Maybe the New England Patriots are not dead after all

I made a mistake. I doubted Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. 

Consider this the apology letter. After the Patriots looked oh-so-bad when the Kansas City Chiefs rolled them on Monday night a couple weeks ago, I wrote them off. I wondered if the dynasty was done. After Sunday, I’ll scoop up that dirt I had shoveled on their grave. 

The Patriots are alive and well, at 4-2 and on top of the AFC East after a 37-22 victory at Buffalo. A dominant win over Cincinnati was followed up by a really impressive victory on Sunday at Buffalo. The Bills were 3-2, the home crowd was really fired up as they celebrated new owner Terry Pegula and a chance to knock off their AFC East rival.

But the Patriots have owned the AFC East for nearly all this century, and that might not be changing.

The Patriots really did turn things around overnight. The offensive line is helping out Tom Brady. Brady is looking really sharp. The receivers we’ve heard of look better. A receiver most of us have never heard of made a huge play. Brian Tyms, who had two career receptions, had a 43-yard touchdown.

And when the Bills made a run at the end, cutting the lead to 30-22, Brady put it away with some huge throws to get first downs and eat up time, and then he hit Brandon LaFell for a 56-yard touchdown to seal it. Brady had 361 yards and four touchdowns, and looked once again like one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. Go figure.

This is what the Patriots do. Even when they look bad, they’re too well coached and Brady is too great to let the slump linger too long. The same thing happened last year, when they looked sluggish early on and rallied to win the AFC East (again) and make the AFC championship game.

At this point, it’s dumb to count out the Patriots. My bad.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab