The New England Patriots easily dispatched the Detroit Lions yesterday, giving them a seven-game winning streak and kicking the hype machine into overdrive. The Lions entered the day holding a share of the lead in the NFC North and with one of the better defenses in the NFL, but after an afternoon in the House that Brady Built, Detroit had neither of those things.
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The Patriots hung 34 on the Lions and ground the Detroit offense to a halt in a convincing win. The Patriots were already considered to be one of the best teams in the AFC entering the day, but many have now already been throwing out Super Bowl expectations for Brady and Belichick.
Tom Brady was quick to try and temper expectations. "We are so far from [the Super Bowl]," said Brady on WEEI Radio's Dennis and Callahan Show. "We have so many games [left]."
The expectations are certainly understandable. Aside from looking dominant for most of the past two months, The Patriots sit alone atop the AFC with a 9-2 record. They hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the only 8-3 team (Denver).
In other words, New England has a de facto two-game lead on the rest of the conference with five games remaining, so it seems exceedingly likely that they will earn a first-round bye in the playoffs and probably even the number one seed.
Brady still was not ready to get ahead of himself, saying, "We have nine wins. We've done a good job getting ourselves to this position. This is when the weather turns, the mental toughness, the discipline, how much we've improved really comes into play."
The Patriots will travel to Green Bay this week for a highly-anticipated showdown with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, who are in the mix for the number one seed in the NFC. Before the week is out, the game will surely be labeled as a possible Super Bowl preview.
See below for some of the Patriots hype before they even played the Lions.
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