Patriots 52, Bills 28.

Call it The Redemption of Josh McDaniels.

Too soon? A bit much?

Well, it sure seemed McDaniels has been the main target of frustration for fans and media through three weeks this season. The Patriots entered Sunday ranked ninth in the NFL in passing yards and 12th in rushing yards, and they had reached 30 points in two of their first three games (including in Baltimore).

But things just seemed wrong. Lots of stuff that failed to pass the smell test. Why was Julian Edelman playing more than Wes Welker? Why was Rob Gronkowski targeted only three times over seven of the eight quarters in the losses to the Ravens and the Cardinals? After a terrific opening week in Tennessee, where was Stevan Ridley? And there was the curious infatuation with Danny Woodhead.

Hey, I'm not writing this as someone who wasn't part of the criticism. I've seen nothing from Edelman to suggest he should ever be taking away significant snaps from Welker. Yes, there did seem to be some force-feeding of Brandon Lloyd (who, of course, had his greatest success with McDaniels in Denver) in the first couple of weeks. And I was as baffled as you were with the overuse of Woodhead, a swell change-of-pace back who had been given a leading role in the production.

So, one of the questions during the past week -- joining, Is this a must win? and, Is this the worst secondary in history? and, Could Bill Belichick have been arrested for assault and battery? (OK, that was only from the most extreme wing of the anti-Belichick party) and, Was the field goal good? -- was this: What happened to Josh McDaniels? Remember, this was the coordinator of one of the three or four best offenses in history (almost 600 points in 2007) and a group that scored 410 points (eighth in the NFL) and won 11 games with Matt Cassel at quarterback and Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and LaMont Jordan as the three leading rushers. 

McDaniels was the golden boy when he left for Denver in 2009, and that was only amplified when he started out 6-0 in his first season as head coach, including an OT win over Belichick and the Patriots. But things changed quickly and shockingly for McDaniels, who lost 17 of the next 22 games before being fired with four games to go in the 2010 season. There was player unrest and videotaping controversies and indefensible personnel decisions (that would be a first-round pick used on Tim Tebow; probably best to keep Josh out of the war room) and a wasted season as offensive coordinator in St. Louis before returning to New England with plenty of nicks on his resume. 

But with Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez and Brandon Lloyd and Wes Welker at his disposal and Bill Belichick over his shoulder, it seemed a perfect fit, the right place and the right time. 

After three weeks and two quarters, though, there were plenty of questions and plenty of doubts about McDaniels The Sequel in New England.

Think they'll have to find some other questions to ask this week.

The Patriots scored 45 points in the second half on Sunday in Buffalo. That's the most in franchise history, in case you don't have a media guide handy (or the Internet handy, now that I think about it). If there's an Arena League video game, these are the kind of numbers you'd expect -- 340 yards passing, three touchdowns and zero interceptions from Brady, nine catches for 129 yards for Welker, five catches for 104 yards and a TD for Gronkowski (that's with two drops and a fumble), a 25-yard diving TD catch for Lloyd and a 17-yard TD catch from Woodhead.

On its own, a pretty impressive performance, right? Enough to win games plenty, on its own. But the passing game, while superb on Sunday, was the B-story. The Patriots rushed for 240 yards, the most in four years (since 2008, the last year McDaniels was in New England as OC), with both Brandon Bolden (137) and Stevan Ridley (106) topping 100 yards on the ground, the first time since 1982 (Tony Collins and Mark van Eeghen, the father in law of Dan Koppen -- I'll pause as you Google van Eeghen's daughter) two Patriots reached 100 yards rushing in the same game.

Times before Sunday the Patriots had two players with over 100 yards receiving and two players with over 100 yards receiving? That would be zero.

It was, simply, a magnificent effort from all involved, with plenty of help from a defense that looked leaky at times but forced six turnovers. The Patriots scored touchdowns on six consecutive drives in the second half, scored 31 points in the fourth quarter, put up 580 yards of offense and recorded 33 first downs. 

And it was the way it was done that will please the second-guessers, give fuel to the I Told You So crowd (yup, I'm a dues-paying member). Guess what? Plenty of Wes Welker is still a very good thing. Same goes with Gronkowski. Danny Woodhead carried the ball 15 times for 34 yards in the loss to the Ravens last week -- and carried the ball 15 times less than that on Sunday.

Listen, maybe the Bills will finish 4-12 and maybe the Ravens defense is in steep decline. Still too early to know anything. And maybe the offense will again fail in the postseason, just as it's done in each of the Patriots' last four playoff losses. 

But the Patriots offense, with Josh McDaniels back in charge, has scored 82 points over the last eight quarters and put on an absolute clinic on Sunday. And this offense, which we all agreed would be one of the three or four best in the NFL, leads the league in scoring through four weeks.

For the doubters, it's OK to move on from McDaniels, if only for now. If not redemption, he's done enough to be removed from the questions of the week. Time to find someone else.

I'm thinking Patrick Chung might not be the worst place to start ...