New England Patriots: Are They No Longer the Team To Beat in the AFC East?

Is the sky really falling in New England after the Patriots' loss against the New York Giants? Last Sunday's loss makes it two in a row for the Patriots, as the team is now 5-3 on the season and is in a three-way tie in the AFC East with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. 

Prior to the team's Week 7 bye, the Patriots were 5-1 and sitting pretty atop of the AFC East—that is obviously not the case now. In just a matter of three weeks, the Patriots went from being considered an elite team that's in cruise control to win their division to being in a real dog fight with the Jets and Bills. 

After losing two-straight games for just the third time since 2003, many are starting to hop off of the Patriots' bandwagon, including NFL Network's Jason La Canfora. 

In one of La Canfora's recent pieces, he guarantees that Rex Ryan and the Jets will win the AFC East this season: 

"

The Patriots and Bills will battle it out for a wild-card spot (the Bengals will have something to say about that as well), but this is New York's year in the AFC East. I absolutely, positively, guarantee it. Take it to the bank. Well, OK, that was my inner Rex writing there. While I'll leave the guarantees to the gregarious coach, I have a strong feeling Jets fans are going to enjoy the second half of the season.

"

La Canfora could be right, as the Patriots simply do not look like an elite football team anymore—in fact, I have questions if this team can even make the playoffs this season. 

In the team's recent loses, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Giants did a phenomenal job at exploiting New England's weaknesses both offensively and defensively. 

On offense, the Patriots do not have an outside threat. No, this does not mean it's time to give Randy Moss a call, it means that they lack speed and presence on the numbers—something that Deion Branch and Wes Welker cannot do. So what does that mean?

Either Chad Ochocinco or Taylor Price need to step up their game or opposing defenses are going to continue to play press man-to-man coverage and force the Patriots to beat them on the outsides as they'll be covering in between the numbers. 

Now defensively, this will be the death of the Patriots. They are hopeless. At least on offense, the team has one of the NFL's best players in Tom Brady, but on defense, it's at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. 

Entering Week 10, New England's defense currently ranks as the league's worst defense. More specifically, the team's pass defense is New England's biggest weakness.

The Patriots currently are averaging 314 passing yards per-game while allowing opposing quarterbacks to record an average quarterback rating of 91.1—these stats are nothing to brag about, they're quite alarming. 

The 2011 version of the New England Patriots are nothing remotely related to any of the "dynasty year" teams—the only common feature is Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. 

Belichick and his Patriots squad has a lot of working to do moving forward if they want to even step foot into the playoffs with their next and arguably biggest challenge will be this weekend against the New York Jets in the New Meadowlands. 

This Sunday night will ultimately make or break New England's season. 

For more articles like this, check out PatriotsPlus.net.