The buzz is back.

The New England Patriots seem like the good ol’ Patriots again.

They’re holding their own on the road, and blowing out opponents at home, just like they did to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Gillette Stadium by a 45-7 count.

They have no this or that yet someone is always there to make up the difference. A rookie like running back Rhamondre Stevenson steps in with starter Damien Harris out and has a 100-yard, two-TD game. Just a few weeks ago he was on the inactive list and he didn’t practice all week due to concussion protocol. Yet

And teams are playing them at their worst. The Browns looked like world beaters after their opening TD drive, then looked like the Jets did three weeks ago the rest of the day.

Baker Mayfield and his bad shoulder were crappola and he later left with a minor knee injury. Defensive stud Miles Garrett should’ve been the one asking out,not OBJ.

And on the Patriots side, Rookie QB Mac Jones is truly getting it. For second straight home game,there was a Brian Hoyer appearance for all the right reasons.

So what’s going on?

Basically, the Patriots say their practice is making perfect.

“I think just practice,” Jones said after his efficient 19 of 23 for 198 yards and three-TD performance. “Just doing the little things right. I think here we do a good job every week of preparing for what we want and it just comes down to practice, execution, becoming game reality, and when we practice well, we play well. When we don’t practice well, we usually don’t play as well. And so it’s pretty much that simple and we just have to keep doing that.”

It’s probably a little more than that. It’s also probably that this team with a lot of new parts are finally coming together, finally meshing, getting used to each other. Free agency has brought, it’s starting to look like, a couple more booms than busts, and the drafts, well, two rookies played a prominent role.

“I’ve asked the players to work hard every day and they’ve come to do that,” Belichick said. “But right now, none of that really means anything. We’ll just have to come in her tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, head to Atlanta and be ready to go against the Falcons.”

But even Belichick had to admit something is working.

“The players are doing a good job of studying,” he said. “They are doing a good job of working together and anticipating things that are going to happen so we can react a little faster and play more aggressively.”

And he was the first to mention practice after yesterday’s game. “Players are doing a good job of trying to practice and understanding how important that practice execution sets up the performance in the game,” he said.

Whatever it is, the Patriots are leaving the middle to bottom tier if the NFL in tatters. They had Browns coach Kevin Stefanski sounding like Belichick after a loss when he said “I’ll just say we didn’t do a good enough job as coaches, we didn’t do a good enough job as coaches. … So I think it’s simple. We got out played and outcoached.”

Just a short month ago, Belichick was saying that. But his players, which seem to be a tight-knit group, were saying a lot of the right things.

“We know what we got in the locker room,” said linebacker Matt Judon, who is probably the best of the free agents in last March’s spending spree. “We didn’t get down on ourselves at all. We know the type of players we had. We just needed to execute just a little bit better and hone in on the little details. … We started executing better in practice and it started to show up in the games … We just kept rolling.”

Stefanski is right about one thing, being outcoached. Whatever the Browns were getting away with on their opening drive, the Patriots players and coaches made the adjustment and the faucet shut off while Cleveland could fix its own broken pipe that saw 45 unanswered points gushing out.

Of course, with all the good talk comes the warning of how the Patriots can’t back off whatever successful formula they’ve discovered.

“We can’t not focus on the details and the execution part and expect that the wins are going to continue to roll,” Judon said. “We have to focus in more because now you get that target on your back.”

Next up is a lousy Atlanta team that got thumped by the Cowboys yesterday 43-3. The only drawback is it’s Thursday night, short week, and likely ugly football which can be the great equalizer.

Check back with us in two weeks when Tennessee, right now arguably the best team in the AFC, shows up. But they’ll be minus injured back Derrick Henry and their QB is Ryan Tannehill.

Yeah, you’re starting to get that feeling again, aren’t you?

Tom King may be reached @Telegraph_TomK, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com