There are a million Patriots apologists and at least as many professional and amateur contrarians, but after watching Patriots 37, Bills 31, we can all get together and agree that this defense isn't nearly good enough to win a Super Bowl as presently constituted, right?

Again, they might get better. There's plenty of time still left to improve, mostly young guys on the field, Aqib Talib could turn out to be the savior . . . all that stuff. But the Buffalo Bills -- now 3-6 and going 100 mph to 5-11 -- put up 35 first downs (most allowed in franchise history and the most by the Bills in franchise history; the NFL record is 39), 162 yards rushing, 481 total yards and 31 points against a truly putrid Patriots defense on Sunday. 

This is a group that's been awful at times this season -- Ravens, Seahawks, Jets -- but this was the bottom. Two days ago Buffalo general manager Buddy Nix went on a radio station and said the team needs another quarterback. And if you watched the final throw of the game on Sunday you know Nix is 100 percent correct. But Fitzpatrick went up and down the field until the McCourty interception, completing 27-of-40 passes for 337 yards and two touchdowns. Steve Johnson and Donald Jones each had six catches, as Kyle Arrington and Alfonzo Dennard (a particularly rough outing) were torched all afternoon. The linebackers -- Jerod Mayo, Donta Hightower and Brandon Spikes -- had serious trouble covering Scott Chandler over the middle. 

Remember the days when it seemed Bill Belichick could actually enter the mind of the opposing quarterback? How many times did we see it, hear about it? Peyton Manning unable to make plays against a secondary of Hank Poteat and Troy Brown stands out. Sure, eventually Manning and Drew Brees and the really good ones will adjust and catch up, and it helps when you've got guys like Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Mike Vrabel and Rodney Harrison in their prime, but Ryan Fitzpatrick? Mark Sanchez? Russell Wilson? How many times do we have to see this kind of performance against mediocre offenses before we can get close to a conclusion regarding this defense?

If the playoffs started right now -- and I know they don't -- does anyone think this group could play well enough to win three or four games in a row against good offenses? Doesn't one of these stinkers seem inevitable? If Fitzpatrick (who threw for almost 800 yards in the two games between the Bills and Pats this year), Sanchez and Wilson can do this, what will Ben Roethlisberger do? Or Peyton Manning? How about another round with Joe Flacco? Aaron Rodgers or Matt Ryan? I'm setting the over/under for Andrew Luck's passing yards at 338.5 next week -- which side are you taking? 

But this Patriots team is in a unique position for the second straight year -- they have about two months to fix a screaming weakness with the comfort that the playoffs is a certainty. The AFC East race is over. Take a look around -- the Bills are 3-6, the Jets are 3-6 and in full collapse mode and the Dolphins lost (at home) to a 4-6 Tennessee Titans team by 34 points. 

The Patriots are 6-3 and have a two-game lead in the division. They are the only team in the AFC East that has scored more points than they have allowed. A realistic game of worst-case scenario with this team -- back-to-back losses with a road loss to Miami mixed in, or switch out Miami with the Jets on Thanksgiving -- still gets you to 10-6, which I think would take this division by two games at a minimum. 

There was a time around here when a division title was something to be celebrated, an actual goal when the season started. From 1979-96 the Patriots won exactly zero AFC East titles --  and when they clinch sometime in early December it'll be the ninth time in the last 12 years. In 1996 and 2001 it felt meaningful; now it's just a parenthesis, something to mention but ultimately deserving of no reflection. 

That's what happens when you win three Super Bowls and play in five in just over a decade. Expectations shift. There are those who complain that this is a spoiled fan base, and I recognize the argument, but what is it supposed to do? Be pleased with 11-5 and a playoff loss? Just shrug and think of the Snow Game and Silence of The Rams as average quarterbacks produce career games week after week? Was any fan satisifed with the season at the end of the Super Bowl last year? That's just not how it works -- fans here know that Brady/Belichick will not last forever and things can get bleak for decades really fast in the NFL. 

There are a handful (at best) of teams that start the season with Super Bowl-or-Bust expectations, and of course the Patriots are one of them. Right now, unless there is real change to this defense, it's going to be a bust. Sunday was a win, but in the big picture it felt an awful lot like a loss.