New England Patriots such a powerful team?

To early to tell. The defense has been decimated by injuries so what was a pretty good defense early this year is probably going to struggle a bit. The offense should be a pretty good as the year goes on provided Gronkowski and Amendola are pretty healthy. If they are they should score a lot of points. Plus Vereen will be back in week 10 and he should help.

They are a playoff team for sure....if they are more than that who knows. Lots of football still to play.

Powerful offense, especially when they can run the ball.

People are blaming the rookie receivers for their past struggles but it's really the running game what keep defenses guessing.

Their worst performances have been when they had less than 100 yards on the ground. They lost 2 of those games (with 0 TD by Tom Brady on both) and they only put up 13 points in the other one.

Last night they had almost 200 rushing yards and Brady looked like his old self.

It's easy to look powerful when you play a Steelers team that is the worst Steelers team in over 50 years. And having Gronk back did help a ton. But I don't think the Patriots are super powerful. They've had Gronk healthy and totally fine before and the Ravens knocked them off time and time again. Not to mention the Jets have beaten them.

To me, Brady is not getting very good protection. If the Pats play a team with a good secondary and good rushing line they will be in trouble just like the Broncos were in trouble when they faced the Colts. If a defense can play good man-to-man coverage then Brady HAS to take longer to get off his pass. If that happens, his offensive line can't hold and he's going to get sacked a ton.

Not to mention the Pats defense does a horrible job of defending the pass (31st in the league) and defending the rush (allowing the Steelers who are near dead last in the league to rush it at will).

I think the Pats would have a tough time beating the Colts, Chiefs, Broncos, Browns, Bengals, Jets and Ravens. They might have a great record, but it could be very hard for them to advance in the playoffs.

The big problem with the Pats is that they've structured themselves like the Peyton Manning Era of the Colts. Every year the Pats fail to win the Super Bowl. The solution the Pats take is to give Brady more weapons to throw to. Well how has that worked out for Brady and Peyton? Peyton won only 1 Super Bowl in Indy. Brady hasn't won a Super Bowl in over a decade in Foxboro.

The teams you do see winning it are teams like the Steelers, Ravens, Giants, etc. Those are all pretty well balanced teams with good defenses, good passing games, and good rushing games. Look what happened to the Steelers with the decline of their rushing game and defense. Look what happened to the Giants with the loss of their running game and defense. The Colts on the other hand have moved to a balanced defense and even with the loss of a ton of major players they've beaten the likes of the 49ers, Seahawks, and Broncos. And all the meanwhile, Andrew Luck hasn't had to rack up a ton of passing yardage to win those games.

To me, teams like the Patriots look powerful. But the playoffs expose them for what they really are (not so powerful). Because their team is unbalanced. Look at 2007 for example. The Patriots had arguably the most powerful offense EVER. And they still couldn't beat a balanced Giants team with not nearly the talent on offense that the Patriots had.

Powerful offense, not so much on defense