20 points against an Oakland defense that ranks 21st in points allowed. Denver gained just 299 yards of offense; Oakland gives up, on average, 398 yards per game. No longer can the Broncos find confidence in the fact that they won a Super Bowl last year with a quarterback who could only throw changeups. The offense (28th in yards/game) is officially a major, major weakness.

The Steelers got Ben Roethlisberger back, though he may not have been 100 percent. Regardless, from top to bottom, the Steelers' performance against a divisional rival could be summed up in four letters: F-L-A-T. Le'Veon Bell was reduced to looking like the robotic tackling dummy at Dartmouth from that commercial, while rookie cornerback Artie Burns got abused by Joe Flacco.

The Chiefs, another theoretical contender in the AFC, could barely fend off the Jaguars. At home. And that's largely thanks to a botched call by the officials (thanks to Dean Blandino, though, for sharing a bunch of bad angles for all of us plebeians.)

The AFC North and South divisions are currently being led by the Ravens and Texans, respectively. Neither team is very good. The Colts are in second place in the South, but there won't be too many people (save for some folks in the Indy media) who would be giving the Colts even a puncher's chance in a playoff game in Foxboro, if it were to happen this coming January.

Within the division, the Jets fell further back after undergoing a thorough Fitzpatricking in Miami. And the Dolphins -- a team that is winless on the road this year and also got lit up by the tandem of Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett -- present no real threat to standing in the way of the formality that is New England's AFC East crown.

For a true look at the AFC, see how many teams have managed to maintain a record better than .500 through the first half of the season:

What you have in the conference is a crowded basement, a thin and flawed middle class, and one top-end team. And through nine weeks, no team has risen to the challenge of being a bona fide contender to stand in the way of New England this year (though an Oakland-New England postseason rematch 15 years after the infamous Snow Bowl/Tuck Rule Game would be fantastic theater and would also have the people in charge of firing the Upset Alarm at the ready).

As far as the road ahead, the Patriots will be tested this coming Sunday night at home vs. Seattle. But even including that game, the combined record of their remaining opponents in the final eight weeks of the season is 28-37-1. Only Seattle and Denver own records better than .500. For the seventh straight year, the Patriots will win at least 12 football games. In all likelihood, they'll end up in their sixth straight conference championship game. And, barring disaster, they'll likely be hosting it.

Of course, it's only the first week of November. Thousands of developments between now and Feb. 5 will ultimately have more influence on who's playing in Super Bowl LI than the developments that have already taken place between September and today.

So while Patriots fans shouldn't book their February trips to Houston just yet ... it may be time to perhaps start perusing some prices on the Expedias and Pricelines of the world. Right now in the AFC, it's just the Patriots and then everybody else.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.