They’ve been soaring in space for eight weeks, seemingly untouchable, unreachable.

Saturday night, the New England Patriots came crashing back to earth.

On a night when N’Keal Harry made the best play of his NFL career, no less.

What happened? Jonathan Taylor, for one. The Indianapolis Colts running back ran for 169 yards, and this was a night when the Patriots gave up the big play – Taylor’s 67-yard TD run – at the worst possible time to clinch a 27-17 Indy win.

It was a night when the Patriots turned the ball over twice. Gave up a special teams touchdown on a blocked punt.

They got back in the game when their defense did manage to stop the run for maybe a quarter, as the Colts weren’t able to pad their lead until Taylor’s big play. The Patriots have built this streak by stopping the run, and running the ball. Saturday night they ultimately, the numbers will show, did neither. Not even Harry’s big 43-yard late catch could save them.

Their coach was gun shy late on a fourth-and-goal from the 7, opting to kick a chip shot field goal that cut the lead to 20-10 with nine minutes left. You can bet Hunter Henry would’ve been open in the end zone, because Indy seemingly didn’t have a way to cover him.

“I did what I thought was best for the team,” Belichick said.

For a Patriots fan, those words and this loss were maddening. There was the awful start, falling behind 17-0 by the half and then 20-0 early in the third quarter. Rookie QB Mac Jones admitted after the game that there was concern about a lackluster post-bye week of practice.

“The energy was kind of low,” Jones said. “That reflects how we played.”

Jones wasn’t the reason they lost. The Patriots hadn’t had to play from behind in a while. Yes, he made some rookie mistakes, but we were robbed by Taylor’s TD of seeing Jones get his chance to take the Patriots down the field to either win or tie in the final minute.

This is what was frustrating for the Patriots and their fans. They kept you hanging on, thinking anoher epic win was coming, as they kept hanging in.

But it didn’t happen, and it’s been a while since you felt this way. You’d love another shot at Indy perhaps in the playoffs, because their quarterback, Carson Wentz, simply stinks – you wonder if the only one who doesn’t seem to know that is Indy’s coach, Frank Reich – and it would likely be in Foxborough.

Now, of course, everything is jumbled in the AFC again, the Kansas City Chiefs right now at the top and we’ll see what the Tennessee Titans do today. And we’ll keep an eye on the Buffalo Bills against old friend Cam Newton. If the Bills win, next Sunday’s 1 p.m. rematch with them at Gillette could be a doozy for the AFC East.

Still, you were pretty stunned seeing nearly an exact replica of Damien Harris’ big run for New England last week, only this time by the opponent as the Patriots, just like the Bills, loaded the box and there was no one to make the play once Devin McCourty froze and Dont’a Hightower whiffed at the elusive Taylor.

“It was really about accepting the challenge,” Taylor said. “Once you do that, you’ve won half the battle. …”

Yeah, whatever. “We just didn’t make the play,” McCourty said. “He cut back inside of us.”

It was too good to be true, evidently, that this team would win out and soar to the Super Bowl.

“We didn’t do anything well enough,” Belichick snarled. “I don’t know how else to say it.”

Just say your team came back down to earth, Bill, because arguably the most talented player in the building was on the opposite sideline.

It happens.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.