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AFC East Roundup: Patriots NFL's Best Team?

The New York Jets offense was non-existent in Sunday's 9-0 loss to Green Bay, which dropped them to 5-2, second in the AFC East.

After first-place New England, 6-1, dismantled Minnesota, 28-18, and made Brett Favre bleed, there is some though\t that the Patriots might be the best team in the league.

It's a somewhat unexpected perch for a team that was thought to be in transition and rebuilding its defense with young players.

The Patriots have just the 28th-ranked defense, but are being propelled by QB Tom Brady and an offense that finds new weapons seemingly every week.

On Sunday, it was WR Brandon Tate, who scored his first-ever receiving TD. The Patriots are leading the NFL with an average of 29.3 points per game.

By the way, SI.com's Peter King said this morning that the Packers showed the blueprint for beating the Jets, stacking the line of scrimmage and forcing New York quarterback Mark Sanchez to try and win the game.

The Packers held down the league's second-rated rushing game (LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene struggled for 76 yards) and forced Mark Sanchez to try to win the game. He couldn't. Sanchez was a 42-percent passer and threw two interceptions, dealing with pressure all day.

"We wanted to put the ball into Sanchez's hands,'' said Clay Matthews, who had five tackles and a late, demoralizing sack of the Jets up-and-down quarterback. "We knew if we held down their running game, we had a good chance to be successful on defense.''

Packers 9, Jets 0. At the Meadowlands. "I'm sure if you asked people which of us would have had a shutout today, everyone would have said the Jets," Matthews added. "That's a really good team. But we'd lost three games, all by a field goal, and we haven't played our best football.''


AFC East Standings

W L T PF PA
New England 6 1 0 205 154
New York Jets 5 2 0 159 110
Miami 4 3 0 133 149
Buffalo 0 7 0 131 211

(updated 11.1.2010 at 4:23 AM EDT)