One lousy season, it turns out.

That’s all the New England Patriots gave the rest of football to revel in their obsolescence.

A single year’s reprieve after two decades of incessant dominance and Pats Talk—all that whispery reverence for The Dynasty, the Patriot Way, Do Your Job and other terse Bill Belichick mythology. 

There...

One lousy season, it turns out.

That’s all the New England Patriots gave the rest of football to revel in their obsolescence.

A single year’s reprieve after two decades of incessant dominance and Pats Talk—all that whispery reverence for The Dynasty, the Patriot Way, Do Your Job and other terse Bill Belichick mythology. 

There were 12 or so months of humility in New England and refreshing chatter about other teams. That was it. A 7-9 post-Tom Brady Covid-era campaign with Cam Newton at the unsteady helm. Third in the division. No playoffs. A dash of Schadenfreude as Brady led Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl, with the Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain in his Nantucket jammies on the couch. 

For Pats haters—all the cities bruised and bewildered by New England’s dominant run—it was welcome relief. 

I regret to inform you they’re putting the brand back together. On Sunday, New England thrashed alleged AFC contender Cleveland 45-7 for its fourth straight win. After starting 1-3, the Patriots are suddenly 6-4, gaining in the divisional rear view behind 6-3 Buffalo, one of the hottest teams in football, and a handful on both sides of the ball. 

“The stuff Super Bowl runs are made from,” thundered a Boston Globe headline after the Cleveland rout. 

Is it premature to speculate upon the ultimate Flaming Elmo Meme of a Super Bowl, Pats vs. Bucs, Belichick vs. Brady? 

Yes, calm down! It’s waaaay too early. Especially after watching Brady and Tampa Bay stumble in the sod Sunday against Dan Snyder’s Washington Sadness Machine. 

Patriots fans have a right to be enthused, however. The Browns win was a clinical display. Cleveland—coming off a nifty victory over Cincinnati—easily marched down the field on its opening drive and scored to make it 7-0. That was the Browns highlight of the afternoon. 

No, seriously, that was it—from there, it was a one-sided display of Patriots proficiency. The New England defense blanked Cleveland the rest of the way. Rookie quarterback Mac Jones had his best game, throwing three touchdowns. It was 24-7 at the half. Backup Brian Hoyer threw a touchdown. The victory tailgates resumed early in Foxborough.

It felt like old times.

It also feels a little unfair. The Patriots lost the most consequential player in their history and spent very little time in the wilderness. There was minimal reeling, no lost decade, no long rebuild to warm the hearts of cities pummeled by the Belichickians over the years. 

It doesn’t work like this for most franchises. Look at the Detroit Lions. They have been rebuilding since Eisenhower was in office. They have had 8,000 coaches and 16,000 quarterbacks. They’re about to throw a parade for tying Pittsburgh Sunday to improve to a perky 0-8-1. 

Jones, amazingly, appears to be New England’s Post-Brady answer. It’s the hardest thing to do in football, the franchise quarterback reset, and while the newbie from the Nick Saban Professional Football Academy has plenty to prove, his selection is becoming another chapter of New England folklore. Jones wasn’t a sixth-round also-ran like Brady, but he was picked behind four other QBs, a low-grade snub he claims made him quietly happy. “Secretly, I really wanted to go to the Patriots all along,” Jones said later. 

That’s exactly what New England fans love to hear. Belichick cleared a path for Jones by releasing Newton before the season’s start (fun to see Cam reboot with Carolina and finish two scoring drives Sunday), and Jones has returned the confidence with a steady, improving performance. 

As the Journal’s Andrew Beaton wrote last week, Jones is segueing from one all-time coach’s system to another’s, and the result is preternaturally poised, more than enough for a team where the running game (100 yards Sunday for Rhamondre Stevenson) is potent and the defense (12 points per game allowed over the four-game win streak) is the true star.  

Mac looks like he gets it. It’s got to make the rest of the league bonkers. 

It’s also rekindled last year’s irritating debate over who’s more responsible for those six Patriots Super Bowls—the age-defiant Brady, or the Grumpy Lobster Boat Captain? The correct answer is, of course, both men contributed vastly and could not have done it without each other, but the debate will never quit, especially after Brady won the opening round with Tampa’s Super Bowl title, took a narrow win in Foxborough last month, and now, lo, as the Bucs wobble, here comes New England, with talk of a generational reset.  

If you’re someone who hated hearing all those breathless intonations about the nonpareil Patriots, gird yourself. New England will be tested: It has a Nov. 28 showdown versus now 8-2 Tennessee, plus two games against division-leading Buffalo. But the rest of the schedule (Falcons, Colts, Jaguars, Dolphins) looks winnable, and they have just got to hold their position to make the playoffs. This 17-game NFL season feels wide open. No team has pulled away. 

The Patriots are rising at the right moment. We’re right back where we left off a couple of years ago. You know what to do:

Hide. 

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What do you think about New England’s recent winning surge? 

Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com