While I don't believe the Pats are going to go 8-8. This defense is clearly very slow and lacks overall talent. The Hightower injury really hurts them too.
They literally have no one on the Dline that scares you, and they may arguably have the worst LB grouping in the entire NFL. You can improve scheme execution, but you can't improve speed; and boy are they slow.
That offense at some point will begin to click a little more I suppose, but injuries are going to hurt them big time. Anyone else notice Gronk was essentially a non factor? Even in his half-assed attempt to spike the ball after that TD that was called back, he looked like half the player he was 5yrs ago.
Again, I'm not saying they're going 8-8 any time soon, but man oh man between injuries on O, lack of talent on D, that Pats team looks quite vulnerable RIGHT NOW (i don't care about how they came back 10yrs ago).