The Patriots need Mac Jones to play better, or their playoff chances will be in danger. (AP photo)

Now it’s time for the real season to begin.

The New England Patriots are set to start the second half of the season. But please, let’s not look at the fact that if the season were to end today they’d be in the playoffs.

A lot of media outlets all around the NFL were saying “If the season were to end today…” in terms of who teams would play.

Puh-leeze. There are still eight weeks left in the regular season, and you will definitely see that some teams who are in it won’t be around to win it. There are some teams that are on the outside looking in that will be in for sure, in both the NFC and AFC.

The road to the Super Bowl is filled with teams that in late November/early December looked like powerhouses and didn’t get a sniff of the postseason, either the entire affair or beyond one week.

Likewise, there are teams that look lost at that time that suddenly find themselves, right the ship, and they move onward and upward.

The Patriots of 2001 were one of those teams, remember? It was mid November, they had lost to the St. Louis Rams at home on a Sunday night to fall to 5-5 on the season. A Super Bowl championship was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

And they didn’t lose another game the rest of the year en route to the start of an epic dynasty.

But these Patriots, while fairly similar defensively to that team, need plenty of help on the other side of the ball. And don’t be fooled by the thinking that the New York Jets coming to Gillette on Sunday is an automatic win.

The Jets followed up a horrible performance against the Patriots with an upset over the Buffalo Bills, who we think will definitely right the ship between now and the end of the season as long as Josh Allen can be relatively healthy and not turn the ball over.

The Patriots need Mac Jones to do the same thing. Turnovers is the one big thing that separates these Patriots from their successful predecessors.

But Bill Belichick has broken things down into their simplest form:

“Honestly, I’m focused with trying to get us to core more points and give up fewer,” he said. “So we’re just really working on those things.

“I’m not really at a big picture at this point. Our focus is on our team and our immediate opponent. That’s what it’s been for the first nine weeks, and that’s what it will be for the next weeks, is to try to maximize our performance and efficiency against whoever it is we’re playing.”

But Belichick is obviously aware of all the situations around him. He knows what games the Patriots should win and need to win. And they need to beat the Jets this Sunday, because the Minnesota Vikings on the road on Thanksgiving Night will not be a pushover, if you saw their epic win over the Bills on Sunday – as much of the country likely did.

“We know what the schedule is,” Belichick said yesterday. “Certainly the Jets are the highest priority, but we have to be ready for the rest of the schedule as well. We have different people in the organization working on different thing, so hopefully we’ll be prepared for each of our opponents through the remains of the season. But the jets are a big priority right now.”

And a big worry. They are a better football team than what they showed vs. New England; their biggest weakness is where the Patriots weakness seems to have been this year: The quarterback position.

Both teams have to change that, and you have to figure only one of them will.

Whoever does will be in, whoever doesn’t will be out, no matter what the standings say in mid-November.

It’s mid January that counts.

AFC

1.Kansas City (7-2). 2. Buffalo (6-3). 3.Baltimore (6-3). 4 Tennessee (6-3). 5. Miami (6-3)

NFC

1.Philadelphia (8-1). 2. Minnesota (8-1). 3.San Francisco (5-4). 4. Dallas (6-4). 5. Seattle (6-4).

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