After losing (or, better yet, frittering away) a game against the Buffalo Bills, the New England Patriots are suffering the consequences in the national media. In one week, the darlings of the national media can change into also-rans, and that's exactly what's happening to the Patriots. After reeling off a string of 10 straight wins, they've fallen like Isaac Newton's apple from the pinnacle of NFL rankings as Super Bowl contenders.
Not that their Super Bowl aspirations were ever real in the first place. Their 10-game win streak was what it was, and Patriot Nation, and almost everyone else (former Patriot Cam Newton was an exception), had jumped on the bandwagon.