Have the Patriots Played Any Good Teams, Yet?

At this point, it's hard to know how good this Patriots team really is. With four games down, people are already talking about going undefeated for the season and I find that ludicrous to contemplate at this point in the season. I was always irritated by it when I saw the talk about the Colts start up in the past few years, so it really isn't surprising that I'm annoyed when it comes up with the Patriots.

We just don't know what the real mettle of this team is. Oh, there's no doubt this is a good to great team, but until they face an opponent that's shown they are also a good to great team, it's hard to judge where they are at.

I know the Chargers were supposed to be good, but it turns out they really aren't.

I know the Bengals are supposed to have a good offense, but a weak defense has kept them down. The Patriots obviously dominated them, which is a good indicator that they are in the 'haves' column, while the Bengals are not.

The Jets are nowhere, and so are the Bills. The Pats finished those games up almost as soon as they started.

The other limitation is we haven't really seen how they're going to be affected by injuries. I know Seymour and Harrison have been out, but that's nothing compared to how this team will look in Week 16 and 17. We know this, and yet we still try to predict a perfect season.

Don't misunderstand me, the Pats are obviously good to great (I lean towards great, but I tend to be biased). It's obvious at this point they will wrap up the division quickly. I'd even go so far as to say they are very likely to get home field advantage. But undefeated? Ask me again after the face the Cowboys or even better after the Colts game. It will still be early in the season, but at least we'll know they faced off against some other good to great teams.