Fast Patriots start has fans thinking of another 16-0 season

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) - This is not 2007.

Sure, the NFL has found the New England Patriots guilty of cheating and punished them - again.

And, true, they are off to a quick start, opening this season with three consecutive and convincing wins that have them among the early favorites to reach the Super Bowl.

But any talk about them running the table to a second 16-0 regular season is premature, the Patriots said as they headed into their bye week.

"It's nice to be 3-0, but big deal," coach Bill Belichick said this week. "Three wins isn't going to get anything in this league, I'll tell you that. It will probably just get a lot of coaches fired.

"It's not a big deal. We have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go. ... We've got 13 regular-season games left. Three wins in this league isn't going to get you anything."

It was back in 2007 that the Patriots were caught illegally recording the opposing teams' signals in the scandal known as "Spygate." The team and Belichick were fined $750,000 and docked a first-round draft pick, and they weren't too happy about being called cheaters by the rest of the NFL.

Belichick and Co. won their first nine games by an average of 23 points, and then they came out of the bye week with a 56-10 victory in Buffalo. They became the first team in league history to go unbeaten over a 16-game schedule, but a loss in the Super Bowl to the New York Giants spoiled their hopes of a perfect season.

Eight years later, the Patriots are in a similar situation.

Despite winning their fourth Super Bowl under Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, the Patriots have had to defend their reputation from cheating allegations. A NFL investigation found that the team provided illegally deflated footballs in the AFC title game; the team was fined and docked draft picks - again - and Brady's on-again, off-again four-game suspension is working its way through the appeals process in the federal courts.

With a 51-17 victory over Jacksonville last Sunday that brought the Patriots to 3-0, New England again seems determined to teach the rest of the league a lesson. The 119 points scored is a franchise record for the first three games of the season.

But receiver Julian Edelman said the Patriots aren't trying to prove a point.

"We go out and execute," he said. "We don't think about intimidation."

Edelman wasn't around in '07; Randy Moss and Wes Welker were Brady's primary targets on that team, which set records at the time for most points, most touchdowns and highest point differential in a season. Only Brady and placekicker Stephen Gostkowski remain from that team, along with Belichick.

"All teams are really different," wide receivers coach Chad O'Shea said this week when asked to compare Edelman and Danny Amendola to Moss and Welker.

"These guys that we've got have worked hard. We've been fortunate enough to have production from them early, but they know that they have plenty to work on. We have a long way to go."

Brady also did his best to keep expectations under control.

"Obviously, it's good to be 3-0," he said. "I think before we really get to know what we're all about, what the other teams are all about, it's good to win the games however you can win them.

"That's what you've got to be able to do this time of year. But we've got a long road ahead, and I think everyone's got to be tuned into what we're trying to do in order to accomplish what our goals are."

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