Most of you probably think I'm talking about all of the NFL records that have been broken these past two weeks.  Well, I'm not.  What I speak of is something much more annoying, and to me, pretty much irrelevant.

     While the Bills are quickly rising up (or down depending on how you look at it) the Power  Polls and suddenly every NFL station is chatting with the likes of Stevie Johnson or Freddy Jackson, one thing keeps getting in the way of true positive coverage:  the Patriots.

     Let me elaborate.  Analysts and media personalities alike seem to have gotten bit by the robot bug.  Right after saying some "nice" things about our team, they follow it up with "But we won't truly know how good the Bills are until this week when they play the Patriots."  Really?

     Now I can understand that the Bills MUST play the Patriots competitively and keep it reasonably close in order to be considered a decent team.  HOWEVER, do they really have to pull out a win to not be labeled a fluke?  I don't think so.

     First of all, the Pats are in out division.  It's a well-known fact in the NFL that division rivalries are the toughest games to play.  In fact, sometimes 4th place teams can beat the division leader due to the simple fact that they play them twice a year.  I personally think that it's hard to make judgements based on a division game.

     Secondly, as I stated before, poor teams can beat great teams in a division game.  Buffalo blanked New England in the home opener of 2003, but did that mean they were a better team?  Nope.  They finished a mediocre 6-10 while the Pats won the Super Bowl.  This trend of underdogs winning divisional games is a big part of why I don't think losing to the Pats this week will suddenly make the Bills irrelevant. 

     Last but not least, we are playing the Patriots.  In all seriousness, not many teams beat them.  Some really great teams have lost to Belichick and  Co. in recent years but no one thought any less of them. 

     What I'm trying to say is so what if the Bills haven't beaten Belichick and Co. since the Stone Age.  We could go 15-1 (probably not but I'm trying to make a point) this season with that single loss coming at the hands of the Pats.  Would pundits be crying that the Bills aren't a good team because they lost to the Patriots?  Well, maybe, because to me, they're all a bunch of broken records.