It’s an annual tradition for football fans to boldly proclaim each September that this is finally the year the Patriots look shaky. By the time December rolls around, those same declarations have aged worse than room-temperature milk. The same ritual played out at the beginning of this season, when the Patriots fell to 1-2 after losing two straight. Then the Patriots erased those doubts by winning eight of their next nine games. It was textbook Patriots.

Source: Wall Street Journal December 17, 2018 19:52 UTC