Taking stock of gains and losses

So how do you like it so far?

Life After Tom (LAT), I mean.

Seems to me the team is right on schedule. Weren't we all thinking 10-6 and just making the playoffs would be a worthy and reasonable goal after watching Matt Cassel perform in the Kansas City game? Given the schedule, that wasn't too much to ask for.

Now, I'm no calculus whiz, and I've no desire to enroll at MIT, but I can do the basic single-digit multiplication just fine, and unless there's some sort of New-New Math I haven't been apprised of, they're 5-3 and if we double the 5 and double the 3 we get 10 and 6, correct?

Well, of course it's not all that simple. Winning and losing have a lot to do with the teams you play and when you play them. That's why I've always struggled with the famous Bill Parcells pronouncement that "you are what your record says you are."

That may or may not be true. In this case, it really is true. The Patriots are a right and proper 5-3 team.

What's that? They coulda/shoulda/woulda beaten the Colts? Oh, if only Gaffney hadn't dropped that pass. Oh, if Thomas hadn't delivered that silly little harmless (but technically illegal, because of irrefutable tardiness) extracurricular love tap to the Indy guy. Oh, if Coach Bill hadn't allowed himself to become fixated on that bogus too-many-men-on-the-ice, er, field business that cost him a valuable timeout. Oh, if Coach Bill had not been afraid to sanction a 1-yard, rather than 1-inch quarterback sneak, thus costing himself yet another valuable timeout.

You know what? That's too many Oh-ifs. You allow a 91-yard TD drive, you really can't lament all that other stuff. Don't you agree?

So they're 5-3 and here come the Bills to kick off a crucial three-game stretch in which they stare down each of their division rivals. It's an unusual, but, I believe, welcome part of the schedule. We might as well find out really what's what with these guys right now. They sweep these three games, they're in great shape for a sixth straight AFC East title and a home playoff game. Anything less, well, then, fasten the seatbelts.

Let's talk about the quarterback. He has to be happy simply to no longer be the weirdo backup, the answer to the trivia question, "Which NFL backup quarterback last started a game in high school?" That had to be getting a little old, but it would have been ongoing had Brady not gone down in Game 1. Now there is no longer a doubt. Yes, he can play in the league. Yes, he can start in the league. Yes, he has a future in the league. Unanswered still is, "Can he be the quarterback for a playoff team in the league?" But Matt Cassel is on his way to doing just that.

You know what's really interesting? He's starting and Matt Leinart isn't. The same can be said for Carson Palmer, the other USC Heisman Trophy winner to whom Cassel was a backup. But at least Palmer has the excuse of being injured. Leinart appears to be on his way to squandering his talent. At the moment Cassel is maximizing his.

It's pretty hard to discuss this Patriots team without asking Scott Pioli and Bill Belichick a simple question: "With regard to your defensive backfield, what were you guys thinking?"

We are reliving an aspect of the 2006 season, the one in which Brady was asked to throw to C-list receivers. Two years later, the risk-taking is in the secondary. And it is not working out too well.

Asante Samuel, Asante Samuel, Asante Samuel . . . how much do they miss Asante Samuel? Yes, he's getting a whole lotta money to be an Eagle ($12 million plus, if what I read is correct), but couldn't they - shouldn't they - have figured this thing out a long time ago? Apparently, they figured they somehow could make do, and please don't say, "Well, they still had Rodney Harrison," because a) Rodney Harrison is a safety and b) he is a 35-year-old veteran of 14-plus seasons who has not played a full season since 2004, and who is again, predictably, hors de combat with the customary (around here, anyway) undisclosed injury.

Yes, they tried. They brought in this guy and that guy, but they have not yet struck anything close to gold, and the secondary is, shall we say, vulnerable. The moral of the story is that no one is perfect, not even Scott Pioli or Bill Belichick. They messed up, pure and simple. Sometimes you must pay the price for having the 29th-highest payroll in the league.

Other decisions have been vindicated. Rookie linebacker Jerod Mayo, the first numero uno drafted for clear "need" in the Belichick era (the very idea was always scoffed at), is an obvious keeper. Adam Vinatieri may very well have kicked that game-winning 52-yard field goal last Sunday, but there is no way the Patriots would trade Stephen Gostkowski to the Colts for their old kicker. This kid is definitely cost effective. Now.

By the way, how many teams could lose their first, second, and third running backs and still have someone as capable as BenJarvus Green-Ellis around to do what he's done the past few weeks? Chalk another one up to their scouting acumen.

The nice schedule that once looked so cushy now looks a bit different. When the three-week intradivision stretch is over, here come the Steelers. Later on, the high-powered Cardinals, with their resurrected former MVP quarterback currently playing as well as any QB in the league, will come here. Think about it. Name me another player whose career arc has gone as follows: Nobody, MVP, Nobody, Really Good. That's Kurt Warner.

The season's last game will be in Buffalo, and the chances are very good it will mean something. Just remember: 10-6 is the goal. Anything better, a little champagne would be in order.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.