We have seen the Patriots get off to slow starts before. But without Tom Brady and a host of players on defense, how does their 2–4 start in this unusual season affect the way we should think about them moving forward?

We’re going to tread lightly here, since being critical of the on-field decisions and roster construction theory employed by the best head coach in modern NFL history has a way of coming back to make us all look silly.

Bill Belichick is not infallible, but just think of how many times his teams have slogged through September and October, causing us to leap off the couch eager to be among the ones who correctly pinpointed the end of the Patriot Dynasty—a run so incredible that it was actually several different dynasties overlapping one another. And then those teams shapeshifted, reviving themselves with new life in November and December, while