Midway throught the season, the Patriots are the favorites to win the Super Bowl.

The Patriots are 7-1 going into their bye week and a perfect 4-0 since Brady has returned. Their only loss coming at home to Buffalo when we were forced to start an injured third string QB.

Not only are they 4-0 with Brady, but Brady himself looks better than ever. He was recently named AFC offensive player of the month. Through four games, he has the best completion percentage in the league, at 73.1 percent, has thrown for 1319 yards, and has an amazing 12-0 TD-INT ratio. He has shredded every defense he has played to this point. One would think that his play would start to decline with age, but the stats and the eyeball test show that he is only getting better.

Whenever the Patriots play, I almost always feel comfortable that they are going to win. Not trying to be biased, but the way we continuously pounce on every team we play leaves me thinking they are unbeatable (which they aren't).

Let's be honest here, the NFL stinks this year. The Patriots are easily the best and most solid team in the league. After them, who is the second best team? I personally think it's Denver; their defense is consistently really good but their offense is inconsistent. Is that really the way the second best team in professional football should be described as?

After that, I would say Dallas. They have certainly exceeded expectations thus far with a rookie starting QB and RB. Then I would go Pittsburgh, with a healthy Big Ben of course. Take a look at the NFC, who is the best team? Is Sam Bradford and the Vikings really the best the NFC has to offer? The Cardinals and Panthers are both different teams from what they were last year, the Packers are super inconsistent and have a boneheaded coach. So when it's all said and done, how many good teams does this league really have?

If we're staying honest here, the Patriots only have two match-ups remaining in their schedule, Seattle and at Denver. Even if they lose both of those games, and assuming they win the rest of their easy schedule, that's a 13-3 record. That is going to be good enough for the 1 seed in the AFC. 12-4 will likely get it in such a weak league. If the Patriots have the 1 seed and the road to the Super Bowl goes through New England, is there a team that can be road warriors and walk into Gillette and take us down on our home turf? It is unlikely, and New England should feel great about their chances this year.

Now the Jamie Collins trade surprised me just as much as it did everyone else. I understand that the Pats probably weren't going to resign him during the off-season, but why we decided to drop him for basically nothing in return during the middle of the season, I have no idea. We could've kept him for the rest of the year (including playoffs) and he would have been a valuable part of that defense. There must have been something behind the scenes that we still don't know about yet, but hey, In Bill we trust right? I just hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the butt. If the Patriots fall short because the defense fails to make a stop, then this is certainly a spot where people can look and say Bill made the wrong decision.

Anyways, the Patriots have shown that this era of them dominating is not over, and they are clearly the favorite to win the Super Bowl this year. Let's hope that Goodell has to hand that Lombardi to Brady come this February.