You may tell yourself, this is not my brilliant coach. And you may tell yourself, this is not my Hall of Fame quarterback.

Have we Pats fans been under the illusion that our Super Bowl run in the first half of the decade was really something more than "Once in a lifetime?"

Maybe, maybe not, but I find myself telling myself that these are not my New England Patriots. In the five real road games they have played this season, the Patriots have failed to earn a victory and perhaps more frighteningly, have completely disappeared in the second half of those games. In total, the Pats have been outscored 74-24 in the second half of those games. Worse yet are Tom Brady's numbers: 46 of 87 (a lousy 52.9%) for 523 yards, 2 TD's and 4 Int's. Seemingly everything that once made the Patriots such a force to be reckoned with has disappeared, both the clutch play of Brady and the defense.

I heard Cris Carter on Mike and Mike talk about how it's hurt the Patriots to have lost so many playmakers. But while it's true that no one seems to have stepped forward into that playmaker role, it's also true that not one defensive player not named Asante Samuel was a playmaking, game changing force in crunch time since the last Super Bowl run in 2004. And the lack of playmakers on defense says nothing for the offense, which has just as many healthy playmakers as ever. Hell, in the past few weeks we've even seem special teamer Sam Aiken become more of a weapon, scoring on an amazing play in Miami yesterday. We've got Moss, Welker, Kevin Faulk and of course, Brady, but this team is just plain not getting it done in big spots. It's depressing and I've got no real answers, other than that this may be karma turning to smack us Pats fans square in the face, for the years of luck during our Super Bowl runs and for our running up scores in 2007.