Time to stop betting against the Patriots.

(Charles Krupa/AP)

Six weeks ago, the Patriots were fresh off of a 41-14 drubbing to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. I’ll have to admit, it was probably the worst game I’ve seen the Patriots play in well, ever.

The hostile environments of Arrowhead Stadium are hard for any opponent the Chiefs play, but the Patriots’ performance that night caused enough worry around the league to speculate that New England’s 15-year-long run at the top of the league was coming to a close.

The consensus around the NFL was that Tom Brady was washed up, too old.

But realistically, there never should have been any doubt about this team. And just months removed from yet another appearance in the AFC Championship game, were the 2014 New England Patriots really going to be that bad?

No way, and the shared thinking around the country is that this team was “done” shows the ignorance in some fans out there.

Six weeks later, those “washed up” Patriots are back in the driver’s seat atop the AFC at 8-2.

Sunday night’s 42-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts truly re-established New England’s presence in the crowded AFC, but it also proved one thing most fans should keep in mind around this time of the NFL season.

Stop betting against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, because most of the time, you’re going to be wrong.

I’ll be the first to admit how poor this team looked in the first month of the season. But the drastic change of course they have taken speaks larger volumes. With just six weeks left in the season, the Patriots are in prime position to enter the playoffs as the top seed in the conference.

The preseason favorite Broncos, whom the Pats beat a couple weeks ago, fell to a St. Louis Rams team and their third-string quarterback. The Patriots own the tiebreaker over those Broncos, as well as the Colts and Bengals—two teams the Patriots have also beaten this season. Like I said, New England is in complete control of its No. 1 seed destiny—again. And if history has any inclination of how this season might play out, that’s extremely good news for Patriots fans.

So stop betting against the Patriots, they’re just going to make you look silly. If you want any type of football knowledge credibility, you’ll understand that Brady, Belichick and company are on a mission for the fourth ring, and nothing has proven since that loss to the Chiefs that can stop them.

David Heim can be reached at david.heim@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @davidheim12.