The New England Patriots were handed their second straight loss on Sunday (gasp), falling to the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 23-17 in yet another anemic offensive performance.
It was the latest poor offensive effort in what has been a second half full of them, as the Patriots have scored 20, 17, 13, 22, and 17 points, respectively, over their last five games (in which they've gone just 2-3).
It got so bad against the Chiefs (who are certainly not known as defensive juggernauts) that New England's offense was actually booed by its home crowd.
At this point, it's hard to deny that the Pats' offense is having issues. It's clear as day. Tom Brady is not quite the same, Julian Edelman is the only reliable receiver, Sony Michel has been a mess all season and the Patriots obviously miss Rob Gronkowski.
It doesn't help matters that rookie wide out N'Keal Harry has not played the role many hoped he would coming into the season, as he missed much of the year with an ankle injury and has barely made a dent since returning in Week 11.
Even the offensive line, which has been dealing with injuries all season, has not been up to par.
So, just what did this loss to Kansas City tell us about New England?
Honestly, not much more than we already knew.
Everyone has understood for weeks now that the Pats' offense was limited in terms of talent, which is crazy considering how things looked at the start of the season with Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon in the fray.
But Brown played just one game before being released, and Gordon did not exactly work out, leading to his eventual release.
That has left Brady with Edelman and, well, not much else in the aerial attack. Phillip Dorsett didn't even log a catch this past weekend, and deadline pickup Mohamed Sanu—who has been nursing an ankle issue—finished with just one grab.
Brady has been dealing with his type of thing for much of the year, and it doesn't look like that is going to change between now and the playoffs.
But count the Patriots out at your own peril.
Remember: at this time a year ago, people were posing the same questions about New England, as Gordon has been suspended and Gronkowski barely even resembled a mere shell of his former self.
Of course, Gronk was still there regardless, and Brady had other decent targets like Chris Hogan in the fold, but the Pats were struggling offensively.
They then went on to rip through the AFC on their way to a sixth Super Bowl championship.
I'm not saying history is bound to repeat itself, but given the track record of Brady and Bill Belichick, it would be silly to rule the Patriots out of title contention just because of a few bad weeks during the regular season.
Yes, things are a bit shaky right now, but this team is still a legitimate Super Bowl contender, and until New England loses in January, I'm not ready to say otherwise.
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